Page 75 of My Hexed Honeymoon

As their hold on the spell slips, light rushes to answer.

Beams of sunlight filter through, piercing the clouds like divine judgment.

Vampires hiss and scream, igniting where they stand.

Several try to outrun the sun, heading toward the tree line.

Then, poof, ash clouds the air, weapons cluttering to the ground like a glorious chorus.

With a guttural yell, Talia swings her arm, sending her vines punching through the house where she grew up.

She just did to Andromeda’s home what she’s done to countless others.

Poetic justice tastes so sweet.

She?also just saved?all our asses.

Andromeda begins shrieking and throwing a fit, even attempting to fire a bolt of magic at her daughter.

But Talia, battered and blood-soaked, lifts her head with a proud defiance as the spell bounces off her illuminated body. “The loom’s not yours. And I’ll do whatever it takes to ensure you’ll never use it again.”

A blast of lifeforce slams into Andromeda, sending her rolling across the earth like a tumbleweed.

All at once the blaze of light blinks out, like the last burst from a dying star.

I watch in horror as Talia’s eyes roll back in her head and she crashes to the ground.

A mournful noise rips from the bottom of my soul as I drop to her side, so afraid I’ve lost her. “Baby, don’t you dare leave me now. Think of the countless arguments we have yet to have.”

I try to curl her to me but get a stinging warning.

I’m just not sure from what—my best guess is she’s still charged from using all that power. My first instinct is to rip whatever’s attempting to hold me back from her to shreds, which is going to be more difficult if I can’t see it.

Not impossible, though.

I blow out my breath and do my best to apply logic when I want to howl,she’s mine and I need her, okay?

Please don’t take her away, too.

I didn’t realize how scared I was of that before it happened, and it can’t be too late—it just fucking can’t. Haven’t I lost enough?

Hasn’t she?

Strings of light begin to crawl across Talia like glittering spiders, weaving a glowing webbing over her body.

I thought it was bright before, when she was doing her thing with those crazy-thick vines, but I finally have to shut my watering eyes to avoid searing my retinas.

Once the red behind my eyelids fades, I stretch out my fingers, testing I’m not going to get fried, and then pulling her into my arms at long last.

The battlefield’s gone eerily quiet, vampire ash still swirling through the air as my soldiers begin to regroup. To sort throughthe injured and weep over those we lost, a weight that hangs around my neck like a stone necklace.

Then I hear the most glorious sound ever—Talia’s faint pulse, shallow and weak, but her heart is fighting to keep beating.

“Baby? Baby, can you hear me?” I press a gentle kiss to her forehead. “I failed you. I should’ve stuck by your side and kept you from getting hurt. And if you’ll just come back to me, I promise never to do it again.”

“Did I do it?” Her voice is a broken breath, but as her eyes flutter open, I give a choked cry of relief.

“You did. You beat your mother, took out the vampires, and saved us all.” I hug her closer, inhaling her hair and locking my arms around her extra tightly.

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