Donovan’s face was streaked with tears. His chest palpitated as he cried for my passing. Strangely, I could not feel the same level of sadness. All of this felt right.
“You dumb bastard,” he wept. “You can’t leave us. We’re a team.”
I gave a final and exhausted laugh. “You don’t need me to protect you anymore,” I said. “Go. Explore the world. Live your life with her.”
Cadmar knelt over me, silently stoic. “I’m sorry we brought you into this. It was never my intent—”
I coughed and sank deeper into the soil. “There’s no time,” I whispered, staring past him at Adeline’s floating body. “Get her the hell out of here.”
No time for any tears. No time for regrets or looking back at the past. As they turned toward Adeline, the glow seemed to slowly disappear. She lowered to the ground, sucked in a breath like a new vacuum, and lived again. A new life. One without the bad memories.
She coughed and held her knees to her chest, rocking until it was settled. “What happened, w-w-what—”
Her eyes fell on me. The realization sank in.
“Don’t cry,” I said. “Live.”
Those were the last words I said before I died.
14
Adeline
“Mag,” I whispered, regaining my sense of self. “Mag? Mag!”
It hit me like a bucket of ice-cold water. My skin buzzed like it had been pricked by a set of needles. I looked down at my chest and saw the wound close into a thin scar. My wrist was healed. Everything ached and hurt, but the sight of Mag’s lifeless body affected me the most.
He’d saved me. Why the fuck did he save me?
I crawled to him and pressed him hands around his jaw, cradling his heavy skull. “Mag, please!” I cried. “Don’t do this. Please, come back.”
The others stood by in silence, waiting for my grief to pass. The humming of the marble slab was starting to lose volume, and the neon haze of the door to the other side was slowly drifting away from us. What had happened was so hard to understand, but I had to let go.
“Addie. It’s time,” Cadmar whispered, hand against my shoulder.
When I stepped through the portal, I had a feeling this journey was going to be difficult. I’d had no idea.
I listened to Cadmar’s words. I nodded, knowing I couldn’t fight this. It was what needed to be done. But, first, I wanted to say goodbye.
I took Mag’s blade and wiped the dirt and blood off with my shirt. I held it close to me and lowered my head, kissing him one last time. “Blood brothers, forever,” I whispered, the agony tearing through me. “Goodbye, Magnus. I will always love you with all my heart.”
He literally gave me his heart. I knew what I meant to him. And I would honor him until the day I died.
I pocketed the blade, wiped my tears, and carefully stood again. I faced the portal. It wasn’t too far, but it felt like the longest walk of my life. Though I knew my men were near me, I walked ahead. Right now, I needed to be alone. I wasn’t sure how I would get through this, but the silence of the atmosphere assured me I’d have to find a way.
I walked until my senses shook, and I came face to face with that bright portal door, the exit I was once so anxious to find. I didn’t have any samples to take back, no pictures, or any documentation. I just had the memory of this place, of Mag and the two men who would stand by my side on Earth.
Finally, I stopped and turned to them, speechless. Why did love have to be so fucking hard?
“I’m sorry. It’s hard to know what to say right now,” I said. “I can’t stop blaming myself for what I did.”
I fell into their arms. “You cannot blame yourself,” Cadmar said.
“I know,” I murmured and gazed up at both of them. I could tell they were holding back their own pain for me, but it didn’t make me feel any better. I wanted to be strong like them, to appear not emotionless but capable. I decided to tell the truth instead. “I’m still terrified of the future. I don’t want to lose you, and I’m worried you won’t want to stay.”
Donovan tenderly kissed the top of my head while threading his fingers through my unkempt hair. “Adeline, we have spent many moons dreaming of a life on the other side,” he said. “We knew you’d set us free, but we did not know you would be the woman to steal our hearts.”
And then Cadmar, “The next home we make will be ours.”