ALMS TO LOVE CHAPTER 23

최신 챕터

• ALMS TO LOVE   ALMS TO LOVE CHAPTER 34

  The aroma of pancakes still clung to the air, though the plates in the sink were rinsed and stacked. Sunlight streamed in through the kitchen windows, casting gold upon the marble countertop. Fiona stood at the front door, heels on, coat slung over one arm, her satchel across the other. Her hair was swept back in a beautiful bun, and her blouse was the pale color of ivory that she wore every lecture day—it complemented the soothing in her voice.Liza Liana stood before her in a puffy jacket with bunny ears on the hood, a glittery backpack held tightly in both hands.Fiona knelt down, fixing the zipper on her daughter's coat. "All right, munchkin. Miss Juniper will go out to the park later and then you'll color, okay?" Liza Liana nodded gravely. "And she said we would bake stars."Fiona smiled, eyes warm. "That's just great. I have to go to work now, remember? But I'll come home early. Promise."The little girl's lower lip protruded a little. "But I liked yesterday better.""I did too

• ALMS TO LOVE   ALMS TO LOVE CHAPTER 33

  Brunschière, Before DawnIt was still now.Too still.The kind of quiet that comes after fire—after something long and savage has been restrained, if only briefly. Outside the glistening veil, the world growled and raked. Within the cottage where Krishna slept, the air was thick with incense and blood-soaked fabric.She had fallen the instant the final sigil flared.Now she slumbered like the dead.But even at rest, Krishna's body shook. Her breathing was shallow, her complexion pale, her brow beaded with sweat. The veins on her wrists still shone faintly, gold flaring under the surface like the dying coals of a fire.A healer crouched beside her, murmuring incantations. A lavender water basin went dark as blood-stained rags soaked in it."Pushed too far," the healer grumbled to no one in specific. "Gave more than she could give."Outside, war drums of another sort beat—the ripping, shrieking howls of monsters battering the magical barrier.Brunschière trembled with every blow.And Ig

• ALMS TO LOVE   ALMS TO LOVE CHAPTER 32

  "Gosh, I don't know how this is going to turn out," Fiona muttered to herself, looking over at the sleeping figure next to her. "But something's going to break. I just know it."The car growled under her. Liza Liana, wrapped all snug as a little moonbeam, slept once more against the hand clutching the bunny Valeria had left behind for her, mouth open in peace, eyelashes moving like little wings. The sun streamed through the window and gold across her face. A moment of perfection.Fiona ought to have been resting in relief. Liza was stable. The tests were within parameters. The doctor had spoken to her in person—She's getting better, Miss Degenery. She even might get to go home today.And yet.Her stomach churned.Charles.That name.That man."I shouldn't be thinking about you," she murmured, her hand automatically smoothing a lock of hair back from Liza's forehead. "Not now."But the memory pushed in anyway—his eyes when the towel hit the floor. That split-second of stunned silence.

• ALMS TO LOVE   ALMS TO LOVE CHAPTER 31

  Valeria fixed her with a wise stare. "You're thinking about him, aren't you?"Fiona's heart skipped a beat. "I'm not.""Uh-huh," Valeria said, raising an eyebrow. "Don't think I don't see."Fiona swallowed, the truth searing like a black cloud in the back of her throat. She couldn't tell him. How could she? How could she make him understand what drew her to Charles? How could she make him understand the discord, the tension between what he'd done for her and what she'd felt for him?"Don't think too much about it," Valeria went on, her voice now sarcastic. "But you're not deceiving me. I'm sitting in the front row for your drama spectacle, and I'm enjoying every moment of it.""Shut up," Fiona growled, her cheeks blazing.The nurse came back in a minute, with a smile on her face to the two of them. "Ms. Degenery, Liza's vitals are stable, and she can be discharged in an hour. We just have to complete the final check."Fiona's heart leaped. An hour. That's all. Liza would come home."T

• ALMS TO LOVE   ALMS TO LOVE CHAPTER 30

  Fiona's heart racing as she came back to the tiny hospital room, her own heart racing in her head like a drum. She scarcely could believe what the doctor had said to her.Liza was home.Her little girl, her little soldier, would be fine. Two weeks from then, they would be together, really together again, far from antiseptic white walls, far from relentless beeping and fretting.She was already able to picture it—Liza all cozy on the living room couch at home, watching cartoons, giggling and asking her nails to be painted. The world had waited so long, it had kept its breath, but now. now it could breathe once more.The physician had only provided her with the release forms, and her smile was shinier than the sun outside a spring morning. "We are going to keep her under observation for the recovery, but the process of recovery is faster than expected. If it keeps going like that, we are talking about complete recovery very soon."Fiona couldn't muster words to tell the thanks bubbling

• ALMS TO LOVE   ALMS TO LOVE CHAPTER 29

  Charles stood at the penthouse window well past the time Fiona had departed.Outside, the city was thrumming alive—with traffic buzzing, sunlight rebounding off glass towers—but within, it was still. Too still. The sole evidence she'd ever been here at all was a faint impression on the cushion opposite him, and a pink coffee mug she'd left by mistake.He regarded it as if it would tell him what the hell was going on with him.She was chaos.Pure chaos in a discount towel, careening through his kitchen like a hyperactive flamingo.And yet. she'd smiled at her daughter with a heat that could melt steel.He rubbed the back of his neck, letting out a sharp breath. "Get it together," he growled.This wasn't supposed to happen. He didn't do entanglements. He didn't do tummy flips or mornings spent brushing out flour from women's hair. He did strategy. Logistics. Legacy.Not. whatever this was.The memory struck him again out of the blue:The towel.The wide-eyed scream.Her frantic penguin