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"Yes ... Yes, you're right," Tanael stammered, almost as if he couldn't quite pull himself out of his memories yet. "Hecate, would you be so kind?" He pointed to the front door, and simultaneously, a portal flooded with light appeared.
Hecate was the first to pass through, closely followed by Chris. Then Sam, Edward, and Zuri also went to the other side. Stephan threw a cape over his head and disappeared next. Aza eyed me invitingly. She held out her hand to me in friendship, which I quickly grabbed to let her pull me through the world gate. I could feel Tanael's presence right behind me.
As soon as I stood in knee-high grass, I looked around curiously. A natural sun shone warmly down on us. Colorful birds flew on the horizon above us, and I could hear the sound of the sea. We were on the crest of a hill and the landscape at our feet spread out in different shades of green.
A city of tents spilled over the green carpet like little stars in the firmament.
"They're all here, all saved," I whispered, and emotions ranging from relief to disbelief wove to the surface. With tears in my eyes, I watched the hustle and bustle of the hundreds of women safe here. Far away from the dangers of their own world.
"As soon as we found out what happened on the pier, I sent Stephan to you, and Aza was to make her way down into the tunnels to the fugitives as quickly as possible. We brought them all here through a portal created by Hecate." His voice was not proud or a desire for compliments. It was more of a sigh of relief as if he had been genuinely afraid for their welfare.
That damn angel had actually saved everyone, including my family. Inwardly, I scolded myself for not having enough faith in him to believe it without standing here and seeing it with my own eyes.
"Thank you," I finally breathed. I should have said the words earlier, but my pride and mistrust wouldn't let me.
I could feel another piece of my defensive façade towards him crumbling away, becoming nothing and simply dissolving.
He just nodded silently and then went down to a group waiting for us at the edge of the camp.
As soon as I recognized them, I let out a relieved laugh. Aspasia, Maggy, and Emma were standing down there waving to us. They were fine, they were well!
I followed the angel as quickly as possible to catch up with him at the last moment. The women and I hugged each other with tears in our eyes.
"You're fine, you're really fine!" I kept shouting.
"Yes, everything is fine with us. But how are you?" Aspasia wanted to know. Everyone suddenly fell silent, and the joy drained from their faces. Alex, they were thinking about Alex.
"It was hard, it is hard," I admitted. "But we had an opportunity to talk. I was allowed to visit him in Hades' realm of the dead."
"Oh, Myrina, we're all so sorry. I wish we'd discovered sooner that Jack was playing a false game. Then maybe we could have prevented Alex's senseless death," Emma comforted me and gave me another hug.
"Yes, it makes me furious that he tricked us like that and abused our trust. He came across as such a nice person," Maggy rumbled. I was glad she wasn't holding a sharp object at that moment. The fire burning in Maggy's eyes could have done enough damage.
"What kind of magical being are you, Maggy?" I changed the subject to avoid having to talk about Alex's death any further.
"How do you know..." she asked in astonishment, but then looked around and grinned knowingly. "Oh right, the magical world and all that." She demonstratively stood a little way away from us, and small balls of fire appeared in her palms as if from nowhere.
"I am a dryad from Annwyn, and my element is fire."
"Darling, are you showing off your fire again?" I heard a teasing male voice behind me. A warrior with blond hair and blue eyes that danced with mischief stepped up to Maggy's side. Utterly unimpressed by her fire.
"Myrina, may I introduce you to Lariel? He's my husband. And no, he doesn't have a power as hot as mine," she giggled as she punched her fist into his upper arm. The two of them seemed made for each other.
"She's right about that." Lariel rolled his eyes. "I'm just a shapeshifter, so nothing special." He winked at me conspiratorially.
"Oh, hello, Lariel. I didn't know you'd be here too," said Tanael, who had joined our group. Did I hear jealousy?
The shapeshifter was not intimidated by the slightly mocking undertone—quite the opposite. He slapped the angel amicably on the back, "How are you, Luze? Long time no see!"
"It could have stayed like this if I'd had my way," Tanael grumbled to himself.
Meanwhile, Lariel's gaze darted back and forth between the God of the First Light and me. An understanding grin crept onto his lips. He demonstratively grabbed his wife, took her in his arms, and kissed her so deeply I no longer knew where to look. When he broke away from her, he beamed at Tanael.
"Satisfied? For me, there is only one!"
The rest of our group also joined us.
Hecate, Aza, Zuri, Stephan under his cape to protect himself from the sun, and Sam were already familiar with the Amazons, the dryad, and the shapeshifter, as were my brothers. Standing slightly to one side, my father waved once to the group.
