Page 188 of Rose and Shadows
Sylas stared at him for a moment in a mixture of awe and shock. “Yeah. I’m… I’ll see to it.”
The dome around me dissipated with Morien now dead, and I rushed over in the next second.
I’d barely made it to them when a rush of speed blew around me a second before Lazriel was throwing his arms around me from behind and holding me to him.
I chuckled and nuzzled against him.
Chuckling? After all of that? Yeah, only my men could bring that to me in moments like this.
Cassius cleansed his hands with his magic, then wrapped himself around me too, as we watched Sylas sweep his crimson power over Morien’s body—and head.
Cassius tensed as Ryker came over.
“The kill was authorized,” Ryker told him, assuring him that he wouldn’t be apprehended for murdering Morien in front of everyone.
“Very well,” Cassius uttered, nuzzling against me.
He didn’t regret it, or the way he’d done it.
That was how Cassius was.
He did what he had to do for those he loved.
He crossed lines and slammed through bureaucracy.
Out of love.
Out of protection.
And I couldn’t fault him for that, as brutal as it could sometimes be.
Because loving my men, building this family together, I understood the impulse.
Morien couldn’t have been allowed to survive this.
He just couldn’t.
And now… with him gone,Puritascompletely destroyed… it was done.
It was really done.
We watched Morien become nothing but ash, then Sylas eradicate even that with his power.
He blew out a heavy sigh and took a moment to process that Morien had actually been defeated, that the threat was gone, that the man who had caused him so much trauma and pain was really no more.
And then he turned and smiled out at us.
In the next moment, he was throwing his arms around us and holding us so close.
I sank into it, into them, into the men I loved.
We were safe now.
We were free.
And our life together was calling.
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