“I’m glad to see you safe,” I said to Kallayna.
“Me too,” she replied, then squeezed her brother’s hand. Jael’s eyes were misty with unshed tears.
“This war is just beginning,” Queen Sheyah said now. “Dark fae are crawling through your cities like rats.”
“And we’ve just killed the biggest rat of them all,” I said.
The Queen nodded. “Orendiel should not have risen to such heights unnoticed. Like the Council’s darkness, I simply refused to see it. I assure you, that will not happen again.”
I nodded, knowing she meant every word.
Gathering her children at her side, the Queen led them back toward the main battle, leaving me a moment alone with my sister.
“The fae gear looks kind of badass on you,” I said.
“I know, right?” Elena started to laugh, but her smile quickly fell, her face crumpling into a look of abject horror as the events of the last few moments finally caught up with her.
She glanced down at her bloody hands and gasped, and I gathered her into my arms, rubbing her back, whispering promises into her hair like I’d done so many times before.
But this time, when I told her the worst was over, when I told her we’d survive this, when I told her Iknewwe’d be okay, I wasn’t feeding her platitudes or trying to find the right words to make up for past mistakes.
I was laying the foundation for our future. For our family.
And this time, when her tears finally dried and she’d come back to herself, she looked up into my eyes and smiled, saying the words that for two decades, I hadn’t even realized I’d needed to hear.
“I love you, Meelo. Just so you know.”
Thirty-One
GRAY
The instant I was back in the crush of the battle, I found Dirty Beard, shouting orders at his hunters to attack the triage area Liam had set up.
Grabbing Darius along the way, I sped toward the group, both of us barreling into them at top speed, knocking them down like bowling pins. I pinned one to the ground, baring my fangs and tearing out his throat.
The touch of his foul blood on my lips sparked an ancient instinct, and this time, rather than repressing it, I welcomed the bloodlust, letting it fuel me. I destroyed two more filthy hunters in the same manner, looking up just in time to see Darius tearing into another.
In minutes, we cleared through the lot of them, leaving only Phillip alive, gaping at us with wide eyes.
He turned to bolt out of there, but Phillip and I?
We were just beginning.
You no longer need your weapon, Phillip Reese. Lower your arm, and surrender it to the woman standing before you. She will know what to do.
I focused my will and intent on sending him that message, my influence pulsing through his mind, already making him question his own instincts.
He turned back around slowly, confused, as if he’d just run into a room and forgotten what for.
That’s it. Nice and easy. That weapon is dangerous, Phillip. It’s best to turn it over.
Phillip nodded, then finally handed over the weapon, and I shoved it into the back of my waistband.
In his cloudy haze, Phillip had lost all common sense, and now he allowed Darius to approach him, totally unchallenged.
Without ceremony, Darius drove a fae sword into the man’s gut, bringing the bastard to his knees.
But Phillip wasn’t dead yet. Just bleeding.
