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“And my mates?” My voice breaks on the vowels.
“They’ll come around soon,” Lily says. “I just jammed you back in your meat suit first.”
Tears freeze on my cheeks as that seedling of hope sprouts into a fully grown tree, rooted deep in the ground. In my friends. And in my mates.
It doesn’t take long for the first inklings of awareness to filter through me.
Beloved.
I burst into a sobbing, snotting mess at Drago’s voice in my head again.Yes, mate. I’m here.
Is this the afterlife?
“No, you big dumb dummy. Open your eyes.”
I can barely move beneath the weight of Rafe and Jonah, but I manage to get my head up enough to see Drago open his eyes again.
They go wide with wonder, and he sucks in a great, ragged gasp. “How is this possible?”
“You can thank me later,” Lily says. “Rhygel taught me how to reverse bodily damage too, so you should be good as new. No chunks of flesh to regrow.”
Drago closes his eyes and whispers another thank you to the demon slayer.
Rafe’s and Jonah’s links spark to life in my mind.
Hi!I say/cry/burble to both at once.
Rafe is the first to figure out what’s happened and sits up, staring at me with tears in his red-rimmed eyes.
Jonah finally gets up and pulls me into a bear hug.
“Whatever you did, I knew you could.”
I laugh in his arms. “I didn’t do anything except die. Lily hauled our souls back into our bodies for us.”
“It was nothing,” she says, hugging herself against the cold. “But I’m not as weatherproof as the rest of you. How about we get some place warm and celebrate the Solstice and not dying, huh?”
I should have knownMari would be waiting for me at the house with a stern talking to all cocked and ready.
When I enter with all my mates, Sunny, Eden, and Lily in tow, she’s standing right there in the middle of the living room, hands on her hips and a sour look on her face.
“I should have known you’d go off and play martyr,” she griped before pulling my hand out of Rafe’s and giving me the biggest hug. “I’m glad you didn’t, because now I get to kick your ass for trying to.”
“She always knew she was coming back,” Lily said from behind us as she grabs the first blanket she sees on the sofa and wraps up in it.
Rook makes a fireplace out of thin air and a plain wall, complete with a roaring, crackling fire and a blue and silver garland over the mantel.
Lily squeals and runs to it, plopping herself right in front before giving me a knowing wink.
We both know that I didn’t know I was coming back.
I was fully prepared to die with my mates. Fully prepared to leave Rook here.
But thanks to her and whatever link she has to demonic power, I don’t have to.
“Oh, and by the way, Drago, I didn’t bother putting that nasty soul you had leeching off yours back in there with you. It’s just you in there now.”
Drago and I share a startled stare.
