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Heidi pointed.
Sam walked toward Heidi’s bedroom and closed the door behind her. She had the right idea. I wasn’t hungry, but I needed a shower.
“Wait, what the hell happened to your face?” Heidi was in front of me now, her brow furrowed in concern.
She gently turned my chin, looking at each side of my injured face. I winced. It hurt like hell but there wasn’t much time to think about it while everything was going on.
Heidi let go of my chin and grabbed my hand, leading me to the kitchen. She got to work using soap and water to clean me up. I winced and hissed and grunted through the whole thing.
With a package of frozen peas in hand, Heidi set me down on the couch. “Go on. Ice. Now.”
I lifted my eyebrows, but it hurt, so begrudgingly, I put the peas on my face.
“Who’s next?” Heidi asked.
She quickly triaged and worked through cleaning up all the injuries. I had no idea how amazing Heidi would be with all this. It turned out, she was exactly what we needed.
Shelly slipped outside to wait for the pizza since the driver wouldn’t be able to find Heidi’s apartment and things got very quiet. The peas were starting to hurt more than the injury itself so I stood and walked back to Heidi in the kitchen. She was making tea.
“You are amazing, you know that?” I handed her the bag of peas.
She took the bag from me and stuck them back in the freezer. “I suppose I’ll keep these in case we need another ice pack. I noticed your mates aren’t here.”
“They had some unfinished business,” I said.
“The queen is dead?” Heidi asked.
“Yes,” I said.
“And the sister? Did they find her?”
“Yes, she’s safe. She’s with them,” I said.
“The stone?” she asked.
“That’s what they’re finishing,” I said.
Heidi pulled me in for a hug. “This is from Lola. She’d be so proud of you.”
Tears welled up in the back of my eyes. I wanted to let it out, let it all out, but I’d been holding it in for so long I felt like I didn’t know how.
Heidi stroked the back of my head. “I miss her, too.”
That broke me. The tears came with heavy, full body sobs. Everything came at once. All the grief of losing my best friend, the fear of letting her down, the sorrow of not getting to see her again, all of it came rushing out of me.
Heidi squeezed me harder, joining in with tears of her own.
I’m not sure how long we stood there, holding each other and crying, but the teakettle whistled and I forced myself away from her.
Becca was standing next to us, a box of tissues in her hands. I laughed as I took a few from the box. “Thanks.”
A pink flash filled the room and we all turned toward the door. Shelly walked in, a stack of pizzas in her arms. “Look what I found.”
Behind her was the rest of my heart. All three of my mates, followed by Clara. They were smiling. Triumphant. I could feel the pure joy radiating from all of them.
Elias crossed the room to me, a grin on his lips. He held out his hand and I looked at the two stones in his palm. They weren’t white and glowing anymore. They looked like lava rocks. Dark gray and pours. There was no sheen to them. For lack of a better term, they looked dead.
“It worked,” I breathed.
“It’s over.” He let the useless rocks fall to the ground, then he swept me up in his arms.
Cheers erupted around us as the group celebrated. We were finally free. Finally done. I knew I’d made Lola proud.
