Just like the monsters in the office, the hybrids in the corridors seemed bent on self-destruction, their bone-chilling screams of agony providing the gory soundtrack to our escape. After a quick head count, we rushed down the main corridor, back through the prison chamber, up the winding staircase to the mausoleum.
I didn’t dare let go of Haley. Didn’t dare open my eyes. Not until the pounding of my heart subsided, and I finally felt the sweet relief of snowflakes melting on my cheeks.
Forty-Five
LIAM
Sitting on a bench on the outer perimeter of the cemetery, I cupped my palm, mesmerized by the snowflakes melting against my skin.
Snow felt different now. The warmth of Gray’s presence beside me felt different. My heartbeat felt different.
Everything felt different.
“I’d all but forgotten what it meant to be human,” I said softly. “I used to think humanity was destined to fail, and that my responsibility in escorting your souls out of these vessels and into the Shadowrealm was a kindness as much as a duty. What, after all, was the point of all this so-called living?” I shook my head, my very human breath condensing before me. “What a fool I’d been.”
Gray leaned her head on my shoulder, and I turned to press a kiss to her crown.
“And now?” she asked. “Do you still wonder what the point is?”
I left the question hanging on the cool air between us, where it lingered a moment longer before drifting away in the breeze.
The tribunal had ended. I’d been permanently banished here, all remaining powers stripped. I’d no longer be able to shift into my avian forms, no longer see a thousand upon a thousand upon a thousand possible outcomes. I was vulnerable now, just as any other man. Powerless but for that which I drew from within.
I’d been condemned to the fate of humanity, possibly condemning humanity in the process.
For with my banishment and the permanent dissolution of my duties, there would be no Death. No transformation, as I’d warned them before. Winter had already begun its deadly dance, but soon it would spread. Soon the restless souls would gather. Soon the hauntings would begin.
The Old One had offered only one alternative, only one service for which they’d grant a full reversal of this curse: I must sacrifice another Shadowborn witch, forcing upon her the mantle I’d once so proudly carried.
The refusal was on my lips before they’d even finished the proclamation.
Their only concession, their only grace, was in allowing me to serve out my remaining days as a mortal man in the company of the woman I loved, for as long as she would have me.
I’d explained all of this to her as we sat on our bench, watching the others make arrangements for the return to basecamp. They’d managed to salvage some of the intelligence they’d found inside, and were organizing that now, along with treating injuries.
Jael’s body had not been recovered. When the wolves returned to the corridor to investigate, they found only ashes.
“I would do anything to fix this, Gray,” I said now. “Anything.”
She didn’t say anything for a long moment. And then, just when I thought my human heart would arrest, she tilted her head to meet my gaze, and a soft smile touched her lips. “You and I are a lot alike, you know.”
“Rule-breakers and seekers of trouble. Defiers of cosmic law.” I laughed, but Gray’s eyes had turned serious.
“People who’d do anything to protect the ones we love,” she said. “People who’ve learned, deep down, the most important lesson.” She slipped her hand into mine, melting the last of the snow between our palms. “No matter what the risk, love willalwaysbe worth it.”
She leaned forward, brushing her lips across my mouth in a kiss I felt all the way to my toes. There were no magical sparks this time. Only the ones I felt inside.
I returned her kiss, slowly deepening it, tasting her with a new appreciation for all of life’s richness. For all of its blessings.
I kissed her as I’d loved her—without hesitation, without regret, without fear.
When we finally broke apart, I cupped her face, gazing in to the depths of her twilight blue eyes.
“I’m in love with you, little witch. So much it makes my heart feel like it’s going to go supernova every time you’re near me. Is that… Is that normal?”
Gray laughed, her eyes lighting up despite the heaviness of tonight’s battles. She pressed a hand to my chest, and I covered it with my own, feeling the frantic pounding of my heart through both.
“It’s normal,” she said. “I’d say you get used to it, but you don’t. And that’s a good thing.”
