One
DARIUS
From the moment my fangs pierced her flesh, I knew only her blood on my lips, the warm and salty taste of it bursting across my tongue as it slowly filled my mouth. I swallowed once, twice, unable to stifle a groan of raw pleasure as I continued to suck.
A flame flickered to life inside my chest, then ignited.
I was burning. Raging.
All for her. My witch. My love. My eternal mate, in this lifetime and all that would follow.
I would die for you, Gray Desario…
The words escaped my lips unbidden as I finally broke our connection, forcing the orgasmic flames in my blood to smolder, ignoring the ache in my very being that so desperately wanted more. That wouldalwayswant more when it came to Gray. But she hadn’t yet turned; some part of me knew that if I took even a single swallow more, I would certainly kill her.
I lifted her off the ground and held her against my chest, burying my face in her hair, inhaling her scent. The gray mist of her soul had already slipped from between her lips, and now it floated freely, mesmerizing us all.
Jael whispered his fae magic, the very cadence of it so lovely it seemed to be weaving a spell around my heart as well. Slowly, peacefully, Gray’s soul drifted toward the moonglass held reverently in the fae prince’s hands.
“Holy shit,” Asher whispered, and we continued to watch in awe as the essence of the woman we loved filled the glass sphere like smoke caught in a bottle, light pulsing from its misty depths.
Even the very winter’s night seemed to be holding its breath until the last wisp of her soul was safely contained, and Jael sealed the glass and lifted his hands toward the moon, thanking her.
Tears streaked Liam’s face, his wide, blue eyes like twin orbs in the dim. Gone was the omnipotent, ancient being we’d come to know as Death; he seemed in that moment quite young, and quite human.
His origins, his mysteries remained his and his alone. But there was one secret even the Great Transformation Himself could no longer hide:
He’d fallen in love with her.
I averted my gaze, feeling the need to give him privacy.
The woods surrounding our moonlit cemetery had gone silent during the spell. Before we’d begun, we’d sent the remainder of the group back to base camp under the protection of Elena, her shifter team, and one of Gray’s hounds. The other paced a perimeter twenty feet out, keeping one ever-watchful eye on Gray, the other on the darkness beyond.
Snow continued to fall all around us, collecting in tiny drifts on the headstones, filling in our blood-soaked boot prints, erasing all evidence of our earlier battle. Gray’s body began to tremble in my arms, but that was to be expected; the transition was never easy.
“It is done,” Jael said softly, bringing the orb close against his chest. We locked eyes in that moment, mirror images, each one cradling a precious piece of the woman I loved.
I nodded, and he bowed his head in acknowledgment.
It was a moment of peace and understanding in an otherwise treacherous night, and everyone seemed to feel it at the same time, all of us releasing a collective sigh.
Then the others looked to me, to the woman lying limp in my arms.
“Shewillsurvive the change,” I said, even as the tremor continued to snake through her body, even as the white mist of her breath ceased, her lungs no longer requiring air. “I can feel the life force inside of her. She’s stronger than any of us ever realized.”
“Stubborn as hell, too,” Emilio said, and the rest of us let out a quick laugh. Stubborn as hell? Yes, that about summed it up. Who else could’ve talked us into undertaking such a risk but the fiercely beautiful, determined, impossibly stubborn witch we’d all fallen in love with?
Lowering my eyes to the moonglass in Jael’s hands, I asked, “What of her soul?”
I was as desperate for the answer as I was afraid of it. Caught up in the intensity of Gray’s plan, none of us had stopped to talk through the logistics of what would come after. By the time we’d agreed to support her plan, it had been enough to know that her soul would not be instantly damned.
But now?
“I must take her to my home realm,” Jael said plainly. “It’s the only safe place for her now. My family will protect the moonglass until it comes time for her to honor the contract with Sebastian.”
“Yourfamily?” Ronan’s eyes turned demon black, his shoulders bunching with tension. “And what happens when the wind changes direction, and Queen Sheyah decides it’s a fine day to stab us in the nuts?”
“My mother may be cold and calculating,” Jael said, “but she’s not cruel, nor is she a traitor to her blood. She will honor my wishes, Ronan. You have my word.”
