Tegan snapped her fingers and her white portal box opened up right beside her. “Finally.”
Chapter Thirty
Saffie
It’d been over two hundred years since I’d seen my mother.
I stopped counting after two hundred.
The number hurt too much.
And now it was finally here. The day I could finally see her again. I’d dreamed of this moment for too long.
But as my Coven-mates winked at me and then leapt through Tegan’s portal, my body locked in place. I didn’t know why…it was just surreal. It was finally happening. I was going to be reunited with my mother.
My mind drifted back to the day I was cursed and my body turned cold. We’d known it was coming the moment our friends were sent off through time toward the future. I’d felt it in the air as it brushed over my skin. I’d seen it in the colors of the forest and the waves on the ocean. I’d heard it in the scurry of the animals panicked to be near me. My ears had grown sharply pointed, which they never had been. My wings had refused to conceal themselves. My wand had pulsed with energy.
And then we’d gotten a warning. Written. On a piece of parchment.
The words burning in flames.
We heard thy blood of Court and Coven,
Cruel and kind thy magic is woven.
Come vine of iron, lock of steel,
By will of word thy broke the seal.
Beware thy deed was deep and dire,
So heed these words burned in fire.
By grace and beauty, cunning and wise,
For a price to pay is thy demise.
Bound by a bed of rosen thorns,
See these words for time it warns.
Smoke and ember, cinder and ash,
This night is ours in a farewell flash.
“Saraphina?”
I gasped and jumped at the sound of Riah’s voice in my ear. I shook myself out of the memory and looked around…then found only Riah, Tennessee, and Tegan standing there with me.
Riah’s finger pressed under my chin as he turned my face toward him. “Talk to me. Where are your thoughts?”
“I was thinking of that last day, after they left…how I knew something was coming.” My hands turned cold and trembled just thinking about how scared I was that day. “And then I got that note with the prophecy on it, the one from…wait…”
He cupped my face with one hand. “I wrote that, because I wanted you to have a chance to say goodbye.”
My jaw dropped. Heat rushed to my face but I was both angry and thankful. “Why…why…”
“Because what you did put you on Lilith’s radar.” Riah’s voice was low but steady. He held my gaze. “You summoned the time demon. You opened up an avenue for her to come through. That is why he took you that night, so you would be gone before Lilith went looking. And before you ask, yes, she did go looking. I saw her myself.”
A cold chill slid down my spine. I shivered and fell into his chest.
He ran his hand through my hair and kissed my forehead. “For what it’s worth, it broke my heart to let him take you.”
I cringed then looked up at him. “I just wish I had—”
“Do not.” He pressed his finger to my lips. “Before you summoned Cronos, I asked Prince Thorne and Princess Sage if there was another way to send them back…but they swore there was not. It was the only way. They have woven a game of chess so intricate there was no room for deviation or we would all fall.”
“I know, I understand…I just…it hurt…”
He cupped my face in both hands. “I know it did. I felt it with you. I was there. You sacrificed everything. You suffered immensely, but it’s over now. I ensured that your mother found her way to live to see this day, to share it with you…and it is upon you now. All you have to do is step through that portal.”
I nodded. He was right. I had sacrificed and suffered, but it was for a good reason. I helped save the world. Even if I didn’t understand it back then. And it was over now. My life was mine again. I was free. And my mother was right through that portal that everyone else had already gone through. I sniffled and nodded again.
He smiled and wiped the tears from my face…then dropped his hands and stepped back. “I’m right behind you.”
I took his hand and squeezed it tight. “I prefer you beside me.”
“Then that is where I shall stay.” He gestured for me to go first.
When I looked up I found Tennessee and Tegan watching us, standing on each side of the portal in their matching ceremonial sheaths and similar Coven Leader crowns.
Tegan grinned. “We’re with you, Saf.”
“Come on.” Tennessee stepped in front of the portal and held his hand out. “You brought us home. It’s time we bring you home.”
Without releasing Riah’s hand, I skipped over and placed my free hand in Tennessee’s. The stardust quartz ring he’d given me back in the summer sparkled in the sunlight. We were finally coming full circle. I glanced up at Riah and he grinned down at me. Behind me, Tegan stood ready and waiting to close the portal behind us.
Tennessee looked down at me. “Ready?”
I bit my lip and nodded as butterflies exploded in my stomach. “Ready.”
Together, we stepped through the portal. For a split second everything went bright white…but then my bare feet sank in soft, warm sand. The sky was the most brilliant blue above me. Hot air wrapped around me like a blanket. The air smelled like the ocean. I tasted the salt on my lips. Waves crashed in the distance in an echo, like maybe it was all around me.
I looked up and found the entire Coven, my Coven, standing in front of me in their ceremonial sheaths. Chutney was front and center with Olli in her arms, and my wand still in his mouth. Off to the left were Savannah, Gigi, Timothy, and Paulina.
Tennessee squeezed my hand and winked. “Remember, we’re all right behind you.”
And then he stepped back and wrapped his arm around Tegan’s waist.
“Whenever you’re ready,” Riah whispered in my ear.
I took a deep breath and tried to shake out the tremble in my fingers but it was no use. My entire body was vibrating it shook so hard. My chest burned. My heart pounded so fast and loud it drowned out the sound of the waves. My stomach was in knots.
Then I looked to my Coven-mates standing in front of me and nodded. “Okay, I’m ready.”
Emersyn, Deacon, Royce, Henley, and Cooper were front and center. Their eyes all shining and their cheeks flushed. They nodded…then stepped aside, parting to make an open path.
Behind them about fifty feet stood women of various ages and colorings, but they all wore the same long white gowns that weren’t much different than the ones we had on. They all stood there like statues, just watching us. Not that I could blame them. The entire Coven just showed up on their doorstep. That had to be alarming. I scanned their faces, looking for the one. Instead, I spotted Evaline. I hadn’t known her well, but I was pleasantly surprised to find she was alive – I’d feared she’d passed when I saw her Mark on Jackson. A smile started to pull at my lips but then Evaline stepped aside…
And I saw her.
I had not seen her face in over two hundred years yet I knew her in an instant.