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Kian starts making plans to infiltrate the house and collect the information he can, to find out where more of their missions are. Everyone but Tara and I follow him inside. Tara stares around her. Dead bodies are scattered across the property. Moving slowly, I edge toward her, seeing her kneel down beside a girl.

‘Kayleigh,’ she murmurs, looking at the dead girl before her, touching her arm. The girl’s eyes are still open, glazed over in a kind of stunned horror, as if even she didn’t believe it would end this way. ‘The one I thought cared about me and was there for me. Apparently just another soldier in the war. Another person who used me and didn’t care.’

Crouching beside Tara, I touch a hand to her back. She withdraws her hand and turns into me, pressing her forehead to my shoulder.

‘There’s too much in my head right now. Cora, Raya, being … related to them. My blood. What that means. What I am now. What I did.’

I feel her unravelling beside me. Grief and shock ring through her. There were already things she hadn’t had a chance to process yet, without all of this being piled onto them. It’s a wonder she’s still standing, with all the emotions that would be flooding through her and, everything being heightened to levels she has never experienced before. I shift closer and slide my hand down to hers, lacing our fingers together.

‘You don’t have to make sense of it all right now,’ I murmur.

She’s silent for a long moment before she turns her head toward me, unshed tears glittering in her eyes.

‘How do you do it?’ she whispers. ‘Live with the things you’ve done?’

I exhale heavily, lifting a shoulder. ‘I got good at pretending that nothing mattered to me. I wanted to be heartless. I didn’t care for humanity for a while, but none of it was true. It will stay with you forever. You never forget it, but with time, it gets easier. You have to remind yourself that sometimes.’ I gesture to Velistra. ‘Sometimes endings like this are necessary.’

The others emerge from the house and I stand, pulling Tara with me. Kian strides out, quickly assessing the property damage.

‘I’m going to send in a team to do a clean sweep and shut down of this place,’ he says curtly before glancing at Tara, as though only just remembering this was her home. ‘If you’re comfortable for me to do so.’

Looking a little numb, Tara nods. My hand finds hers, and I pull her close. Not because she needs it. Her forehead rests against my chest.

I hold her there, silent amid the wreckage, and wonder how long it will take for this victory to not feel like a loss.

23

THE STALKER

I stand just beyond their sight.

Close enough to smell the blood on their skin. Close enough to hear her voice when the wind shifts just right. She doesn’t know I’m here. She never does. The boundary keeping me from them has unravelled. The wards that once kept me hidden and separated from them have gone.

She looks older. Not in body, but in the way she holds herself and the way her eyes have hardened.

I ache to go to her. To speak her name out loud, just once, without the echo of spells binding my tongue. To tell her that I never left her by choice. I didn’t leave any of them. They were taken. But what right do I have now? They’ve all been through so much, do they even want to know me? Will they ever feel like they can trust family again?

Theo steps outside. His presence shifts the air. She doesn’t open her eyes, but I see the way her shoulders ease when she senses him. All of the girls have bonded. Such a rare gift, and yet, due to the witches’ meddling, it’s occurred for each of them.

He brushes her cheek. Something tightens in my chest.

She has someone. They all have someone. None of them are alone, unlike me.

That’s all I wanted for them. I never wanted them to be dragged into this mess, but it followed them. Of course it did. Their lives were bound to this war before they were even born.

I remain hidden. The time is not yet right.

24

THEO

The Captive

Tara’s hand is in mine as we head out to the hallway.

Her eyes are glassy but clear, her expression unreadable. There’s tension in her shoulders, but she walks with purpose, as though she is adapting to her new body and life in stride, while still carrying the weight of everything that has happened recently on her shoulders.

‘You sure you’re up for this?’ I ask her