Aurora
“Saint!” I shake him, my hands are covered in his blood. “Help!” I scream, tears streaming down my cheeks. “Someone, please!”
Dagon races back in, then Talon, Zachariah, and Ajax. The hunters surround me, panic and grief already shaping their faces.
“Help him,” I choke out the words.
“You help him!” Dagon fires back.
“I can’t,” I cry. “I kill things.” I look to the pile of ashes next to us. “Look what I did to Samuel. I couldn’t stop. Not after he stabbed Saint. I couldn’t…I couldn’t—”
“Saint is fading,” Talon says, hand on Saint’s forehead. “You have to try.”
“What if I kill him faster?”
“He’s dying!” Dagon snaps.
“You have the ability to heal,” Zachariah urges. “We’ve all seen it. It’s as much a part of you as the other.”
Anxiety claws at me. I don’t want to make things worse.
“Fix. Him!” Dagon snaps.
I jolt at his tone, and Ajax drags Dagon away.
“You can do this,” Talon assures me. “Find your bond. Use it. Connect it to your power.”
I blow out a breath, trembling as I close my eyes. I tunnel inward, finding our mating bond. It’s faint, flickering in and out with life. Oh, God, I’m so close to losing him forever. I can’t. I can’t lose him. He’s my mate. My world. My reason.
Instincts take over, threading my mating bond and my power together, making that weaker thread so much stronger.
The healing ability surges in my soul, and I pour every ounce of it into Saint.
I will every good and mending thing inside me into him.
I call upon every ounce of life and energy I have inside my soul and pour it into him.
Whatever he needs of mine, he can take. It’s already his.
“Good,” Talon says, and I open my eyes. “You’re doing great. Keep going.”
I shake harder as I cling to that power, noting the gaping wound on his chest closing.
He’s still lost so much blood, but our bond, it’s growing stronger.
It’s working. I’m bringing him back to life, little by little.
My fingertips go numb. So do my legs. I don’t stop.
Won’t stop. He needs more. I know he does. And I can’t lose him.
“Aurora,” Talon’s voice is a warning.
“Talon?” I gasp, feeling the last of my energy evaporate like a dead battery. “Help him—”
Everything goes black.
My eyes are heavy as I wrench them open. Warm, amber lighting illuminates Saint’s bedroom, his scent enveloping me.
Memories crash into me—the opera house, Samuel, Saint dying.
I bolt upright, panic fueling my racing heart.
“I’m so fucking mad at you.” Saint growls a second before his mouth is on mine.
The kiss is punishing, sending heat soaring through my body. I melt into his embrace, gripping his neck and hauling him closer to me.
“You’re alive?” I ask against his mouth. “You’re here?”
He jerks his mouth from mine, fingers tangled in my hair to keep me in place. “I’m here.”
Relief uncoils all the tightness in my body. I move toward him again, but he releases me, climbing off the bed to pace the floor next to it.
“I’m sorry.” It’s the only thing I can say.
“You’re sorry?” he growls. “You almost died! Annika and Avi and Cassandra—”
“Are they okay?” I gasp. “Did they get them out?”
His eyes meet mine. “Yes. They’re fine,” he says. “We all are. Because of you.”
I furrow my brow.
“Samuel is dead. The Sons of Honor have fallen. Alek and Zachariah captured some of the higher-ranking soldiers and we were able to track down their central headquarters in the last of the Greenbriar land. Together, we’ve dismantled them.
We’ve destroyed their weapons and Night Thistle stockpiles too.
Some have been captured, others killed. All bloodmads have been eliminated. ”
Tears roll over my eyes and I let my head drop into my hands.
“Aurora,” Saint’s voice is soft, no more of the ire in his tone as he climbs back onto the bed, dragging me into his lap. “It’s over. This was is over because of your bravery. Yours and the other girls’.”
“I’m so sorry about Samuel,” I say as he pries my hands from my face. “He was killing you. I couldn’t…I couldn’t stop. We meant to capture him. I promise. I didn’t want to kill him. Well, I did, but I didn’t plan to.”
“I would’ve done the same exact thing,” he assures me. “I was prepared to kill him myself. He just beat me.”
“He beat us both,” I argue.
“You saved my life.” He leans his forehead against mine.
I swallow hard, relief and guilt and hope swirling together in my heart. “I couldn’t lose you.”
He threads our fingers and pulls our hands to his chest. “Never.”
“You forgive me?” I ask after we’ve held each other for a few moments.
“I’m so angry with you for putting yourself in danger like you did,” he admits. “But of course I forgive you. I’m in awe of you. Your courage. Your strength.” He sighs. “If there’s ever a next time, you have to promise to talk to me.”
“To be fair,” I say. “I did talk to you. I talked to all of you. If there’s a next time, maybe you need to listen.”
He holds my gaze, a muscle in his jaw ticking. “Agreed.”
“Good.” I lean forward, almost timidly. I don’t want him to pull away again, but the last thing I want to do right now is argue.
His lips find mine in a rush, and it’s all I need to feel whole again. I pull away, hopping off the bed and reaching for his hand.
He takes it immediately.
“Shower first,” I say, guiding him to the bathroom. “Then we can meet with everyone. I’m sure…I know I have a lot of explaining to do.”
“We have time,” he says, turning on the hot water in the shower. “All the time we want now.”
“Really?” I ask, hope washing away every other emotion as we undress and step beneath the hot water. “We have a life now? No more wards?”
“Well,” he says, grabbing body wash to lather me up. “I don’t know if I’ll want to fully rid us of the wards.”
I sigh at his touch, gentle as he washes the blood and grime off my body, and then I do the same to him.
“But, we’ll have a life,” he finishes.
I grin up at him. “Where should we go first?”
He smooths his hands over my hips. “How about Italy?”
“Thank you,” Alek says from where he stands on a raised dais in the formal part of his estate.
The grand ballroom is filled with noble vampires, assassins, hunters, and…
family. Our family. “Your votes and confidence in me to serve you as your king means everything to me.” He raises a glass of champagne, looking down at all of us.
Lyric looks regal next to him, the power couple exactly where they should be, on the thrones.
“I know these times have been trying,” he continues.
“But I’m grateful for the hunters and my assassins and my family, who helped bring an end to the terrible war we’ve suffered as of late.
” His eyes find mine, and I smile sheepishly at him.
“Thanks to them, we’re able to confidently say the Sons of Honor are no more, and we’ll be entering a time of peace you all more than deserve.
And we will do our best to keep it for centuries to come. ”
The crowd erupts into applause, and the talem working the event spread out to serve more champagne and pitchers of canned blood. Music filters into the room, the king’s speech officially over and the celebration beginning.
My heart feels more than full as I scan the room, noting the happiness and ease surrounding my new family.
The hunters and the assassins and their mates.
Daphne and the trainees I’ve come to know.
Hell, even some of the stuffier nobles look relieved at the new era we’re entering.
I know there will still be trials to overcome, things for the assassins and hunters to…
hunt, but it won’t be like with the Sons, and that certainty is a bliss I didn’t think we’d ever be granted.
“This is all your doing, you know,” Saint whispers into my ear from where he sits next to me.
“You only say that because I’m your mate.”
He shakes his head, rising from his seat and tugging me off mine. We head to the dance floor, where Dagon and Annika dance among so many other couples. Saint draws me against him, moving us to the music.
“It’s true,” he says. “Without you, this peace never would’ve happened. You were right. No one else could’ve lured him like you did. You were smart. Lethal. I will never not be at your side again.”
Emotion clogs my throat. It’s been a month since I lured Samuel out of hiding. Since I killed him. I’m still grappling with the effects of taking a life, regardless of how evil he was. It was still a life. One I was responsible for ripping from this earth.
Yes, I’m happy my family is safe, but I’m still processing. Saint, who’s experienced similar, tells me the feelings of guilt never really go away. And I’m fine with that. If it’s the cost of peace, of the safety of my mate, I’m willing to pay it.
And while Saint is still dealing with the complicated grief of losing Samuel, though he tries to bury it, he’s happier in a way I’ve never see before.
“I’m just happy everyone is okay,” I say. That much is the absolute truth.
Saint smiles down at me, dipping me to the music before drawing me back up again. “Are you ready?” he asks.
“For what?”
“To spend months of uninterrupted time with me abroad?” There’s a flicker of doubt in his eyes.
I gape up at him. “Saint, are you nervous?”
He shrugs, tucking me against him as we slowly sway to the melody. “I can’t remember a time where I was allowed to simply…be.”
My heart breaks for that. This, his freedom, his peace, and our love, is worth the fight it took to get us here. “We’ll learn how to do that together.”
He grins down at me. “I love you.”
I reach up on my tiptoes and kiss him. “I love you too,” I say. “And yes, I’m more than ready.” I bite my lip to hide my grin.
“What’s that look, little mate?”
Heat blazes through me. “There’s a wooded expanse on my new estate,” I explain. “Perfect for chases.”
Saint’s pupils blow out. “Why wait for Italy?”
Anticipation flutters in my core. “Now?”
“Run as fast as you can.”
A giggle flies past my lips as he releases me.
I take off, running straight into my happily ever after.
The End
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