Epilogue
VALE
When the rubble clears and the last of the spell has left my lips, I collapse forward in front of that disgusting sphere that’s still glowing.
My magic is completely drained, but I couldn’t let my brother die.
I have no regrets, even if we all end up dead.
Kane is next to me, covered in rubble from the explosion.
I didn’t cause that bang, and the ceiling has completely fallen down on us.
I push myself up, feeling for his pulse, and relief floods me when I find out the spell I did worked.
I made it for Juniper, just in case, but I’m glad it worked for Kane in his last moments.
He might hate me when he wakes up. If he wakes up.
I’ve never done this spell before. Fuck.
“What did you do?” Maz growls, climbing out of the rubble and getting to me.
He pushes a rock off my leg, and we both wince when we see a bone sticking out.
Well, that fucking hurts. I push it back in with gritted teeth.
“What the fuck was that spell? I heard the chanting and felt the magic, but I was trapped under the rocks.”
“Kane was seconds from death.” Maz goes still, eyes drifting to Kane’s chest, watching him breathe.
“I made a spell for Juniper, just in case anyone hurt her too badly. A binding spell. I bound our lives together to give him life, but something went wrong, and our lives latched onto the ground. Onto the academy.”
Maz gulps and gives me a shaky nod. “We will deal with the consequences of that.”
“Get Black, he’s out of it over by the door. I’ll drag Kane out to the stairs.” I look up at the thing in the middle of the room. “It seems to be in a trance, but I don’t trust that will last long. We need to move.”
“Your leg is broken, for fuck’s sake,” Maz growls at me.
“I’ve got Kane,” I growl back. We are both avoiding talking about the real reason we are upset.
Juniper has gone through a portal to goddess knows where, and she could be in danger.
I need to wake Kane up and find out what he knows, what happened in here, and what spell was used.
This was not part of the plan. I grab Kane’s arm, start yanking him towards the door, struggling over the rubble with my stupid broken leg that doesn’t want to keep up.
The sphere glows and pulsates, its anger radiating around the room as we escape, and I’m glad it’s behind us when we get to the stairs.
I hear steps, pausing behind Maz, who has Black over his shoulder.
I feel somewhat relieved when I see it’s Aster.
He runs down the steps and straight to me, taking Kane from my grip, and I nod in thanks.
All of us make it up the stairs, and I sit down by the vault door, blood pouring down my leg.
The room is full of dead Mindless and one pissed-off headmaster.
Luke has Wini in his arms, glaring at us over her head. Wini doesn’t look good. “Tell me that was worth it and you have the academy under control.”
“Where’s Juniper?” Wini manages to ask, holding her side. She is pale, covered in blood, but she’s alive. By Luke’s glare in my direction, he is pissed I didn’t keep her safe. I’m failing everyone in my life at the moment, so I don’t care.
“Gone. Not dead…but gone,” Black growls. “My mate feels a million miles away. How is that possible? What the fuck happened?”
“We’ll find her.” Maz puts his hand on Black’s shoulder. “All I’m hearing is that our mate is alive. None of us except Kane knows what happened, so we need to heal ourselves and wake him up. He looks half dead.”
“We’ve got a big problem!” Parker runs down the stairs, breathlessly panting, with his bonded behind him. “The Mindless. They’re swimming across the sea in thousands. They’re coming here, and we can’t fight off that many. No one could!”
I shake my head. Fuck this night. “We need to evacuate Bloodstone Academy now. You all need to leave.”
“What about Juniper? If we leave, she won’t know where we are when she comes back.” Maz shakes his head.
“You need to leave and get to the kids. Take as many as you can; the ward is down.” I firmly tell them.
Black stands, looking me in the eye. “You’re not coming?”
“Kane and I can’t leave this island. Ever.
We are bound to the castle.” There is always a cost to spells like that, but I should have known the price was my life.
Not this. I can feel the academy now, like a buzzing under my skin.
It’s angry. Fuck, so am I. I can’t leave to find Juniper, and I have to trust my brothers to find her instead.
Maz punches the wall. Black paces before coming up to me. “I get why you did it, but you could have linked us all, fucker.”
“Juniper needs you, not me! I am always going to be a threat to her,” I shout back. It’s the truth. My curse is a threat to her life. It’s why I made the spell…just in case her heart stopped because she loves me. “Now, fucking go before you can’t. Save who you can and don’t look back.”
Black and Maz look like they want to do anything but leave us.
“Be safe, brother. Hide. We will come back.” Black presses gloved hand on my shoulder before leaving, carefully dragging Maz with him.
Everyone leaves us in silence, and I hear their dragons in the sky not long after.
I crawl to my feet and lean down, picking up Kane and throwing him over my shoulder.
Every step is torture, but I don’t stop carrying him up and up the steps and into the academy we are bound to forever.
Keep reading here with the final book in the trilogy—We Steal The Flight…