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The way his face lit up at her words had her heart stuttering. Then reality came back, reminding her that the brood couldn’t start yet. He read it on her face and tilted his head.
“What happened, Ruby?”
Silence.
“It was the council meeting with my sister. You know.”
“I know. For Silver.”
“Yes. Let’s just say things went awry for a while, but the collective magic of the powerful attendees pulled through. My sisters and I got called in after—not that they needed to look for us, because we all ended up running there.”
“Is there good news or bad news?”
“Good. I think…yeah. Definitely good.” Ruby took a deep breath. “I just got orders…orwejust got orders. As in my sisters and me.”
“Oh?”
“They reopened Hellhole and got him out, but there’s one problem. The other side fought like mad.”
“Silver didn’t get out?”
“He did. But we don’t know where he was released and where he is now. There might be clues, though, which brings me to ask…”
“Yes?”
Maddox’s head tilted again, indicating that he already knew where this was going. But he didn’t press her for it other than with that prompt, waiting as she collected herself.
“Mad, what do you think about another adventure before we settle down here? One that involves traveling to the Otherworld to find my brother?”
She expected the rejection, of course, especially now that he had established a peaceful life here and was becoming one of them: a good resident, a reliable comrade, and a trusted friend. She would support it even when missing him would hurt a lot because she knew they would find their way back to each other again in the future. Maddox took her hands, kissing both her cheeks before he kissed the tip of her nose.
Then he smiled, bright and sunny—and all for her, his love so visible and calling to her magic until she thrummed.
“I think we should start packing, Ruby. The faster we find him, the faster we can return here and get that brood started.”
“It might take a while, you know.”
“I know.”
“The brood might have to wait a while, too.”
“It can. We have all the time in the world. Meanwhile, we can practice during the trip. Plenty of downtime for…you know. We can even come up with our list of lame excuses, like our pirate captain and his vampire bride did back then.”
Ruby smiled back, then laughed, nodding and feeling like everything was going to be all right.
THE END
