Epilogue
Soleil - Samhain
Samhain night is cold and crisp.
A million stars shining brightly above. The sweet smell of fallen autumn leaves with a note of bonfire smoke lingering in the air. The clearing around the Veil filled with witches.
And Esme Hawthorn waiting.
I’ve witnessed the Ascension ceremony a dozen times during my years with the Crescent Coven.
A witch steps up to the dais to receive her blessing from the High Priestess, then descends to step toward the Veil. If the ether reaches for her, she steps inside to receive the Goddess’ blessing.
If it doesn’t…
Well.
That’s never actually happened in my lifetime.
And it won’t happen tonight.
Tonight I’m going to Ascend. I’m going to stand before the Goddess and she’s going to find me worthy.
Or at least that’s what I’ve been telling myself.
Positive affirmations, and all.
Not that it makes a whole hell of a lot of difference now that I’m here, clad in my pristine white robes embroidered with the coven’s signature moon-silver silk thread.
Calm, poised, walking slowly through the crowd to where the priestesses are assembled on the dais.
I’ve been training for this moment my whole life, and I won’t falter now.
It goes deeper than that tonight, though. Deeper than training, deeper than what I’m supposed to have been working toward during all my years with the Crescent Coven.
Tonight I know.
It goes all the way to my marrow, this knowing.
The Goddess is going to find me worthy.
I know she will.
As I step up to the dais, I meet each priestess’s eyes boldly. Some, like Priestess Sonja, offer smiles and words of encouragement. Others, like Priestess Marjorie, merely look sour or dismissive, having no doubt gotten wind of my insubordination and all the changes I want to make once I Ascend.
Good.
Let them scowl.
It won’t change a damn thing.
If they feel the coven is immune to change, set in stone with no room to question long-held standards and beliefs, they’re in for an awakening.
And it all starts tonight.
Stopping in front of Esme Hawthorn, I find her as inscrutable as ever.
There’s no hint on her hard, stoic face of how she’s feeling. Nothing but the perfect High Priestess mask as she takes my measure and begins the Rite.
“Soleil Pendergast,” she says, voice carrying over the clearing to all the assembled witches. “You stand before us prepared to pledge your life and your magick to the Crescent Coven?”
“Yes, High Priestess.”
“And you do so willingly, with an honest heart and accepting of all the Goddess asks of you?”
“Yes, High Priestess.”
“A sip of ceremonial wine,” Esme says, handing me a chalice. “As a marker of your bond with the earth, with the Goddess’ bounty, with us all.”
I take the chalice and drink, then hand it back and steel myself for what comes next.
“Now go forth with our blessing,” she says, and this time I might fool myself into believing a small smile turns up the corner of her lips. “And we shall all bear witness as the Goddess judges your worthiness.”
“Thank you, High Priestess.”
With head held high and eyes fixed firmly forward, I make my solitary journey to the Veil.
Just at its threshold, I pause. Waiting. And waiting.
Until a flicker of magick sends the ether tumbling from pearly white to the deepest blue of midnight—its tendrils reaching out for me—and I know it’s time.
One step forward, then another, never faltering, never doubting as I step inside.
The feel of this non-place in the ether is familiar.
Threaded with a different type of magick than what enveloped Finn and I when we made our bargain and cemented our mate bond, but with the same expansive, endless depth. Like I’ve dissolved completely and am one with the heart of the Goddess.
This time, though, there are no words for me to speak.
There’s nothing but the rush of power over me, through me, strands of magick fanning out in an infinite web.
When I close my eyes, I can see them, can follow them from me to the coven and back again.
From realm to realm, to the stars and the earth and beyond, and I’m just one part of a whole almost too large to comprehend.
For a few weightless moments—or maybe hours, time seems to work a little differently here—I simply allow myself to marvel.
Some deep, intrinsic part of me knows I’ll never experience magick like this again.
I’ll never understand so clearly how all of it makes sense, how I make sense, the acute joy and overwhelm of knowing my place in it all.
But the time doesn’t last, and my reason for being here comes rushing back soon enough.
I gasp as the ether ripples, reforms itself around me, raises all the fine hairs on my body and pulls me deeper into whatever the Goddess has deigned to bestow upon me.
From all that chaos, a path. The threads of magick braid tighter and coalesce until I can see it clearly. My own magick, too, joins those threads as they lead me from the ether back to the human realm and my coven of sister witches—all my power joining theirs to make our collective stronger.
Well, almost all of my power.
There’s no way for me to know what this journey feels like to other Ascended priestesses, but in my final moments before I step back out of the Veil, I understand.
I’m tied to them, and to Finn, and to myself.
And instead of fractured, I am whole.
Instead of being broken into thirds, my power is amplified. Magnified, expanded, almost too much for me to hold without breaking.
But I take a step, and it gets easier. I refuse to shy away, grasp each thread so I can pull it close and claim it, make it as much a part of me as my blood and bones and the bond I share with Finn.
When I emerge, the threads are one.
Just me, with everything I hold dear imprinted on my soul, ready to find out just what I can do with these gifts I’ve been given.
Finn
Soleil steps out of the ether reborn.
Her robes flowing around her, her raven hair unbound, the light of the Goddess still clinging to her as she emerges from the Veil, she looks like some impossible, otherworldly creature.
Beautiful, powerful, magnificent.
I wasn’t sure if she would want me here for this, and I was fully prepared to wait for her back in the demon realm while she took this final step in committing to her coven—but, as always, my witch surprised me.
Whether or not her coven fully approved, she let them know I’d be here.
Standing back and out of the way, but here all the same, watching with bated breath and my heart in my throat as she disappeared within the ether.
Though it can’t have been more than five minutes since she went in, I feel as if I’ve lived several lifetimes by the time she reemerges.
Even then, I can barely breathe.
Pride and love and awe swell in my chest, stealing all the air from my lungs.
It’s only when I catch sight of her smile that I can finally draw breath again.
With a grin that’s wide and radiant, she stands triumphant just outside the Veil as Esme descends the dais and comes to stand before her. Soleil sinks into a low curtsy and takes the hand the High Priestess offers, allowing herself to be lifted up as Esme’s voice carries again through the clearing.
“I present to you, Priestess Soleil.”
A cheer rises through the crowd, and I briefly lose sight of her as the rest of the coven steps forward to celebrate.
She receives embraces and words of congratulations from her fellow witches, but it doesn’t take long for her eyes to find mine.
Just that one look is electric. The bond within my chest surges, as if even that has been strengthened with the force of the change she’s undergone. Pulsing and insistent and alive, it only gets stronger as she murmurs an apology to her well-wishers and crosses the clearing toward me.
Goddess, I’ll never tire of this sight.
My mate, who I’ve somehow earned, coming to me. Choosing me.
Against all odds and my own belief it was impossible, I convinced her I’m worth taking a chance on, and I’ll never stop trying to prove she was right.
“Hi,” she says, a little breathless when she reaches me.
“Hello, sunshine.” I wrap my tail around her waist and pull her closer, every inch of me humming with the magick rolling off her in waves.
She presses a kiss to my lips, and she tastes like pure power. Endless power. So much of it, it might fill up all thirteen realms.
Pouring into me, it makes my skin tingle, makes the entire world light up as I slant my lips over hers and deepen the kiss, hungry for more.
Soleil pulls away with a breathless giggle when a few of her sister witches start whooping and cat-calling.
I turn us both and give the coven nothing but a view of my wings, and the few good-natured boos I receive are more than worth it to have a moment of privacy with my priestess.
Soleil reaches up and idly brushes her fingers over the curve of my wing, as if she’s not well-aware what it does to me. A rumble breaks in my chest and I pull her closer, hand drifting down to cup the curve of her ass over her robes.
“Mmmm,” she lets out a groan that’s half pleasure, half frustration. “We’re going to have to save this for later.”
“Will we?”
“Yes, we will. There’s a celebration tonight. With the coven. No boys allowed, I’m afraid.”
I kiss her one more time for good measure, then nod back toward the Veil. “Then I’ll take my leave, priestess. Step through whenever you’re ready to call it a night, and I’ll be there to bring you home.”
Her smile is bright enough to rival the light of the Veil, the moon, the stars above.
My own sunshine, radiant as she will always be.
“Okay, you’ve got a bargain.”
—
Thank you for reading Demon’s Beauty, I hope you enjoyed Finn and Soleil’s story!