Page 88 of A Heart of Crimson Flames
“I needed to show you something,” Maez said when we reached the edge of the hallway.
“What? What is it?” I asked, searching her face.
She cracked a smile, grabbed my cheeks, and kissed me.
I chuckled, murmuring against her lips, “Isthiswhat you needed to show me? Not that I’m complaining.”
“Nope.” She gave me one last peck and released me. “You just have such kissable lips, I couldn’t resist.”
“I never want you to resist.” My shoulders shook with laughter. “Now show me what it is you wanted me to see.”
She took a deep breath and rolled her shoulders, the determined look on her face making me wonder if she was about to do a backflip. Then she flipped her palm over, and zaps of violet-shaded lightning shot out from her hand.
“It’s... purple?” I studied the magic, perplexed. “I don’t understand.” Sparkling clouds of amethyst circled her as she conjured her magic.
“I think it’s because of our bond,” she said. “I think your flames are mixing with my sorcery somehow... like pulling poison from a wound. But I feel almost more powerful, not less.” She shook her head. “It’s incredible, isn’t it?”
I reached out and brushed my fingers through the tingling magic. “It is.” I studied the color of her eyes for the magical green, but instead I found the softest amber glow to them. “Do you... feel different?”
Maez smiled at me. “Do I seem different?” I nodded and she threaded her fingers through mine. “It’s you. As you accepted all of me and I embraced all of you, just as we are, we becamemore. I think I have taken on more than just your magic. I think it’s given me your bravery, your heart.”
Emotions welled within me again as I swiped under my eyes. “I just stopped crying.”
“I’m making up for lost time.” Maez laughed, wiping her eyes, too, as she pulled me into her. “Thank you for not giving up on me.”
“Never.”
“Thank you for healing all those broken parts of me,” she whispered, dropping her head to kiss me.
“Thank you for unearthing my fight, my fire.”
She grinned. “Thank you for making me whole.”
“Always.”
Calla
WE WOULD HAVE ANOTHER WEDDING—A GRAND ONE IN FRONTof all the Golden Court. I’d commission Ora to make the perfect regalia, something beautiful and strong, something that expressed all the things inside of me. There’d be music and laughter and lighthearted joy, but this—this—would be the wedding I’d always remember.
Dressed in my battle leathers, in the rubble of a tyranny at its end, in the blood of our enemies, we’d celebrate the love that pulled us through. I strode down the makeshift aisle that my sister had once walked down, and toward the prince turned king who was always only waiting for me.
The rocks jostled beneath my boots and shattered glass clinked as Briar inched closer into her mate’s side. Maez seemed so different now. Neither sorceress nor Wolf, like all her dark magic had been spent, eased by its shared weight with Briar. She was energized and jittery with excitement instead of the cold steel I’d seen in her eyes in Taigos. She seemed more settled in herself than ever before, too, as she slung an arm around Briar.
I didn’t know what it would mean for them. Would they return with us to the Golden Court? For some reason, I doubted it, that something had irrevocably changed, maybe for the better even. Maybe the simple life that Briar had dreamed up for herselfwasn’t really the life she needed, maybe she was still destined for so much more but in an entirely different way. But as I studied the way Maez looked at her, I knew one thing for certain: I didn’t need to fear for Briar’s safety anymore. She would defend Briar with her life—give her the love she deserved.
And Briar would do the same.
I heard the barest subtle sniff, and I moved my gaze from Briar and Maez back to Grae standing at the top of a heap of bricks and stones—a makeshift dais beneath the light of the single intact window. Ora stood beside Grae, beaming, as if their smile alone could block out all the death and destruction that we’d faced, as if they could assure me that there would be no more.
My eyes were fixed on my mate who seemed overcome with emotion and possibly nerves? As if I would turn and run just as Briar once had? I gave him an incredulous look and that seemed to cut the tension in his body. I loved that I could make him crack a smile with a single glance.
I walked faster, eager to get to him, and his smile broadened. Let him never doubt that I was his and he was mine. That even if the moon had never shined her magic on us, even without the fates all aligning—Grae and I were always meant to be, in every reality. Briar and Maez had taught me that. That some love was greater than any magic.
Grae extended a hand out to me as I climbed the tenuous rocks to stand beside him, knowing that we were probably standing atop the blood of his former pack. It was morbid and brutal, bittersweet and beautiful all at once—a poetic end to the Silver Wolves who had tried to rule our lives and our hearts. It was the sort of thing a Wolf king might never do, but a queen would.
The Moon Goddess bathed us in her ethereal glow, filling me with that same rush of magic I’d felt the moment I knew what Grae was to me. And how he became so much more to me still than even the word “mate” could encompass.
I held Grae’s hand tightly as I stood by his side, the congregation of Songkeepers, Golden Court soldiers, and my pack—myfamily,I realized as I looked from Sadie to Mina to Ora. This entirely illogical mix of people had become my family, against all odds. And I would fight for them all over again if it meant knowing peace, but I prayed that our golden years had finally reached us. I hoped I would usher in an era of peace so that we would never have to be here again.
