Chapter 25
The Snallygaster had done what I created it to do. It had held on to my anger when I couldn’t. But now, I had to let it go.
“Bianca, are you okay?” Julian asked.
I exhaled and stepped past him, my grip shifting on the hilt. The wind picked up, and the loose strands of my hair brushed my face, but I didn’t waver.
“Give me a minute,” I murmured, reaching the monster.
It didn’t flinch as I cut through it in a sweeping arc. It was like slicing through the mist—there was no impact, only the quiet unraveling of something never meant to exist. Golden light flared at the point of contact, curling outward in delicate strands.
The Snallygaster’s jagged form flickered as the energy holding it together began to fray. After a breath, it dissolved into the air.
I swallowed thickly. It had to go—it wasn’t meant to be here. I knew that. But as the last remnants of light faded into the air, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something inside me had disappeared with it.
The thought vanished, and I stumbled as Miles crashed into me, but I was righted when he pulled me to his chest.
“You did it!” he said, beaming. “I knew you could!”
“Yeah,” I began. Exhaustion settled in, and my fingers slipped from the hilt. I let the sword fall as I brought my fingers to my cheek. Miles was happy, but…
I wasn’t.
I wasn’t sure what was the matter, but the hollow ache in my chest told me what I already knew.
There was still something wrong with me.
Damen’s presence loomed near us. “So you can swing a sword around.”
I barely opened my eyes. The onmyoji glanced between me and Titus, who stood near us—once more in human form—as he shook out a blanket.
“I told you that I never taught Mu those techniques, ” Titus said, knotting the blanket at his waist. His eyes flicked to me, holding there for a beat too long before he looked away. “That was all her.”
Damen’s jaw tightened.
I exhaled, pressing my face into Miles’s chest. “I didn’t do anything impressive,” I said. “I was just reacting.”
It wasn’t a lie.
Damen ran a hand down his face. “And that’s why,” he said, “you’re never to put yourself in harm’s way, especially for my sake, ever again.”
Miles stiffened, but Damen ignored him, stepping in, his fingers pressing into my shoulders as he held me away from the witch.
“Do you understand, baby girl?” he said.
“You can stop acting like I’ll break,” I sighed. “I haven’t yet, have I?”
Damen’s grip faltered, and a breath left him as something flickered behind his eyes. Meanwhile, Julian went still, and Titus’s gaze darkened, a slow tension settling into his frame.
“Why do you—” Damen started, but he leaned back slightly, his expression shifting as if the words had caught in his throat.
Miles exhaled. “ Please don’t start,” he said. “We just got back together.”
Damen exhaled as the fire faded from his eyes. “Fuck.” He pressed his forehead to mine. “I don’t know if I can handle this.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Nothing.” Damen sighed. But I caught how Julian, Miles, and Titus looked at him—and how none seemed to believe that.
He’d had this expression before—a time when I’d kidnapped Miles to rescue the ghost of James Cole from Damen’s intrusive betrayal of an exorcism. Back then, I’d thought he was just being dramatic, that his mood had nothing to do with me.
But now…
My stomach twisted.
“Um…” I stepped away and touched my fingertips to my chin. “Did I do something?” Was it because of the sword? He’d seemed jealous, but I’d already dropped it, and the thing had vanished into who-knew-where.
Damen frowned, his gaze tracking my retreat. “No.”
“I mean—” I began but started as Damen closed the distance between us and placed his hand on my head, and my racing heartbeat settled as he peered down at me.
“Don’t worry about it,” he told me. “You did good. Now you get to tell everyone how you got to kill a dragon.”
Titus glared at him. “It wasn’t a dragon.”
“Really?” I ignored Titus—I’d made the creature, after all, I knew exactly what it was—and blinked at Damen. It was strange how his words made me happy, but inside, I was beaming.
Did this mean that they still liked having me around?
“Or maybe not,” Damen mused, and at my fallen expression, he added, “Tell the others about you fighting, I mean. You did do a good job, but Bryce will have a conniption.”
“Oh,” I replied, as my shattered self-esteem recovered. Didn’t we want to make Bryce’s life miserable? “Why?”
“It’s a long story,” Damen sighed. “Let’s just say he’ll be really annoying. ”
Even more than now? Was that possible?
I nodded. “I’m good at keeping secrets.”
Damen scowled.
Before I could ask why, Titus moved to the small gathering of supplies and pulled out a phone. His features were hard to read, but his complaints weren’t. “If that’s Bryce—”
“They found us,” Damen interrupted. He was looking at the sky, and before I could look, I also heard the low, distant whirring as it moved closer. A shadow passed over us, and when I tilted my head up, the sleek, black shape of a helicopter appeared overhead.
“Well—” Titus crossed his arms. “Guess they finally found us.”
“Too bad.” Damen sighed. “I was hoping for some more downtime. We didn’t even get to the good part of this vacation.”
“It wasn’t supposed to be a vacation!” Julian snapped.
“We did get to fight a monster, though,” Damen added, finger to his chin. “I guess that’s a plus.”
“ What monster ?” Bryce was suddenly there, looming behind Damen, and if I wasn’t mistaken, the onmoyji’s lips twitched before his expression turned to nonchalance.
“Nothing to worry about,” he said, brushing off his sleeve.
“You don’t get to do that!” Bryce grabbed Damen by the collar. “Tell me about the monster!”
I blinked at him—just how…
Wasn’t he just up in the sky?
“Bianca!”
I jumped as Brayden appeared at my side. His expression was open with panic as he grabbed my hands and turned me to face him. “Are you okay?” he asked as his shaking touch moved tentatively to my elbows. “ Do I need to kill them ?”
“Um…” I tilted my head. “I’m okay.” I glanced at the helicopter. There was no ladder, so they hadn’t climbed down. “You were looking for me?”
“Of course!” Brayden exclaimed, horrorstruck. “Why wouldn’t we?”
“We’ll meet you at the center.” Bryce released Damen. “You can walk for your repentance.”
“What?” Damen snapped. “I’m not walking back. That’s bullshit.”
I stepped back as Bryce approached and hid my hand behind my back before he could touch me. “We can’t leave them,” I told him.
Bryce paused, narrowing his eyes, before finally looking at the sky. “Fine,” he said with a sigh, signaling to the helicopter. Someone opened the door and tossed down a ladder. “I guess we might be able to take them along.”
“We are,” I said, and Bryce frowned harder. Before I could protest, he shoved headgear over my ears and grabbed my arm.
Before I could move, the air around me shifted—a ripple, as the space itself had folded inward—and suddenly, we weren’t standing in the clearing anymore.
I pressed my back against the cold metal of the helicopter as the world snapped into place.
They had brought me with them? Was this what Miles meant—the fae could jump through the air?
I barely had time to process before Brayden was beside me, steadying me as I swayed. Unbothered, Bryce crossed his arms, his gaze sweeping the cabin before he glowered at the rest of my quintet as they climbed the ladder.
“Hurry it up,” he said, glowering. “We have a schedule to keep.”
“What schedule?” I asked.
It was Brayden who answered.
“We’re going back to the hotel,” he said, still brushing off my sleeves. “They’re prepping a recovery suite for you.”
My breath caught in my throat and I stepped back. “R-recovery?”
He blinked at me, hand still raised in the air. “Not a doctor,” he said slowly, and I could feel everyone’s attention on me. “Just pampering. Like a spa day.”
“Oh.” The tight knot in my chest loosened. “O-okay.”
That I could handle. I didn’t even want to think about trying to detangle my mess of a hair, or sort out these nails, on my own.
“And then Bryce will probably lecture you for a few hours.” Brayden sighed, touching his head. “But that’s the price you pay for jumping into a river.”
What…
What was that face? Was he upset?
I swallowed.
Maybe Damen was right—we should have extended our vacation just a little bit longer.
Titus POV
Damen stewed the entire ride back. It was late when we pulled into the driveway, and Bianca—still reeling from Bryce’s not-so-subtle attempt to disguise a medical check as a spa treatment the day before—had gone straight to bed. She hadn’t even realized it wasn’t pampering.
None of us had seen it coming. But we should have.
As soon as she was asleep, Damen called the emergency meeting we’d all expected. We’d barely closed the door to his office before he rounded on Miles.
“You deliberately disobeyed me,” he said, turning toward Miles.
My stomach turned with unease with his darkening mood. This didn’t bode well for the witch sitting across from him.
Miles hardly looked away from the unlit fireplace. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” His shrug was light, almost dismissive and his tone was absent, like his mind was elsewhere.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about!” Damen’s composure snapped slightly as he pointed at the witch. “You did the Soul Bond after I specifically forbade you! And to make matters worse, this isn’t even the first time you’ve gone behind my back regarding her!”
Miles finally looked at him then, slow and measured. His expression was unreadable, but Julian must have sensed something because he stiffened beside him.
“And as Julian told you before,” he steadily replied, “you don’t get to intervene in our relationship. That’s not how this works.”
Damen’s hands curled into fists. “You agreed to listen!”
“No,” Miles corrected, his tone light, almost absent. “I said that I understood. I never said I agreed.”