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“I don’t like the idea of them getting out of this,” David said. “They were part of it. They did nothing while Clara was imprisoned.”
“Clara was often spelled,” Justine said. “She’d come out as the right hand of the queen for formal events.”
“I don’t want to drag this out. Besides, you don’t need any more blood on your hands,” Clara said. “As it is, you’re going to have a diplomatic mess to clean up.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Elias said. “None of that matters. And, for what it’s worth, I was wrong to make that such a priority. Alliances come and go every day. Family is forever. I should have protected you.”
“I forgive you,” she said. “Besides, you have eternity to make it up to me.”
Elias pulled his sister into a hug. I smiled, but felt a little out of place, like I shouldn’t be part of this right now. Elias’s whole reason for being here was revenge for her death. Now, he had her back in his life and his mission was complete.
Clara moved away from the embrace and walked over to me. “Thank you. I don’t think they would have cracked this without you. Knowing my brothers, they’d have left the stone in the queen’s hands and I’d be her slave forever.”
“It’s true, I didn’t have a reason to care about this realm until I met you, Skylar,” David said.
Clara put her arms around David and me, pulling us both into a group hug. A warm, happy sensation spread through my chest. This was what it felt like to be a part of a family.
I thought I’d lost out on that forever. Turned out, through the worst night of my life, I had gained something so amazing. Elias walked over and threw his arms around us and for a moment, I almost felt like Lola was there too. It was as if she was telling me, it was all going to be okay. It didn’t make sense, but I could almost feel her presence.
“I love you all,” I said, squirming out of the hug, “but we’re missing someone.”
“Do we have to?” David said. “It’s bad enough I have to share my mate with my brother.”
“You have another mate?” Clara asked.
“I do,” I said. “And we’re not complete without him. Or the others. I don’t know how long this time thing works, but we better get to work getting our friends to safety.”
David made a show of rolling his eyes and huffing as if saving Xander was the worst thing in the world, but he wasn’t fooling me. I wasn’t sure what had happened between the three of them in the last few days, but there was a sense of respect between them that hadn’t been there before.
David and Elias walked around the room, waking our companions one at a time. I watched as Shelly and the other mages woke. Then Madison, and finally Xander.
“For real, you two have to teach me how to do this,” Clara said.
“You and me both,” I said.
Cautiously, I walked toward Xander, his wolf looked agitated and I could sense his confusion when the tiger didn’t fight back. “Xander? It’s over. You can shift back.”
Xander’s wolf looked around, then trotted over to me. I placed my hand on the side of his face. “It’s okay. I’m okay.”
He shuddered, then he started to shift back. I waited for what felt like the longest minute of my life for him to stand up as his human self. I didn’t care that he was naked when I threw my arms around his neck. I only cared that he was safe and he was still himself.
He kissed the top of my head and I breathed him in, grateful he was alive. “Is the
queen dead?”
“Yes.” I stepped away from his embrace, the question returning me to the crisis at
hand. We weren’t out of this yet.
“Holy shit, you did it,” Madison said.
“Almost.” I held up the stones.
Elias took them from me. “Can you get the mages out of here to safety?”
I nodded. “You’ll be careful?”
“We got this,” David said. “This ends now.”
