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“No!” I screamed in his face when I reached him. “I am not yours to use, to barter, to bargain with. You betrayed your people, your family, and you betrayed mine. You won’t win. I won’t let you.”

Ronan was suddenly there at my side. He wrapped his arms around me, pulled me back, and pressed his mouth to my hair. “We need to tend to you, petal, you’ve lost a lot of blood.” He trembled against me, his fear and rage pouring from him.

I sucked in a breath and staggered back a step as Daire closed in from the other side, only then feeling the weakness set back in as my adrenaline subsided.

As soon as my power dipped, Vesa slashed at me with his knife. Ronan moved fast, grabbing his wrist, wrenching it back, and shoving Vesa’s own knife deep into his heart. Then he twisted it, pulled it from Vesa’s chest, and slashed the blade across his throat.

The flames in the pit receded, then extinguished, and the cavern went silent around us.

Gasps filled the space as four distinct shapes of light, carried on ghostly white wings, rose from the pit, hovered for several seconds, then vanished through the stone ceiling.

The four females sacrificed before me. They were freed, able to fly once again, and headed to their rightful place, to finally rest in peace.

It was over.

Tingles danced along my shoulder and upper arm, burning along the markings the mother had given me. I covered it with my hand as pain arrowed down my spine, and I dropped to the floor.

A silent scream tried to burst from me as power crashed through my body, once, twice, surging higher and higher. The gifts the mother had given our coven strengthening and solidifying.

I’d passed my task. Oh goddess, I’d passed.

Ronan crouched over me, holding my face in his hands. “Rose? Talk to me.”

I opened my mouth, but I couldn’t speak, arching against the stone floor as another great surge cascaded over me, through me. The pain grew higher, higher still. Oh goddess. I couldn’t take anymore—

It crashed, the waves of power ebbing, washing away the pain with it.

“Petal, please—”

“I passed,” I choked out. “I passed my task.”

Ronan scooped me into his arms. “Thank fuck,” he said, pressing his lips to the top of my head. “I’ve got you. You’re going to be okay.”

I’d passed my task. Somehow, I’d done it.

CHAPTER 41

Ronan

Rose sat up and winced.

“Careful.” It’d been two days since her wings had been sliced from her back. Since I watched my reason for being throw herself at a demon four times her size, surrounded by flames, and defeat him. It would haunt my dreams for the rest of my existence.

She was still pale and bandaged. She’d lost so much blood. I’d been feeding her several times a day, but her slow healing was using all her energy. The wounds from her wings still looked as fresh as the day it happened. I was worried but trying to keep that to myself.

Her shirt hung over her shoulder, revealing the markings there, no longer black but colorful against her pale skin, and it now covered her entire upper arm and joined the one higher on her shoulder.

If only the danger were over, but it wasn’t. She still had to pass her combat trial to ensure her coven’s magical gifts remained theirs. I had no idea when the mother would call her for it, but she was in no condition to fight, and she wouldn’t be for a while.

She shoved back the covers.

“What are you doing? You need to rest.”

Rose scowled. “I’ve been resting my whole life. I’m not staying in this bed a moment longer.” She planted her feet on the ground and swayed. Her balance was still off with the weight of her wings gone.

Mags knocked on the door. “Daire’s back, and he wants to talk to you.”

He’d come by several times to speak to Rose—her cousin was persistent. I’d found my way to the cells while I’d searched for Rose, and he’d been locked inside one. Somehow, he’d convinced me to trust him. I hadn’t had much choice. But he’d proven himself to be a man of his word.