Sacrilege (Theo Raeken) [2]

smoke

He outstretches his arms and I run into them. I feel burning tears running down my cheeks as he presses my head to his chest. "You're here," I murmur. "You're actually here."

I don't care about anyone else in the room, I don't care about everything that's happened today. He's here. Theo is here.

It's all worth it: the Wild Hunt, Canaan, losing my powers. None of it matters. None of it matters now that Theo Raeken is in my arms. I put my hands on his cheeks and kiss him. He feels familiar and he smells the same as always.

"I can't believe you're here," I tell him, still millimetres from his face.

"Me neither," he says, end enveloping me in his arms again. This is the way it was meant to be. This is the way it was always meant to be. Me and him. Always me and him.

He loosens his arms around me, his hand lingering on my lower back. The feeling still gives me butterflies — even after all this time.

I just want to hug him and kiss him. Nothing else matters.

And then the others come in.

Theo tenses up as Malia comes in. "Malia," he says. "I hope you're still not upset over the whole shooting thing."

Her eyes glow blue and she lunges at him, slamming her fist into his face over and over. "You don't have to stop," Theo mutters.

"Trust me," she says. "I won't."

His eyes fly open as if he didn't realise Malia was beating him to a pulp. I try to pull her away but it doesn't work without my powers. "Scott!" I beg.

Scott pulls her off. I rush to Theo. "Malia," he says. "That's enough. Slow down. He's going back in the ground."

Over my dead body.

"No," Liam says. "You can't. He remembers Stiles."

"Scott remembers Stiles," Malia scoffs. "Lydia and I remember Stiles!"

"The Dread Doctors know all about the Wild Hunt," Liam insists. "He could help us."

"Or he could kill us," Scott says.

"He's my responsibility," Liam says. "Noshiko gave me the sword."

"Our responsibility, Liam," I say. "I'm with you."

"Of course you are," Scott says. "You literally willingly went into hell."

"It's so awkward when Mom and Dad fight," Theo sighs sarcastically.

"Shut up!" Liam and Scott yell simultaneously.

"You both are right," Hayden reasons. "If Theo tries anything, we'll send him back to the Skinwalkers. But for right now—"

"He goes back now," Scott says.

"Except Liam's the one with the sword," Theo says.

There is a chorus of shut ups.

"Can you give me a second alone with Theo?" Malia says.

"Why?" Hayden demands.

"So I can kill him."

I gasp. "Excuse me!"

"Okay, look," Theo begins. He sounds worryingly unbothered. "I know that there's mixed feelings all around. But I might be your only option to stop the Wild Hunt."

"Let's kill him," Malia declares.

"Or we can not," I retort.

"He's evil!" Malia protests. "Just because you think that you're going to marry him and have a diabolical pack of chimera babies, doesn't mean we should put our lives on the line."