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Brigid’s chanting grows, and a weight in my chest that has suffocated me for years begins to unwind.
“Leander.” Meg’s awe-filled whisper has me turning. Flowers race over the rubble of the maze, the same as she made in the castle tunnel. Fragrant blooms open, pushing the scents of sulfur and smoke away as though a breeze has swept through the realm. “I’ve seen those in my dreams. How did you recreate them?”
“I didn’t,” I say. “You did.” Judging by her skeptical look, my mate doesn’t believe me. “The same as you did in the passage between our suites while you created worlds.”
She tightens her hold on me. “Then what else can I do?”
I don’t know if she’s testing my theory or asking an honest question. “Whatever you want in this realm. The magic comes with being my mate and queen, although I suspect you had your own.” I tip my head toward her mother.
Stroking my arm in its sling, Meg turns her lovely gaze on me. “Does that hurt?”
“No.” I don’t tell her that most of that side of my body has been numb for days.
She pushes power through me, a full blast instead of a trickle. “Now?”
Healing rushes through me, between Meg and whatever her mother has done to reverse the magic. A tingling burns my body, and I feel stronger than I have in centuries. Yanking my mate to me, I cradle her against me, enjoying the softness of her curves and claiming a kiss.
When I pull away, she touches my face. “You’re still you,” she says.
A monster. A minotaur. Unworthy. I almost apologize when she throws her arms around me. “Thank goodness. I love you, Leander.”
This woman. She slays me and saves me all in one sweet declaration.
Brigid clears her throat, and I swear the woman’s the only one who could get away with the interruption. She lifts the god’s candle that looks as though it hasn’t been burned. “It’s time for me to go,” she says.
“No.” Meg rushes forward, still clinging to my hand.
“Just for a little while.” Brigid hugs her daughter. “I need to see your father so we can talk face to face about the miracle of you. Besides, you and your minotaur have more magic to create, and I don’t think you need your mother here for that.”
Meg blushes, and I long to feel that heat beneath my fingertips. “Will you come back, Mom?”
“Of course.” Brigid smooths my mate’s curls. “Or you can visit the human world, or the god’s realm, if you want to meet your dad. He has waited so long to meet you.” She looks to me. “Take care of each other. Come on, Theo. Bring the dark elf.” She kisses Meg’s cheek. “Love you, baby girl. See you soon.”
A moment later, they’re gone. It’s me, Meg, and her demon kitty who flies from flower to flower as if he’s drunk on the perfume.
I hold my mate, breathing in the peace and passion that goes missing whenever she’s more than a room away. She snuggles closer, then pats my chest as if searching for whatever had poked her cheek.
“Looking for this?” I ask, pulling out the only link I had to her in my world—the game miniature of Bess that she’d brought here. The only thing that survived the fire Belaya set before shifting the maze to escape back to her tower and shift the blame to someone else.
“You kept Lady Snarl?” Meg asks.
“Of course. She was all I had of you, which made it my most treasured possession.”
She sighs, a happy sound that I want to record so I can play it again and again. “My hero.”
Her hero. Her monster. Her whatever she needs me to be. “Tell me you love me again.”
She laughs and says it over and over, until Bess nearly knocks us over in her rush to take care of my mate, Tauren and Darnell close behind her. Watching Meg glow in the warmth of her found family and kingdom, under the dancing light of magic in full force, with Oggie flying circles around the great hall? It’s the beginning of forever in a realm that time won’t touch.
Not with my queen, my mate, my everything.
Signing that matching contract changed my realm. Meg saved it. And her love makes me the luckiest monster in all the worlds.
EPILOGUE
MEG
Years later, in the human realm…
