“Souls can’t cross over.” Gemma grew sad. “Not on their own . . . but you have me. I can ferry Souls, remember? If you want, we can go back now and then.”

  Her face lit up. “Do you think Ginevra and Simon could also return once in a while?”

  I laughed at her enthusiasm. “It was supposed to be a surprise, but at this point I guess I have to spill the beans. Ginevra and I have already talked about it. She misses you and wants to see you again. We’ll be meeting secretly in our hideaway one day each month so we can be together again.”

  “When?”

  “Soon. And . . . Drake will be there too. He’s eager to meet Liam.” I smiled. Earth, which had divided us, would now be our meeting place.

  Gemma’s eyes filled with tears. “How is that possible? What about Stella?”

  “The Souls of the Damned aren’t like Subterraneans. Simon and Drake can cross through the portal, thanks to Ginevra, but for Stella it would be too risky.”

  Gemma nodded. “Now you need to go,” she said, sensing that I’d gotten a mission, though I hadn’t said anything.

  I stood up. “I’ll be back soon. I promise.”

  She pressed her knees to her chest. “Don’t worry, I’ll be here waiting for you.”

  Smiling at her, I vanished. Though I was now free from the curse of the Subterraneans, orders had continued to appear in my head, and despite not being obligated to any more, I’d decided to continue my mission. No Soldier ever really stopped being a Soldier. I’d been to Hell, I’d seen the evil that corroded the world, I’d seen mortal Souls lose themselves to the darkness, but I could help them find the light again. I could save them. I’d been given a gift—being able to find the person I loved when everything seemed lost forever. They all had the right to that same chance, and I helped them achieve it by helping them cross over.

  I found myself on a desolate road, the same one where a few days earlier I’d come for a young man who’d been speeding on his motorcycle. The car I was waiting for came around the bend. Inside it was an elderly couple. I wouldn’t take their lives—their time hadn’t yet come. I was only there to make sure their fate took the right direction. I had to make them turn back in order to avoid the accident that later would claim the lives of others.

  I carried out my mission and got the couple to make a U-turn. A car behind them stopped to give them room for the maneuver. I was about to leave when something made me freeze. Behind the wheel of the car was a young woman . . . and she was looking at me.

  I frowned and stared into her eyes until she passed me by. She pulled over up ahead and looked behind her. Had she really seen me, then? I materialized beside her and studied her from close up. No, she couldn’t see me. Her gaze was lost in the void, her expression focused, as though her mind were quickly processing information. She grabbed a tissue from the glove box, rifled through her purse, pulled out a pen, and began to jot something down. Soon she pulled out another tissue and another still.

  One glimpse of the snippets she was writing made me start.

  . . . incredible gray eyes. What if only I could see him? And what if he had come for me?

  I studied the young woman again, but no, she couldn’t see me, nor did she seem aware of my presence. Shaking my head, I laughed at myself. It must have been a coincidence. I turned around and focused on Gemma.

  She welcomed me upside down, hanging from a branch by her knees, her head dangling in front of mine. “That was quick,” she said.

  I looked at her and grinned. “Get down from there, you little squirrel.”

  Gemma let herself fall, challenging me to catch her. “Well? Where were you this time?” she asked. Now that Death wasn’t hunting her any more, Gemma had stopped fearing the darker side of me and always wanted me to tell her every detail.

  “In a little town in Sicily.”

  “Sicily? Fascinating,” she said enthusiastically.

  “Yeah.”

  “What is it? You look shaken.”

  “Something weird happened,” I admitted. She was all ears. “I was there to make sure an elderly couple made the right decision, but then a woman drove by and she . . . saw me.”

  “What do you mean, she saw you?” Gemma asked, puzzled.

  “I had the impression she looked me straight in the eye. She even pulled her car over to look back.”

  “Do you think it’s happening again?”

  “No, I don’t think so. It wasn’t like when it was you seeing me. It was different. It was like she saw me in her mind’s eye . . . Like she’d only imagined me. I don’t know how to describe it.”

  “And then what happened?”

  “She took out a pen and started writing.”

  Gemma’s eyes lit up. “What if she’s a writer? Maybe her imagination pushed her mind beyond the confines of the mortal world!”

  I sprawled out on the grass and chuckled. “You’ve got to stop reading those paranormal novels.”

  “Lots of writers don’t know they are writers until they find the right story. Maybe you inspired her and she might become one,” she continued, ignoring me. “Let’s tell her our story, Evan! Let’s whisper it in her mind. You know how much I love books. We could have one all our own.”

  I looked at Gemma dubiously. “Are you serious?” She didn’t need to answer; her eyes spoke for her—sparkled for her. I smiled. “All right, let’s do it. That way the whole world will know our story and will know true love exists.”

  Gemma smiled back at me and took my hand. “And that death isn’t the end.”

  The room was illuminated by light from the window. Outside, birds chirped in the blossoming lemon trees. The young woman was there, her back to us, leaning over a blank sheet of paper.

  “That’s her,” I told Gemma.

  “I’m so excited!”

  “Why are you whispering? She can’t hear us,” I teased her. It was true, but why, then, had the woman’s pen stopped? She seemed to be listening.

  “Look, she’s writing about you. You were right. She saw you.”

  I moved closer and read what the woman was writing.

  His eyes. They’d enchanted me like a dark spell, carrying me away to their fortress dungeon. As clear as crystal, as ardent as fire, they stirred up a whirlwind of uncontrollable emotion inside me. I watched them narrow, sharp as ice, as he stared at me in astonishment, but there was no trace of coldness in his gaze. It was warm, comforting. Like a mystical connection, it drew me to him and wouldn’t let go.

  I jumped. It really was bizarre. “You sure you want to do this?”

  Gemma nodded, a light in her eyes. She peeked at the page and frowned. “She set their first encounter in an alley.”

  I laughed. “Gasp! We’d better roll up our sleeves, then!”

  Gemma shot me a dirty look like she did whenever I teased her. She leaned in close to the young woman’s ear and began to whisper to her heart. The woman’s hand stopped on the page. She thought for a moment, then crossed out the word “alley” and above it wrote “woods.”

  Gemma continued with great joy and the woman followed her lead, racing her pen across the page to avoid missing a word. She seemed excited about our story. At times she laughed, at others a tear slid down her cheek. Whenever Gemma stopped she would appear to grow nervous, look at the page, gnaw on her pen, and await another whisper. Meanwhile, I looked through the woman’s books and read a few of them. From time to time I would fill in for Gemma so the story could have my point of view as well.

  “All right, that’s enough for today,” I told Gemma, who looked at me sadly. “It’s already dark out. She’s been writing nonstop for over six hours. She’ll get cramps in her hand.”

  “Is it so late already? I was having loads of fun!” Gemma looked out the window. Night had fallen, shrouding everything, but neither she nor the woman had noticed.

  “We’ll come back tomorrow,” I promised. “Right now there’s someone else who can’t wait to see you. Let’s not keep them waiting.” I squeezed Gemma’s shoulders and we turned around, ready to leave, but Gemma stopped.

  “Wait! We don’t even know her name.”

  At my command, a breath of wind slipped in through the window, flipping over the pages of her notebook and closing it. The woman started and looked around as though she’d sensed our presence.

  I squeezed Gemma’s hand. It was time to go. I read the name written on the cover of the notebook and smiled before vanishing. Until tomorrow, Elisa S. Amore.

  The air was cool, the bikes’ roars filled the night, and Gemma was behind me, like in the old days. “You should ride with me instead,” Ginevra told her. “It’s a lot more fun to watch the others from the finish line.”

  “That’s a lesson I taught you myself, little sister. Catch me if you can.” My bike reared up and Gemma squeezed her arms around me.

  “Man, have I missed you guys!” Drake exclaimed.

  “We’ve missed you too, bro,” Simon replied, jamming on the front brake to raise his rear wheel.

  “I didn’t mean you. I was talking about our bikes. Duh!”

  Gemma shook her head. “I missed our nighttime races. You’re lucky I don’t have a bike of my own. I would cream you all!”

  “I would never challenge a woman who’s ridden a prehistoric horse,” I joked.

  “He’s not a prehistoric horse!” Gemma laughed, thinking affectionately of Argas. “Okay, actually I guess you could call him that.”

  We looked at each other, our bikes lined up on the starting line. “First one across the Tri-Lakes region and back?” Simon challenged us.

  “Lake Placid, Saranac Lake, and Tupper Lake. A joyride,” I said.

  “Prepare to eat my dust.” Ginevra winked at me.

  “I’m in.” Drake gunned his engine, making the bike beneath him smolder. “Let the party begin.”

  The motorcycles roared, zooming off like missiles toward our new future. “Hold on tight, Jamie.”

  “I’m a Soul now. I can’t die, remember?”

  “I wasn’t saying it for you, but for me.” Gemma held me tighter and I reared up.

  We were ready to race: three Subterraneans, a Witch, and a redeemed Soul, separated by different worlds but united by the same emotion. Because bonds—be they of love or friendship—know no bounds.

  Nobody sees, nobody knows.

  We are a secret, can’t be exposed.

  That’s how it is. That’s how it goes.

  Far from the others, close to each other.

  Atyantam.

  A few years later

  “Liam! Where have you run off to?”

  “Here I am!” he answered his mother.

  Playing with the butterflies was Liam’s favorite pastime. He would study them when they alit on his fingers, watch them flutter about, and spend hours lying in the fields letting them cover him.

  “Liam!”

  “Coming!”

  Reluctantly, the boy let his red butterfly go, promising he would be back. He turned to leave, obeying his mother. From the rock where it rested, the butterfly watched him walk away. Something had happened after the boy touched it. The creature moved its big red wings as it transformed. At last it spread them and rose into the air, displaying to the world what it had become.

  A magnificent black butterfly.

  The Touched saga continues in…

  DARK TOURNAMENT – Drake’s story

  Text AMORE to 77948 to get New Release Alerts from me (US Only).

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  PS. If you loved the Touched saga, consider supporting me by leaving a review. Thank you!

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Here we are at the end of this long—and, for me, unforgettable—journey. Gemma and Evan’s love story has made me experience incredible emotions and touched my heart. As always, I hope you felt some of those emotions too. I’m grateful for the affection that all my readers and bloggers have lavished on these two star-crossed lovers, and it is most of all to you that I owe heartfelt THANKS for reading my story. Thank you for all the messages and emails, all the support and word-of-mouth publicity . . . Thank you for loving Evan and Gemma, for rejoicing and suffering along with them. Thank you for believing deep down in their true love. It means the world to me!

  This journey wouldn’t have been possible without the support of my husband Giuseppe. Thank you, my love, for your trust in me and your understanding during my intense writing sessions. And thanks most of all to my greatest treasure, my son Gabriel Santo. You’re my reason for everything. I hope you learn from my experience to always pursue your dreams and fight with everything you have to achieve them, because no goal is ever too far away if you don’t stop chasing after it.

  I owe a debt of gratitude to my family for their support and unconditional love, and for all the chores they took over for me so I could work on my writing! Thank you,Mamma and Papa. I love you with all my heart!

  Much-deserved thanks to the fantastic team at Editrice Nord publishers for the trust and enthusiasm they showed for Evan and Gemma’s story right from the start. My dream was my passion, but thanks to you it also became my profession, and I couldn’t be happier. In particular, I’m grateful to Cristina Prasso, who chose each title with great care and enthusiasm. It takes a great person to run a great publishing house, and I’m honored to have been chosen. Thanks most of all to my Italian editor Giorgia Di Tolle for being among the first people to experience Evan and Gemma’s adventure at my side.

  My final, heartfelt respects to the late Luigi Bernabò, who believed in me right from the start. I’ll never forget his words when, after reading the first Italian draft of The Caress of Fate,he told me the text needed more work,but that my story had struck him because it had a voice. Thank you, Luigi, wherever you are.

  I’m grateful to my American translator Leah Janeczko and my editor Annie Crawford, because thanks to them, Evan and Gemma’s story crossed the border and won over thousands of American readers in a very short time. Okay, I admit it might have been partly because of Evan too!

  Once again, my gratitude to Professor Saverio Sani for his translations into Sanskrit and Devanagari. And my appreciation to all the readers who got tattoos! If you got one too, or are thinking of doing so, please send me a picture!

  An infinite THANK YOU to Alex McFaddin and Rhiannon Patterson, whose indispensable help allowed me to enrich the Touched saga with actual details about Lake Placid and its school, Lake Placid High. Thanks to the artists I mentioned in the books; I wanted Evan and Gemma to hear their songs because they gave me inspiration for many scenes. All my gratitude goes to Lana Del Rey, James Blunt, Hans Zimmer, Amy Lee,and Zara Larsson. Also, many thanks to the administrators of the saga’s official page. You’re FANTASTIC and your help is priceless to me!

  I couldn’t write these acknowledgements without thanking my pug Bam Bam—who inspired the character Irony—for keeping me company during my countless hours of writing, from the first to the last book—even though he slept the whole time!

  I must admit I procrastinated in writing these acknowledgements—maybe because I didn’t feel ready to write the last page of this great love story. But deep down, Gevan will live on in my mind and I hope in yours too. If you’d like to share your thoughts about them with me, write to me. You can find me on my Facebook page! I always read all the messages I receive, and I try to reply to most of them. And don’t forget to stop by the saga’s official site at www.touchedsaga.com, where you’ll find quizzes, polls, and lots of exclusive content created just for you. Again, my thanks to all the bloggers who welcomed Evan and Gemma into their reading circles, and to all those who will welcome them in the future. Your support is truly precious!

  And so here we are at the end. When I first imagined Evan and Gemma’s love story and pulled over to the side of that road to jot down my ideas, I wasn’t sure how it would end, but now I know there couldn’t be a more fitting ending for them, because love—the true love we hold inside, the love we truly believe in, for which we’re willing to fight against everyone and everything—that love always prevails.

  Until the next adventure!

  Affectionately,

  Elisa

  ALSO BY ELISA S. AMORE

  If you enjoyed Evan and Gemma’s love story, don’t miss Drake and Stella’s journey in Hell.

  TOUCHED SAGA SPIN OFF (Drake’s Story):

  Book 1: Dark Tournament

  The Touched saga is available in ebook, paperback and audio.

  THE AUTHOR

  Elisa S. Amore is the number-one bestselling author of the paranormal romance saga Touched.

  Vanity Fair Italy called her “the undisputed queen of romantic fantasy.” After the success of Touched, she produced the audio version of the saga featuring Hollywood star Matt Lanter (90210, Timeless, Star Wars, Vampires Suck) and Disney actress Emma Galvin, narrator of Twilight and Divergent. Elisa is now a full-time writer of young adult fantasy. She’s wild about pizza and also loves traveling, which she calls a source of constant inspiration. With her successful series about life and death, Heaven and Hell, she has built a loyal fanbase on social media that continues to grow, and has quickly become a favorite author for thousands of readers in the U.S.

  Visit Elisa S. Amore’s website and join her List of Readers at www.ElisaSAmore.com/Vip-List.

  If you don’t want to miss any of her future releases, text AMORE to 77948 (US only).