Briar
I heard her voice like the sweetest song.
It was the last sound I wanted to hear as I died, my name on her lips. My name, my body, my soul: hers. Always hers.
My mate called me into the afterlife. I felt her arms around me and drifted further, letting myself melt into her strong hold. I was ready to go, ready for us to finally be together at last, in another life, another world, where Maez and I were at last one and the same again.
Her shoulders slumped, relief flooding her as her lips curved up at the side. Tears welled in her eyes as the last walls around her crumbled.
“Hi,” I whispered, my voice a rasp.
At that she broke, the tears spilling down her cheeks and dripping off her chin. “Hi.”
“You came.”
“I did,” she said, swiping my matted hair off my face. “I’m here.” She sniffed and lifted me up to sit, propped up in her strong arms. “I’m sorry I ever made you doubt it. You made me brave.”
“I . . .” I realized all at once that I was naked, that my body was wounded in a thousand different ways.
The pain flooded me anew as the shock began to ebb.
I gritted my teeth as I balled my grip into the leather strap across Maez’s chest. I screwed my eyes shut, willing myself to be healed.
Fire burned behind my eyelids. With a flash of bright red sparks, the pain disappeared.
“How?” Maez gasped as I sat up farther.
I looked down at myself to see I wore black battle leathers that matched Maez’s own. My hair was braided off my face, my broken fingers now straight, and my skin freshly washed. I took another deep breath and then another, no stabbing pains as I moved. I’d . . . I’d healed myself.
“How did you do that?” Maez asked, looking me over in disbelief.
“That thread of moonlight,” I whispered.
“The one that tied your soul to mine. I felt it in the forests of Taigos. We are still connected, you and I. One life. One power.” I looked up and wiped a tear from her cheek.
“It wasn’t until I saw you on that dais, facing down your fears, that I knew for certain I could summon it, use it. I knew that I could help you win.”
Maez shook her head. “But this darkness—”
“Is mine as well. It is a burden and a blessing that you and I will share together,” I said, cupping her cheek. “Together. Always, Maez.”
Maez looked around. “Nero, he . . .” Her eyes snagged on something as her words died off.
Whatever magic Vellia had cast hadn’t been what I had hoped. Nero lay there, swallowed up in his flowing silver robes, but his chest rose and fell; his hands moved to cover his face.
Alive.
Disappointment thrummed through me as I unsheathed my blade. Had Vellia only taken away his dark magic? Was that all Hector had wished for? Was his dying wish still not fully on our side?
I made to take a step forward, to deliver that final killing blow before Nero got his wits about him, but Maez held out a hand and stayed me.
“Wait,” she said. “Scent him.”
I raised a perplexed brow at my mate but did as she said. Nero smelled of blood and sweat, his rapid human heart beating faster than our own—
Human.
It hit me all at once.
There wasn’t an ounce of Wolf left in the Damrienn king now.
“No, no, no, no,” Nero whispered, horrified as he stared at his hands and then up to his son who watched him from atop a pile of rubble. Hatred filled Nero’s eyes. “What are you going to do?”
“Me?” Grae asked, pursing his lips. “Nothing.” He stooped and grabbed his father by the scruff of his cloak and dragged him across the rubble. “I think we should let your own kind decide your fate.”
I watched with horrified amusement as Grae dragged Nero across the ruined castle stones, through where a wall once stood and to the entrance where the human citizens of Damrienn gathered at the gate.
They looked more hollow and ragged than ever before, beaten and half starved.
But they cheered at the sight of Grae dragging their former king to the gate.
“No! No!” Nero wailed, trying to fight against Grae’s iron grip, but there was not any strength left in him now.
His screams were cut short as Grae threw Nero into the throng, the mass of bodies quickly absorbing him. He disappeared, swallowed into the press of humans, and I knew I’d never see him again.
Not whole, at least.
I wrapped an arm around Maez’s side and tugged her tighter into me.
“An apt dying wishing,” I whispered touching my chest, lips, eyes in prayer.
Maez and I turned back to what was left of the palace.
From this vantage point we could see all the destruction.
Only one tower remained intact, the rest dissolved into rubble apart from the far wall of the great hall and the stained glass window upon which the moon had once not so long ago revealed my fate.
I hugged my mate tighter to me, sighing up at the window like a good omen. The only thing left of this place would be from the Goddess herself.
“I think I’m ready for our little corner of the world now,” I murmured.
“As am I.” Maez dropped a kiss to the top of my head, moving me to look back out at the group gathering behind us. “But first, let us spend a little time sharing in this victory with our family.”