Promise from the heart

Preview, You're My Reflection

Hi, all you amazing readers out there. Thank you for reading this book. It means a great deal to me.

This here is a bit of a teaser from the upcoming book, the second part of the series - You're My Reflection.

Enjoy!

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"Love, are you truly sure we're doing the right thing here?" James asked as his gaze flickered to the heartbroken kid half-lying down in the backseat.

Jordan was out cold and hadn't gone down quietly. After hours of panicking, regretting his decision and sobbing so hard, James thought his heart would break too, he finally fell asleep. Though James was fairly sure he had in fact passed out as exhaustion had gotten the better of him.

Since they left to go back to Ireland, the spark in Jordan hade faded a little more every day. And now? It had gone clean out of him. It was as if the boy's will to live, his very essence, had been left behind back there with his lover, and without his beloved, he was now but a shell of who he once was. He had truly left his heart with Charlie, and James could only pray he'd one day get it back.

Directing his attention once more to the road, he felt Carl squirming in his seat next to him. James had come so close to losing his husband, and even thinking about it made his eyes water. Technically, Carl had lost a brother, and Jordan a father, but no one was mourning that man's death. He did not deserve any mourners. His death was welcome, and James only felt a slight disappointment that he hadn't had a chance to punch his light out. To defend his husband. To protect him. But that man couldn't hurt anyone anymore, and that was good enough for James.

"Love?" He asked again, nudging him with his free hand. "you okay there?"

Carl shook his head so rapidly his neck hurt. "Nowhere near..." He mumbled to himself.

"Pardon?"

James could feel him bursting at the seams.

"I am nowhere near okay" he whispered in a rough voice as he pulled at the sides of his jeans. "I thought I was doing what was best for him, saving him from going through what I did. But now..." he glanced back to see the tall and normally rowdy teenage boy looking defeated, small and fragile.

"Now?" James urged him.

"Now..." he sighed, "I'm even more sure that I made the right call."

Carl looked away and so he didn't see James's deeply concerned and confused expression.

If this was how simply separating them hurt Jordan, Carl didn't even want to think about how he'd have reacted if he'd had to see Charlie in another person's arms. He wasn't sure he'd ever recover had he seen that. Carl didn't think Jordan would be able to cope with that, as he couldn't cope with much of anything right now. The best thing for him was to get away from it all. From civilisation and drama. Nature would heal his body, Carl was sure of that. But nothing he could say or do could even begin to mend his nephew's inner wounds. The wounds to his soul.

James shook his head. "How can you be so sure? Especially after seeing him like this these past few days?"

"It was only a matter of when." Carl murmured sadly as James delicately shifted lanes to the one that would take them out onto the highway. "Jordan is one of us, but Charlie...? They love each other and probably always will, but the truth would keep them apart."

"But you don't know that. It could've been years before Charlie realised his purpose. And even longer before he met the one his soul contract binds him to. They could've been together all that time. They could have been happy for longer..."