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The big man’s jaw clenches, but he manages to shake his head. “You were in your own danger. Thank you for the information. It gives me a place to start.”
“I hope you find her.” But based on what I saw, even if Anka reunited with Lucan, I’m not sure the couple would ever be the same.
Bram nods. “We’ll split into teams. Ice and Duke, return to the tunnel. Take Caden with you. Lucan said once that you’re good with a camera?”
At the younger MacTavish’s nod, Bram instructs, “Take one and shoot photos. Maybe there will be some clue to Mathias’s hideout there. Slim chance, but we have nothing else. I’ll track down Shock. He might be playing for Mathias’s team, but he would never want any harm to come to Anka.”
Because he Called to her. Since she rejected him, wouldn’t that just piss him off more? “I want to help.”
“Nay,” Marrok barks.
“Too dangerous,” Bram says.
“You risked yourself today, too,” Duke says to the Doomsday Brethren’s leader. “In fact, Marrok probably wouldn’t be alive if you hadn’t raced into the battle to pull him from the thick of it.”
Bram shakes his head. “Olivia is the hero. She provided the magic that allowed us all to escape.”
“But you delivered me from danger at great risk to yourself.” Marrok sticks out his hand. “Thank you.”
The handshake lasts moments, but cements a bond between them. I never imagined they would truly be friends, but everything has changed in two short weeks.
Marrok turns his gaze to me, and my heart races. His stare says nothing and everything. He loves me…but I have to stop hoping that’s enough to hold him to this life. It’s already given him so much pain.
I hold back a sob and place a soft kiss on his mouth. “After everything my family put you through, I’m glad you’re finally free. I know you have to…go. That you want to. I understand. I’ll never forget you.”
Somehow, I get the words out before I choke on tears. But before I slip out the door, the Doomsday Diary catches my eye. I snatch up the book and put it in Bram’s hands. “This caused Marrok so much misery. I don’t want it. You and the Doomsday Brethren guard it.”
Bram accepts, not with the cocky smile I expected, but with a solemn nod. “We will. With our lives.”
“Thank you.” I send him a sad smile, then turn one last, lingering glance at Marrok, memorizing the strong angles of his beloved face before tears blur his image. “I’ll always love you.”
I close the door behind me with a soft snick. The sound is so final. It tells me I’ll never see Marrok again.
* * *
Marrok
Olivia leaves our bedchamber, resignation hanging off her slumped shoulders. And pain. God’s blood, I cannot stand to see her hurting so.
I swing my legs off the bed, conscious of the Doomsday Brethren watching me. The men I trained and fought beside. The warriors in whose hands I put my life hours past. Once strangers of a magical ilk I wanted to forget, now they feel far more like friends—the first I have had in over a millennium.
I could leave them all, cast aside all the connections I have forged since Bram interrupted my dream of Olivia and forced me to visit her gallery. I am now free to embrace death.
But now that I have so much to live for, ’tis the last thing I want.
“My mate is right. Keep the diary,” I tell Bram. “I alone am ill-equipped to guard such a valuable magical relic. But together, you are.” My gaze touches on Duke, Caden, and Ice.
Then I stride to the door.
Bram blocks me. “Are you leaving? Are you choosing death?”
“Nay.”
He releases the breath he’s been holding. “Then we need you. Stay. Fight by our side. We’ll be a lot better at kicking Anarki ass if you hang around. Be one of us.”
“I am not magical. I am not even immortal anymore.”
Bram claps me on the shoulder. “You’re a warrior with a big heart, and we need all of those we can get.”
