Chapter 31 #2
"You’re returning home to your family and Thayden."
The words struck deep, affecting me more than I could have ever imagined given all I’d gone through to get home.
Alaric stepped forward, shock in his eyes. "Are you serious?”
Arielle looked between Wolfe and me, confusion written across her face. "You said she’d be safe here.”
“I’ve had a change of heart.”
I couldn't process what I was hearing. It felt strange and…wrong.
He'd saved me. Torn through realms to find me. Traded a hundred years of his life to pull me back from the edge.
And now he was sending me home. Home to my family. And Thayden.
This was… goodbye.
"Wolfe—" Arielle started, but Wolfe cut her off with a hard look.
"The decision is made," Wolfe said, his tone brooking no argument as he looked at each person. "She returns to her family. Now.”
“Now?” Bastian cut in.
“Wolfe, think about this,” Garrick said.
“I have thought, and this is my decision. Arielle and Bastian will take Elariya back on the Ghost Roads. She’ll be home within minutes. That’s ample time before Thayden’s return.” I didn’t miss the spark of distaste in his tone every time he mentioned Thaden’s name.
“What about the ring?” I asked, my mind racing.
“We will be in touch about that in due course. Now that your family are aware of the situation, I’m sure we’ll come to some agreement on what we can do.”
That was it. Nothing about my magic, training to harness my skills, or anything else.
“What about the deal? You gave the demon a hundred years of your life, and you’re just sending me home?”
Ah, from the astonishment on everyone’s faces, it seemed they didn’t know about the bargain.
And Wolfe didn’t seem to care one way or the other that I’d spilled his secret.
“Yes. I’m sending you home.” With the wave of his hand, he summoned my satchel. He opened it and showed me that my journal was inside, along with a few other things I’d brought from the mortal realm. “Here are your things.”
He came forward and handed the bag to me. I pushed to my feet and took it.
I looked up at him, standing before his tall, beautiful, foreboding frame.
This was goodbye, and all he could do was stand there, stone-faced and immovable.
But could I blame him?
Even in my own head, I sounded fucking confused. Floating from one emotion to the next. Not knowing what I truly wanted.
He waved his hand once more, fingers wriggling as if drawing invisible threads through the air.
The skin around my wrist prickled in response. A thin line of light surfaced beneath it, faint at first, then brightening until the shape of the shackle emerged beneath my skin.
It was the shackle.
I sucked in a breath and lifted my arm.
The band shimmered into full form, slipping through flesh as though my skin were nothing more than water. For a moment it hummed. Then it opened.
The clasp uncoiled soundlessly and the shackle drifted free, lifting from my skin and gliding through the air toward Wolfe’s outstretched hand.
He caught it easily, his fingers closing around the band as the faint glow dimmed in his palm.
The instant the light faded, something inside my chest loosened.
No. Not my chest. My heart.
Instantly I thought of the Seer’s magic and the tether she’d placed on the shackle.
The faint hum that had lingered beneath my skin, pulsing in my heart, was suddenly… gone.
And the pull that had tethered me to Wolfe vanished with it.
The silence left behind felt… wrong.
“It’s broken,” he husked. “The time spell disconnected the magic that tethered it. All of it.”
Gods it was true. The Seer’s magic was gone.
Wolfe tore his gaze away from me and looked at Bastian and Arielle. He nodded, and they stepped forward.
"Safe travels," Wolfe said to the three of us. Nothing special for me.
He stepped backward, and I glanced at Alaric, Garrick, and Sirril, who all bowed with their hands placed on their hearts.
With my own heart heavy, I bowed, too. Then I met Arielle’s troubled eyes.
“It’ll be the same process as before. But quicker,” she explained, glancing from me to Bastian. “We’re entering from the magical realm. You’ll be home within… the blink of an eye.”
It took me a long moment before I could speak. “I… see.”
My throat tightened, my eyes burning with tears I refused to let fall.
Arielle and Bastian began weaving the magic between them. Threads of gold spun around me, wrapping me in a cocoon of light.
I found Wolfe’s gaze, and I couldn’t look away.
His cold eyes met mine, and it was nothing like the way he'd looked at me in the Interstice. Nothing like the male who’d traded a hundred years for my life.
The hollow inside my chest filled with something sharp and aching.
Regret.
Regret that I wasn’t the person he wanted me to be.
A flash of light covered my eyes.
And Wolfe disappeared from my sight.
I could still see him in my mind’s eye. Still feel him.
Moments passed, and the light began to part.
Objects came into my view, then the faces of my mother, grandmother, and Emabelle.
They stood before me, tears of joy in their eyes.
My heart soared just for seeing them. They were here and alive and safe. Not burning in flames. Not damned to suffer.
I was about to hug them when fingers brushed my shoulders.
It was Arielle. Bastian stood behind her, and a gentle ripple shimmered in the air just above their heads.
Arielle’s lips parted to say goodbye. But nothing came.
The same thing happened to me.
The two of us moved forward at the same time and hugged.
“Na már iyah,” she muttered
“Ye vár iyah,” I returned.
We pulled apart, and she stepped away from me. Bastian bowed, then the light took them away.
They were gone.
So was Wolfe. Along with all the pieces of myself I’d left in the magical realm.
“Sweetheart,” Mother said, tugging on my elbow.
I looked back at her.
“Come here,” She pulled me into her arms.
The gesture was meant to comfort me, but all I could see ahead was the situation for what it was.
A trap.
We’d all be trapped under Thayden’s eyes for the rest of our lives.
And I might never see Wolfe Nightblade again.
Clearly, it was over between us.
We were over.