Chapter 29
Cristian
The world came back in pieces.
The stone floor stopped shaking. The pressure in my chest eased. My pulse steadied. I dragged in a long, clean breath, and the pull of the ritual slid away from me like someone had torn open the ceiling and let the room clear.
Nadia stirred in my arms. Her fingers flexed. Her heartbeat picked up speed. Her skin warmed under my hands.
She gasped softly and lifted her face from my shoulder. I touched her cheek, stunned, lost, overwhelmed. She looked alive. Fully alive. Her color had returned. The clouded look in her eyes had faded, and fresh energy rushed between us in a steady, familiar pulse.
Relief punched through me in a way I could not contain. She reached up and cradled the back of my neck, pressing trembling lips to my cheek.
“We made it,” she whispered.
“And you are safe,” I said. “Thank goodness. You are safe.”
Behind us, Hammond wailed. His body sagged forward over Ambrosia’s corpse. His skin wrinkled in real time, like decades were pulling through him at once. His hair lost its color, and his spine bent. Hands shaking, he grabbed at the air.
“No. No. No. Please. Stop,” he cried.
Ezra stared at him with wide eyes. “That is… Wow. That is not what I thought would happen.”
Hammond’s knees buckled, then he collapsed beside Ambrosia’s body, breathing weakly. His face sagged, deep lines etching into his skin. He gave one last broken sob, then he fell silent.
My head spun. “What did you do?”
Ezra shrugged helplessly. “Honestly, I’m not entirely sure.”
A groan came from the floor near Lena. Cassian pushed himself up with surprising strength. His color looked better than it had even before the fight. Lena steadied him as he sat upright.
He wiped blood from his chin and gave her a crooked smile. “Is now a bad time to tell you I think you look incredible when you’re worried about me?”
“You’re impossible. I was worried about Nadia.”
“I’m alive. That is something.”
She rolled her eyes.
Nadia wrapped her arms around my neck and buried her face in my shoulder as she sobbed. Tears soaked my skin, her whole body shaking with relief.
Tears slid down my cheeks as I held her close. “I am so sorry,” I whispered into her hair. “I made every wrong choice. I put you in danger. I broke what we had. I am so sorry.”
She pulled away to look at me. “Hush,” she said softly, cupping my cheeks and shaking her head. “You loved me the best way you knew. You tried to protect me. I am thankful for you. I always was.”
My heart felt so full, it threatened to burst.
Ezra stood and dusted off his jeans. “All right,” he said. “Before anything else collapses or explodes or curses us, can we all leave this cursed manor? Preferably now?”
We gathered ourselves. Cassian said he needed help walking and insisted on doing it with Lena’s arm around him. Ezra cradled his laptop like it held the last key to life. Nadia stayed pressed against my side. I kept a hand on her back the entire time.
Outside, the night air was clean.
We reached her Corolla, and the five of us stared at it.
Cassian raised an eyebrow. “I still can’t believe this is the car we are trusting with our lives.”
Nadia glared at him. “Be nice. She’s sensitive.”
Ezra opened the back door. “Everyone squeeze in. Please do not kill me if I sit on someone’s lap.”
Lena climbed in. Cassian took the seat beside her. Ezra paused, assessed the situation, then climbed over Cassian to wedge himself between them like this was a tactical decision.
It was tight. Very tight.
Nadia and I slid into the front. She turned the key. The engine sputtered. Sputtered. Stalled.
Ezra winced. Cassian groaned. Lena started laughing.
Nadia muttered, “Not now. Please not now. Come on, old girl.” She tried again. The engine sputtered again. Then choked.
Silence.
Ezra tapped the back of her headrest. “Have you considered pleading with it?”
Nadia ran her hands lovingly over the steering wheel. “Please. Please start. I’m begging.”
She twisted the key again, and the engine coughed violently. Then it roared to life.
Everyone cheered at the same time. It was loud and chaotic, but it was brilliant.
Nadia aimed the little car toward home.
I held her hand on the center console as she drove. “Ezra, tell me what you did. What actually happened?”
Ezra blew out a long breath. “Okay. So. I sat there and kind of closed my eyes and pressed enter. That was the last part.”
Nadia choked on a laugh. “Ezra.”
“I know,” he said. “I know. But based on the readings, I think I threaded your original bond with Nadia through the Sovereign Court power-share frequency. And then I redirected the power drain into a closed loop.”
I frowned. “Explain that.”
“It means the power-share has only two recipients now. Cristian and Cassian.”
Cassian perked up. “So, we are the new Sovereign Court, brother?”
I groaned. “At least I’m alive.”
Nadia elbowed me lightly.
I sighed. “Ezra. What you did was… bad bitch.”
Absolute silence met my words.
Nadia glanced at me. “Honey, I think you mean badass.”
I nodded once. “That too.”
Nadia squeezed my hand. “What about our bond? Where does that stand?”
Ezra leaned forward between the seats. “I’m not sure.
I know it shouldn’t drain you anymore, Nadia.
I think that part is gone. The connection will still be there.
You might feel it sometimes. Or you might not.
It depends on how the frequencies settle.
But it should not be so strong that you cannot be apart. Or that it pulls on your energies.”
Nadia looked at me. Hope and worry mixed in her eyes.
We turned into the long driveway of the mansion.
The moment Nadia parked, every door opened at the same time.
All five of us spilled out like some kind of uncoordinated parade.
Cassian limped, which I suspected was fake and purely for extra attention from Lena.
Ezra carried his bag. Lena cursed at the gravel.
Nadia fixed her hair. I kept a hand on her shoulder, unwilling to let her out of reach.
The world felt safe. Or as close to it as I’d ever experienced.
“Everyone inside,” Nadia said softly. “We survived. Now we rest.”
We followed her up the steps as a group.
Alive. Together. No Sovereign Court hanging over our heads.
Finally.
Cassian unlocked the master bedroom—the one that had been off-limits all summer—and pushed the door open. The hinges groaned. He stepped inside and turned on the lights.
I stopped just past the threshold.
The room was massive. The largest in the mansion by far.
A stone fireplace dominated the far wall with a seating area arranged in front of it.
Heavy curtains covered every window. A full wet bar lined the right side of the room with shelves of liquor bottles.
Next to it, a stainless steel medical fridge hummed softly.
Cassian tapped the fridge. “Blood packs. Rare types. Labeled by age. You always liked things organized.”
I crossed the room slowly. “You kept all of this ready.”
He nodded and strode to the bar, where he poured whiskey into two glasses. “Didn’t know how long it would take. Or who would wake you. Or if I ever would.”
I accepted the glass but did not drink yet. “I have questions.”
Cassian sat on the couch and gestured for me to sit across from him. He looked exhausted. It was the demeanor of the man who had been waiting centuries to speak.
“Ask,” he said.
“Why did you hire someone to house-sit? Why bring a stranger here?”
Cassian rubbed the back of his neck. “Because I didn’t want to be the one to wake you. I’ve been hoping someone else would.”
I stared at him. “You were afraid of me.”
“Yes. I betrayed you for power. I followed Hammond when I should have followed my own damn mind. I expected you to kill me the second you saw me. So, I needed someone else to get you out first. Someone neutral. Someone who would give you time to settle before I revealed myself.”
“You thought I would rip your head off on sight.”
He gave a small, humorless laugh. “You would have. You were always stronger than me. And I deserved whatever you wanted to do.”
I stepped closer to the fireplace. The flames cast a warm glow across the stone. “You could have woken me two hundred years ago. Or a hundred. Or fifty.”
He let out a breath. “For the first hundred years, I convinced myself I didn’t care.
I pretended your disappearance was convenient for me.
Less competition. More room to grow in the court.
” He shook his head. “Then the guilt came. I tried to ignore it for another hundred years. Told myself you made your choice. Told myself I had no responsibility.”
I sat down across from him. “And the last hundred-and-seventy-five?”
His eyes softened. “I realized I had ruined everything. I started hiring house sitters every summer, hoping one of them would come close enough to the wards to wake you. I thought if I let a stranger do it, you would not look at me with rage in the first minute. I wanted a chance to speak before you decided my fate.”
I took a long drink of whiskey.
Cassian continued. “And somewhere in all that waiting, I stopped caring about power. Hammond. Sovereign Court. Titles. All of it is poison. I watched it ruin everyone around us. I wanted out long before tonight. But Hammond kept me tethered. And I was too much of a coward to break away.”
He leaned forward. “I am not jealous of you anymore. Not of your strength. Not of your place in the world. I only wanted my brother back.”
The words landed hard, and I let them sit between us.
“You hurt me,” I said. “You left me in that coffin.”
“I know.”
“You let them use you against me.”
He shut his eyes. “I know.”
“You watched me suffer.”
“I know,” he whispered. “And I hate myself for it.”
I studied him. The man who once stood at my side in battle. The man who turned away from me for power. The man who chose me tonight without thinking twice.
I set my glass down. “You saved my life.”
He swallowed. “I tried. After failing you for centuries. It was the only thing I could do that mattered.”
Standing, I crossed the room to him and pulled him to his feet. “You are still my brother.”
Relief rushed through his expression so strongly he had to grip the armchair to steady himself. “Thank you.”
I nodded. “We will figure out the rest tomorrow.”
His grin returned. “Tomorrow sounds good. Tonight, I need about seven drinks and a full hour of pretending I did not almost die.”
I snorted. “You have always been dramatic.”
“You love it.”
“Not even a little.”
He lifted his glass toward me. “To survival.”
I lifted mine to meet his. “To second chances.”
We drank.
A calm settled over us. Two brothers, alive. No court breathing down our necks. No chains between us.
I heard the door creak and Nadia stepped in, barefoot, damp hair trailing over her shoulders, wearing one of my shirts. She stopped halfway across the room and angled her head at the stainless steel fridge.
She wrinkled her nose. “I don’t want to know what is in there, do I?”
“Nope. You do not,” Cassian said.
I chuckled as she tiptoed past the fridge like it might open on its own. She made a theatrical face of horror, then crossed the room to me.
Without hesitation, she climbed into my lap, like it was always meant to be her seat. I wrapped an arm around her waist. Her hands rested on my shoulders. She smelled like shampoo.
Cassian uncorked a bottle with exaggerated focus, giving us space without stepping out of the room. He poured himself a drink and pretended to care about the label.
I rested my chin on Nadia’s shoulder. “You are not scared of what I am?”
She leaned back against me. “Should I be? You have better taste in loungewear than I do. And you floss.”
A laugh escaped me before I could stop it, and Nadia tilted her head just enough to smile up at me.
Cassian tossed back his drink like he wanted the entire century to wash out of him. He stared into the empty glass for a moment, then said under his breath, “You are good for him. I never thought he would let anyone get that close.”
Nadia stayed curled against me. “He’s not that scary. A little grumpy. But honestly, it brings balance.”
Cassian snorted. “Accurate.”
The fire crackled. The room settled into a peaceful hush that would have been impossible in any other life but this one. Eventually, her head dipped against my chest, and her breathing slowed. Her fingers slid lightly along my shirt until they went still.
She had fallen asleep.
I shifted one hand to the back of her neck and brushed my thumb over her skin in small circles. I spoke quietly, mostly to myself. “She really saved me.”
Cassian lowered his drink. “You mean tonight.”
“All of it,” I said. “My life before she woke me was nothing but hunger and anger and old ghosts. She changed everything. She brought something real into my world.” I looked down at her sleeping face. “I did not know I could feel like this.”
Cassian’s expression softened. “Then keep her close.”
I nodded. “I plan to.”
The door burst open with a loud thud.
Lena stumbled in first, laughing so hard she dropped a bottle of tequila on the carpet. Ezra followed right behind her with two more bottles and the wild look of someone who had made too many questionable decisions in one night.
“We made a game,” Lena announced loudly.
“A drinking game! And we need everyone!” Ezra shouted.
Nadia jerked awake in my lap with a startled blink. She spotted the bottles, and her entire body lit up with new energy. “Yes!” she exclaimed as she jumped off my lap. “Bring it on.”
Lena screamed back. Ezra screamed with her. The three of them jumped in a chaotic circle like they had rehearsed it.
Cassian watched them, then looked at me. We shared the same exhausted, baffled expression.
He shrugged a shoulder. “I guess this is our life now.”
“Apparently.”
He poured a round of shots and slid one to me. “Cheers.”