Page 56 of Heatwaves

Lila gasps, biting her lip. “Clearly, you made it. You’re here now.”

I nod. “We did, but we didn’t do it on our own. Seemingly out of nowhere, a man appeared in the sky above us—just floating there. If I hadn’t been so fucking scared, I would’ve been in awe. Then we were floating in the air. He introduced himself as Ryder Jin, an Autumn Fae from Sorlphi.He told us he’d been sent there by the goddess Bria to save our lives.”

“Sent by a goddess to save our lives? Let’s just say we didn’t immediately believe him.” Aidan shakes his head, a small smile gracing his lips.

“He told us he could save us, but we’d owe him a life debt—that one day he’d call on us. Even if we didn’t believe him, we wanted to live, so we agreed.” Carter leans his head back to rest on the top of the couch. “He flew us back to the shore. We built a fire and got to know more about Ryder and his life.”

Oliver speaks next. “His story wasn’t a happy one. He was on a quest for Bria to right the wrongs of all the realms, which meant he had to leave his entire life behind. She didn’t give him a lot of information about what would be needed of him or of us. She just told him he would need us.”

Carter runs his hands over his face before sitting upright so he can speak directly to Lila. “Then he said he had to go before a portal appeared behind him, and he vanished through it. We didn’t hear from him for over ten years. He came to us again after we made it to our house after your heat. He said we had to go immediately. We wanted to at least let you andour families know what was going on, but he pulled us through a portal before we could.”

“Then we were forced to travel the realms for the last ten years to help others fix what was broken.” My voice sounds bitter—because I am. “We saw the goddess in Sorlphi right after Ryder dragged us there, and she told us she was sorry. That we would be away from you for a long time, but that we’d get another chance once we fixed the realms. As if I cared about the realms when we’d left you without a word.”

Tears fill my eyes as rage courses through me, and I blink against them. I didn’t understand why we were the ones who had to help save the realms. I would’ve rather let them all fall to pieces and been here with my mate.

The mate that was fated to be mine—to be ours. Something we learned about just before we arrived back on Quion. We’d all felt a pull to Lila during her first heat, but it was nothing like what it feels like now.

She’s our fated mate, and we’d left her.

“You were meant to be ours,” I bite out, swiping away the tears that now fall down my cheeks. “Bria did something to block our fated mate bond when we first met—she told us about it right before we were allowed to returnhome. You’re our fated mate, and we just abandoned you.”

Fucking hell.

That wasn’t how I meant to share that particular bit of news, but it’s already done. There’s nothing I can do to take it back now.

Silence descends around the room, and I realize I might have just fucked this all up.

All I can do is sit there and blink at them.

Everything they’ve just told me sounds unbelievable, and yet, I don’t hear any hints of deception in their voices.

They spent the last ten years saving the realms? Because of a goddess? How the hell is that even possible?

I mean, I know the stories we’ve passed down about the creation of our realm. All the stories say that Bria created a new realm, Quion, after listening to the pleas of her people across the realms. It’s meant to be a hidden realm that’s only open to refugees from the other realms—to those who have been mistreated by those ruling the realms.

It’s something we’ve been taught since we were children, and I’ve witnessed people being dropped into town out of nowhere on morethan one occasion, but none of that made it seem real to me. An actual goddess watching over us and our lives?

It seems inconceivable.

The idea of the men I’d fallen for being ripped away from the home realm for ten years to save the other realms?

There’s no way that’s possible, right?

“Lil, are you okay?” Wyatt asks, quiet enough that the others won’t hear him.

Turning my head to look up at him, I find myself still unable to speak as I blink at him.

Am I okay?

No.

No, I don’t think I am.

I shake my head before swiveling back to the men before me once more—my eyes immediately zero in on Ty, who’s slumped forward with his elbows on his knees. Tears fall down his cheeks as he seems to fold in on himself.

That’s when his last words finally sink into my brain.

Fated mates?

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