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He simply hugged me back, and the two of us shared a passionate embrace while our emotions swirled within our connection, which blossomed with hope and immense relief.
“I thought I lost you,” he finally muttered into my shoulder as he inhaled deeply.
“If I didn’t make it believable, it wouldn’t have pushed you to get revenge for both of us,” I voiced and leaned back to look into his eyes. “I knew you’d come for me and make him suffer, but you impressed me by not only killing him but making him into a chained pet like Laura. I really didn’t think you would.”
“I didn’t have the idea initially,” he confessed as he pressed his forehead against mine and closed his eyes. I followed suit, the two of us remaining completely still as we focused on taming our breaths until it seemed were in sync. “It wasn’t until I had the blade against his neck that I realized killing him wouldn’t rid me of the hollowness in my heart. It wouldn’t be enough for the years of torture and anguish we’ve experienced in our lives. Not to mention the many shifters who lost their lives because of his decisions and desire to have control of the world. Death would be an easy way out and a simple insult to all those who suffered or faced the ultimate price of death because of Alpha Shade’s crimes.”
He paused to pull me into his arms once more before he whispered in my ear, “Suffering for all eternity in a realm that forces you to acknowledge the survival of many executed shifters will eventually get into his brain and leave him feeling some sort of guilt for what he’s done. It may take years or even centuries, but at least there’ll come a time when he’ll beg for death and we’ll ensure he never gets what he wants.
He let me go, and hand immediately reached for mine — wrapping around my left hand firmly as if he didn’t want to see me go anywhere without him in tow.
“I’m sorry for being late,” he whispered to me, and I smiled lovingly back at him while my eyes softened.
“You weren’t late,” I reassured him as I squeezed his hand back. “You were right on time.”
His eyes immediately lowered to my lips, and he couldn’t stop himself from leaning in and kissing me deeply on the lips.
“BiBiBiBi! BiBi! BiBiBo!”
We broke the kiss to look down at our feet to see Momo singing happily while holding the black chain that was attached to Alpha Shade’s lovely new collar.
My voodoo doll kick had been enough to knock him right out, and I had a feeling he’d be out at least until we triggered time to move once more and brought him back to the valley for Bishop to play with until we could regroup and get things back into order.
“You know what the game plan is, right Momo?” I offered to her, and I watched the way she jumped up and down and gave me a devious smile.
“BIBIBIBIBI!”
“Excellent,” I praised and crouched down to stroke her head gently. “Just a bit longer and you’ll be back with the others. I’m sure Zasper and the rest of the knights are anxiously waiting for your return.”
“BiBiBo!” she cheered in triumph, as though we’d already won the battle.
Rising up, I held Malifer’s hand once more before I looked at him.
“Is the crown far from here?”
“No,” he assured me with a serious look. “Ten minutes and we should be there to claim it.”
“Alright. Let’s head there now.”
There was no point in delaying the inevitable. It was time for us to claim what was destined to be ours.
With one last wave to Momo, we headed straight to the true core of the valley where the crown resided. Neither of us spoke during the run as if we were simply lost in our own thoughts as we ran on foot until we reached the end of a cliff, which forced us to come to a stop as we concluded the last bit of the journey would need us to fly.
Taking one last look over the cliff, I didn’t hesitate to summon a set of wings that eased out of my back and stretched to their full capacity. Switching from voodoo Lexi back to my original shifter state gave me a boost of energy and rejuvenated confidence, which made doing something as uniquely powerful as summoning wings feel almost natural.
I still didn’t know how aerial flight would go, but I was pretty confident Malifer would have my back with this.
His hand was still holding mine, even though my attention was on the shadowed mist that was in between our cliff and the tall wall of darkness before us.
“If you let me fall to my demise, I won’t forgive…” I looked back at him mid-speech, only to freeze at the sight. My eyes widened to their capacity as my jaw fell open in disbelief.
Blinking a few times, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing as my gaze went up and down.
“M-Malifer…is…is that…the crown?” I gasped in absolute shock as I took in the miniature crown of onyx that carried a surprisingly immense power in its metallic body with ruby and rose quartz jewels.
It was big enough to be a ring instead of a crown that sat upon one’s head, but despite its minuscule size, it oozed with so much energy, there was no denying that it held the key to the valley’s prosperity.
“A bit different than what you expected?” he inquired, and it took me a few more seconds to realize what exact position he was in.
