Page 124 of The Bones of the Cursed

“No.”

I hug Kailu tight, squeezing him so hard that he groans. “I’m sorry, Kailu. Gods, I’m so sorry.”

He holds me, breathing in deeply as Malakai hugs Kailu as well. “Hendrix was fond of you. Especially when you aimed your attitude towards me. He was a man of honor; he would have done anything to protect this city. And now we won’t even be able to give him a proper burial.”

Kailu swipes at a wayward tear. “One of the ghouls got him with a bite. Poison was seeping through his body, but I couldn’t get to him, there were too many. When I looked over, he was lying prone on the ground. When the fighting finally ended his body was gone. I’ve searched everywhere.”

Hope surges through me. “Maybe he got up and is all right. Maybe…”

Malakai’s expression cuts off my next words. “Do youremember how fast that poison went through your system? Even if he managed to get up and away from the fight, he would have needed assistance within the hour, and that’s the best-case scenario.”

“I’m not giving up on him. He may have gotten away and found help.” I fight to speak through the tears.

A soldier ambles towards us, dirt and blood smeared on his face. “Captain Thelos is gone. Iclas’s damn mist took hold of him. I tried so hard to free him, but it was no use.”

Kailu nods, the shock of Hendrix’s disappearance and now the loss of the captain too much to comprehend.

Malakai and a few others collect our dead.

Hendrix, the captain, and many more soldiers and even innocent bystanders lost their lives today, but I will make damn sure that it never happens again.

- KAILU -

We hold the funerals for our friends separate and more privately than all the others. For days we searched for Hendrix. We checked all around the capital, even extending our search throughout the Obsidian Hills. It would have been near-impossible to make it any further with poison in his system. I eventually called off the search, even though the sharp pain in my chest made it near impossible.

I say my last goodbye to Hendrix. Since we had no body to bury, we plant a willow tree in the castle garden instead, one that could grow for centuries in his memory. I say goodbye to the captain, too, the man who trained me and took me under his wing. I grip Alanis’s hand, tears slowly sliding down my face. Malakai stands on my other side, his expression subdued. Sunlight streams through the floor to ceiling windows, the lightglinting off the chandelier and sending a rainbow of colors over the entire room.

I watch as Alanis says a quiet goodbye to her grandmother. The woman who turned her back on family until Alanis set her straight. The one whose eyes looked identical to my mate’s. The powerful witch who, when it mattered most, defended her family to the bitter end.

Alanis also wanted to say her goodbyes to her adoptive father, Tiernan. The man who tried his best to raise a girl not from his world. Who tried to protect her and guide her, even though her powers scared him. To the man who loved a girl who wasn’t his flesh and blood as his own daughter.

She even quickly says her peace to her adoptive mother, Matilda. The woman who took her in, then regretted it. Alanis says she did the best she could, and I will always be thankful to her for taking Alanis home. Without her, Alanis wouldn’t have had Elion and everything would have been different. I get she was scared and unsure. I still would like to wring her neck with my bare hands for the pain she caused Alanis.

Viros and Alanis say goodbye to her birth mother, Odessa Grim. The woman she never knew but who died to protect her. A mother’s love, one that no other love can match.

Alanis looks between me and Mal. We would turn this world upside down for her. We each kiss her softly before leading her back into the castle.

She pauses just outside of the dining hall, pulling us around to look at her.

“Marry me,” she says.

Mal’s deep chuckle sends shivers through her body, my own tightening in response. I smirk and watch as her thighs clench together.

“I believe I asked you that first,” I joke as I tickle her side.

She laughs, slapping my hand away to give me a smile. “I justthink we should get married soon.”

Malakai holds onto her hips in his firm grip. “What’s the rush, firecracker?”

She smiles at us and my heart rate picks up. Then she whispers, “I just would like to be married before our baby comes into this world.”

Shock and wonder overtake me. Malakai is speechless, his mouth gaping open.

“You’re pregnant?” I ask.

She nods, biting her lip to hold back a smile. My heart rate doubles, and a lightness I’ve never felt before takes residence in my chest. I know it won’t matter who the father is, as we will both love this baby with everything we have. We’ll both be their fathers. It will grow up with three parents.

The smile that graces Malakai’s face is one I’ll never forget. “We’re having a baby?” he whispers.

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