I leaned forward and brushed my lips against Easton’s, sinking into him, craving more.
“Did you talk to them?” he asked, clearing his throat as I leaned back.
“I did. Riddles and such as always, but I think we’ll win. I have to believe it.”
He searched my face, and I did my best to steel myself for what he might see.
But he didn’t see my death, at least I didn’t think so. He saw something, though, that much was clear in his expression, but I didn’t let it break me.
Instead, I leaned forward, crawled into his lap, and let him hold me.
Later, I would be strong. Later, I would fight and do what I could for those I loved. I would sacrifice all, and I would do it willingly. Gladly.
Nobody would know that I was breaking inside all the while, that I was afraid to lose everything I had just found.
They didn’t need to. They needed to see strength. And I would give it to them.
But for now, I let Easton hold me, the truth between us loud in the spaces between us.
Deafening in the silence.
Because Easton knew. How could he not? He could touch my soul.
But he didn’t say the words. Nor did I.
I simply let him hold me and thought about a future on a farm that would never be.
Chapter Twenty-One
Lyric
Braelynn meowed at me, and I looked down at her little furry face, her bat wings outstretched. I rubbed my temples.
“We have battle plans to pore over. I can’t follow you on a trek tonight.”
She purped, this time growling low, as well, something that had nothing to do with being a cat.
No, that was a dragon growl coming from a cat’s mouth.
I blinked and set down the book I had been reading and scrambled off the bed.
“Okay, okay. Please don’t turn into a dragon inside the castle.”
We were still at the Fire Estate, training our troops and getting ready for the next battle to come. If I had anything to say about it, it would be the final. And because it wasn’t our place, I didn’t want to add any unnecessary damage.
Namely from a dragon who wanted me to come and play.
Braelynn looked at me again, and smoke slithered out of her nostrils. I rolled my shoulders back.
“Okay, let’s go,” I said, knowing she’d turn into a dragon and pick me up with her claws if I didn’t concede.
Either that or send one of the other girls in.
I’d spoken with the Spirit Wielders only yesterday, and while everything had changed within me since, it still felt as if nothing had shifted.
I would be fighting alongside my friends. My family.
And I would do my best to keep everybody I loved alive.
Even if that meant sacrificing myself to do it.
I knew what I had to do.
I just hoped nobody else figured it out along the way.
I followed Braelynn’s little furry butt to the other end of the estate where Rosamond and Emory had apparently set up a girls’ night.
“Okay, we don’t exactly have a microwave here, so no popcorn. Though I could have tried to use an open flame and a pan with some corn. Only that seemed a little outrageous,” Emory said.
I smiled despite myself and hugged her close. It was the first time I had touched her willingly in a while. Her nullifying bracelets clinked behind me, and I sighed, hugging her tightly.
“Thank you. I guess I needed a night off.”
“We all do,” Emory said. “And I at least got us some snacks and drinks and big fluffy pillows to hang out on.”
“I have a feeling Rhodes and the others will show up to see what we’re doing at some point,” Rosamond said, setting a plate of cheeses and fruits and various kinds of honey on the table in the middle of the room. “However, this is clearly a boys-not-allowed event.”
I grinned. “Well, it will be nice to have time for us. There is a lot of testosterone in this castle.”
“Tell me about it,” Wyn said, pulling her hair out of her braid as she strode into the room. Her tresses flowed around her in luscious brown waves as she threw herself onto one of the pillows.
“This is decadent. I could get used to this.”
“I’m sure you could,” Rosamond said, her gaze going hazy for a moment as if she saw a vision. She didn’t let us know what it was, though, and I let it be.
She would tell us if it was necessary. Or if it was time.
We were all learning what those times meant.
Alura walked in a moment later, her hair still blowing in a breeze that wasn’t there, a small smile on her face. “Hello there. Thank you for inviting me,” she said softly.
“It’s good to have you here. You’ve been in the human realm for so long. It’s nice to have you back.”
My gaze sharpened at those words, not knowing much about Alura’s past. But I did remember that it seemed as if she and Rosamond had known each other back in the human realm.
Lanya came in next, Delphine on her arm, and I moved out of the way so the two women could walk inside.
Thanks to how slowly the Maisons aged, the women looked the same age as Rosamond, not like grandmothers beyond their fifth century of life. Rosamond was four hundred, and Lanya and Delphine had both been alive during the Fall, and that was over five hundred years ago.
And yet, they didn’t look a day over thirty.
Maybe even twenty-five.
Delphine’s eyes were open, no longer covered in bandages, but they had gone opaque, The Gray’s magic having taken her sight but not her resolve.
She had lost her son just a few nights before. Though, in reality, she had lost him long before then.
Every single woman in this room had lost someone dear, but we were all still fighting.
And we would continue to fight.
“I invited some of the other warriors,” Rosamond said, and Wyn nodded.
“Me, too. They might show up a little bit later, though, as they are just finishing cleaning up from training.”
I smiled at that. “It would be good to get to know more people outside of my inner circle.”
“You’ve already been speaking to so many,” Rosamond said. “You’ve been wonderful with your duties and responsibilities. The people see it.”
“You’re doing a good job, darling.”
“You are,” Lanya said, coming over to me and cupping my face in her hands before kissing my brow.
“You’re doing so wonderfully. It seems as if you’ve been in this realm your entire life, centuries even, rather than these last two short years.”
“Has it been two years?” I asked, shaking my head. “It seems like so much longer.”
“And yet, yesterday,” Emory said, petting Braelynn between the ears.
I nodded, looking at my ex-girlfriend, my former enemy who was now my friend.
What had been done to her was barbaric, and I had no idea what would happen to her once this was all over, and the Maison realm had been put back together again.
Would we be able to change her powers? She was a siphon, and it wouldn’t be safe for her to be near anybody in this realm without the bands on her wrists.
And those cuffs needed to be changed every few weeks or so, with Justise the only one skilled enough to do it.
With him now nearly out of commission, he was much slower at his craft than he used to be. He was still working on them for us, and Emory was willing to help wherever and however she could. Yet it seemed like so much was out of our hands, out of our control, and I refused to let it be.