The shock of everything being over and the evil ones gone hung in the air, as tangible as a suspended curtain waiting to fall. As if time stood still and the world had stopped spinning, waiting for our minds, hearts, and souls to catch up with reality. I didn"t know if anyone actually breathed. I knew I didn"t. Every cell of my body seemed frozen as I knelt on the ground with Char"s dead body in my arms. The only movement came from the fat snowflakes that continued to fall.
Then someone in the distance let out a cheer.
Many others followed. Mages, vampires, and Normans whooped and hollered, and Weres let out resounding roars and howls. Even the Angels shook their fists and weapons in the air. The sounds of everyone congratulating each other reached my ears, but so did the cries of those who"d lost loved ones.
Owen, who"d been on the far side of the pit, suddenly appeared next to me.
"As I said, Alexis, good always wins," he declared.
I slowly lifted my head to stare at him as though he"d lost his mind.
"Do we?" I choked out as a tear ran down my cheek and fell onto Char"s.
His gaze dropped to the body in my arms, evidence to the contrary. His breath hitched as he drank the sight in, and the light in his eyes dimmed as his face fell. Then he crashed to his knees next to me and scooped her out of my arms, pressing his mother into his chest. His wails carried the forlorn song of the souls in h.e.l.l, breaking my heart more than it had been already. Mom dropped next to him and wrapped her arms and wings around Owen and her best friend.
I gathered the other body into my arms and held Heather, tears streaming down my cheeks as her eyes stared without seeing. Such innocence. Such loss.
"Heather?" Sonya"s voice screamed from the distance, quickly approaching. "Heather, where are-No! Oh, no!"
The vampire eyed us, and I didn"t want to look her in the eye, to be the bearer of such horrific news-again-but I had to. And my look was all she needed. Her jaw slackened. Her eyes widened. She streaked toward us and collapsed in front of me.
"No, Heather, oh G.o.d, no," she cried as she took her sister from me and into her own arms. She curled around the girl, her whole body trembling with sobs. I folded myself over her, covered us with my wings as Mom had done with Owen and Char, and held them both as my tears mixed with hers.
When the worst had pa.s.sed, I hid my wings to find Blossom and Sheree hovering over us, their faces streaked with tears. They tried to comfort Sonya and Owen both as I stood up, swept my eyes over the corpse-littered valley, and shook my head.
"n.o.body wins in war," I whispered.
Tristan slipped his arms around me. I leaned my head against his chest, drawing on the calming effect he had on me because my nerves were so taut, so raw. My heart so irrevocably broken. Rina and Ca.s.sandra appeared by our sides.
"No truer words have been spoken," Rina said.
Ca.s.sandra nodded. "Yes. However, on this day, good has defeated evil. We will mourn, but we may also rejoice."
Voices in the distance cheered, but everyone around me grieved.
The sounds of victory eventually succ.u.mbed to a quiet steadfastness as the Amadis began taking care of our dead, giving supernaturals and Normans alike an Amadis send-off. My heart grew heavier with each one until I thought my body couldn"t possibly hold it any longer. And then came Heather. Then Charlotte ... and I could barely form coherent thoughts let alone speak the words she deserved. She"d become my surrogate mother. My mentor. A courageous and strong warrior. I loved her so much, and she was gone.
The realization that Dorian wasn"t coming back, either, sank me.
A song that sounded both mournful and uplifting at the same time came from the heavens, from the Angels. And then all but Mom and Rina disappeared, and the veil between Earth and the Otherworld was restored.
"You"re staying?" I asked with the first trace of hope since killing Lucas. "For good?"
Mom frowned. "No, honey. We don"t belong here."
"But we will stay for a bit longer," Rina said.
n.o.body else was quite ready to leave, either, partly out of a special bond they"d all formed from fighting side-by-side, and partly because the air here was temporarily safe for them, and they wanted to make the most of being outside. Our mages transformed the Daemoni camps into more homey and comfortable accommodations for the night as the snow fell harder. A quiet celebration became louder as the night pa.s.sed and hard liquor was discovered.
I, however, could not possibly join in. Neither could my team. We gathered in a large tent together and mourned our losses. Every time I looked around at the faces that meant so much to me, I couldn"t believe Charlotte"s was no longer there. Would never be there again. And neither was Dorian"s.
Owen left first, and Vanessa followed him. Then Jax and Blossom said their good-nights, followed by Sheree.
"You don"t have to leave," I told her, knowing how much she adored Char and that she had no one to mourn with.
"I"m going to find Sonya," she said from the doorway to the tent. "She"s probably all alone."
I nodded my appreciation. I spent the rest of the night wrapped in Tristan"s arms, my own returning his embrace. Mom and Rina took turns holding and comforting us.
"I can"t believe he left," I sobbed, my chest heaving as I remembered the look in my son"s eyes.
"That is his purpose," Rina said.
"To lead the Daemoni?" I cried.
"He is doing what he is meant to do," Mom said. "Something only he can."
I pressed the heels of my palms to my eyes, trying to stop the unending tears. "But his soul will be lost. The evil energy is too strong for him. I saw it in his eyes. He"s just a little boy! He hasn"t matured enough to handle such power."
Mom stroked a hand down my back. "The power was new, honey. New to him. It will settle, and he will control it. After all of this, you must have faith that there is a reason he received that power and n.o.body else. Because he is strong enough to handle it."
Tristan swept his arms around me again and pulled me in tightly. "He is alive, Lex. He is brave, and he is strong. You know he is. He has too much of you in him to give in so easily. Embrace that faith you"ve rediscovered and let go of what you can"t control."
I swallowed the painful lump in my throat and stared at the magical ball of yellow light while pulling on divine strength within me. My son was alive. Thank G.o.d for that! When I"d thought the world had ended, I would have killed for that to be true. And he wasn"t trapped in h.e.l.l for eternity, which he very nearly had been. He wasn"t living under Lucas"s control or as a servant to Satan. His soul, at least for now, was still his own. My grat.i.tude for that fact outweighed everything else. All I could do now was pray that he held on to it and trust G.o.d to protect him. Hopefully, one day after everything settled, we would be reunited as a family. I could see that vision clearly, as though a premonition of what would come.
That would be my rope of hope I would hold on to for as long as necessary.
"Everything is as it should be," Rina said, before she and Mom eventually left us, too, to search for Noah.
Their reunion gave my heart a small but much-needed lift. When Ca.s.sandra had said we should rejoice that good had defeated evil, Rina and Mom must have been thinking about Noah and the rest of the Summoned and their descendants. I still hadn"t fully grasped that they"d come to our side. Another victory to be celebrated. Some day.
With the evil gone, the sun finally dawned the next morning, sparkling on the freshly fallen snow that covered the spilled blood from last night. Owen began creating portals for everyone to return to their underground communities until we could decide how to fix Earth. We said our goodbyes with promises to officially celebrate when the time was right.
"Trevor?" I said in surprise when I turned to find a familiar werewolf in front of me. Tristan and I had just sent a couple, Rissa and Gray, whom I"d only met now, through a portal to Georgia. They must have been part of Trevor"s or Sundae"s packs. The tall, thin female stood by his side. "Sundae!"
"Couldn"t leave without saying so long," Trevor said.
"Thank you for coming," I breathed. "Did you ... any family ...?"
Sundae smiled slightly and shook her head. "Gray"s my brother, and you see he is fine. So are our packs. We were lucky. We"re returning whole."
I blinked several times, pressing down the grief of not being whole, and nodded. "Where do you stay?"
"We have a safe place under the bar and shop," Sundae replied.
Trevor dropped a thick arm over her shoulders. "Why do you think I teamed up with her? This is one smart lady."
Sundae rolled her eyes. "When you live the life we do, I couldn"t help but fall in with those crazy preppers, knowing doomsday would come sometime. It"s big enough for both of our packs and some local Normans, too."
"We"ll come check it out sometime," Tristan said.
Trevor nodded. "We"ll have to celebrate with a few."
"You have beer?" Tristan asked, sounding even more intrigued.
Sundae laughed. "That was gone months ago. But we got shine."
Just the thought of moonshine made me want to gag.
We finished our farewells with Trevor and Sundae, and they stepped through their portal and disappeared. The next familiar face we ran into caught me off guard, although I shouldn"t have been so surprised to see him. Noah dropped his head in a bow.
"Please," I said, "you really don"t have to do that."
He lifted his face and eyes to me and grinned. The first time I"d ever seen him do so. "Only showing my respect. And my allegiance."
"You and the others have more than proved that," I said. "You fought with us."
"And we will do so again," said another man who stood behind Noah, his head down.
"Let"s hope we don"t have to," I murmured. Especially when my son is with our enemy.
Noah"s hand squeezed my shoulder. "Know that we are here for you."
"And where is here, exactly?" Tristan asked.
Noah didn"t look at him, but instead gave me another bow of his head. "At our leader"s beck and call."
At once, all of the Summoned spread their chestnut-colored wings and sprang into the air.
When everyone but my immediate team had left, we stood with Mom and Rina by the portal to The Loft.
"You"re not coming with us." I didn"t state it as a question. My chin trembled with the answer in Mom"s and Rina"s eyes.
"It is time," Rina confirmed.
They gave each of my council members a farewell hug. Mom and Owen held each other for a long time.
"Tell her I love her," Owen whispered, although most of us could hear him anyway. "I never said it enough."
Mom squeezed him tighter. "She knows, Owen. And I know she loves you more than she could ever say."
He pulled back and gave a small nod before averting his head and pressing his fingers to his eyes.
One by one, my team stepped through the portal until only Tristan and I remained with Mom and Rina. Since we would be flying back to The Loft, Owen closed the portal, leaving the four of us in a long-awaited peace in the valley. When I turned to Mom and Rina, I couldn"t stop the tears.
"I don"t want to say goodbye," I cried as my grandmother held me. "I"ve said it too much already."
"We will visit when allowed," Rina promised, which made me feel a tiny bit better.
Mom turned from Tristan, and I turned to her, and I threw myself at her.
"I wish you could stay." The tears flowed harder. Regardless of how infuriating she"d been, she was still my mom. "I miss you so much. And you"re going to be a Mimi again."
She stroked her hand over my hair as she held me tightly. "One way or another, I will be here." She pulled back and placed her hand over my heart as her mahogany eyes met mine. "Even if it"s only in here, know that I am always close, Alexis. We all are."
"It"s not the same, Mom."
"I know, honey. But until we know more, that"s the best I can offer."
I pulled her back against me, holding on because I knew when I let go, she"d be gone for good. In a different world, a different realm. Eventually, however, I had to release her. Well, she let go of me and stepped out of my arms, forcing me to. She placed a hand against my cheek and gave me a small smile. "Trust in G.o.d"s plan, Alexis. For you. For those babies. For Dorian."
With that, they disappeared, leaving me nodding and crying at the same time.
Tristan and I flew to Hades before we headed home, hoping to plea to our son, but Hades had been deserted, as far as we could tell. The Shaman village near the main entrance had been abandoned, and the back entrance, the ice cave Vanessa and I had gone through last time, had been collapsed. There was no telling where Dorian was now. All we knew was that he didn"t want to be with us.
By leaving with the Daemoni, with the harsh words he"d barked at me, I couldn"t help but feel that he"d disowned us. But my hope for him didn"t waver. My love for him would never falter.
We took our time flying back to the U.S. and The Loft, allowing our hearts and souls to mend somewhat before we had to jump in and face the new reality before us. When my mind didn"t focus on Dorian, Charlotte, Heather, and the rest of our losses, it wandered into the future. Questions with no immediate answers circled in my brain, such as how the world would rebuild itself, who would emerge as leaders, if the countries and states would stay as they used to be, or if new boundaries would be drawn. When could I take a long, hot shower again with my man? Would we ever be able to eat fresh food? How long would it be before we could begin manufacturing again or rebuilding the power and communication networks?
"It"ll take time," Tristan answered my thoughts. "The Daemoni did a lot of lasting damage. The world may never be the same again. Which probably isn"t a totally terrible thing."
No, it wasn"t. In the Before time-before the Daemoni ruled and the Demons walked the Earth-many Normans believed the world could use a push of the reset b.u.t.ton. Now, they"d been granted that wish. If only nature herself wasn"t so desolate.
As we flew farther south and entered the States, we left the dirty, gray snow behind, finding the warmer weather of spring. And a surprise greeted us.
Tristan, look. Green!
Speckled against the monotone landscape of Earth were various flecks of green. I immediately dropped to the forest of bare trees to inspect. We landed on the top of a huge redwood, most of it gray and seemingly dead. Except for the one branch in front of me.
"A leaf!" I squealed as I gingerly lifted it under my hand. "An honest to G.o.d green leaf."
Liquid silver trickled down the branch toward the tree"s thick trunk, and Tristan swiped his finger through the rivulet. He held it to his nose, and after inhaling, he smiled before bringing it under mine.
"It smells like Sasha," I said. "Baby powder."
My heart tw.a.n.ged at the thought of Sasha, who"d disappeared after the battle, which brought on thoughts of Dorian again. I hoped she was with him, protecting him from the evil of his so-called people, serving as a constant reminder of us and our love.
"My guess is Angel blood," Tristan said, bringing me back to the here and now. "And I"m thinking everywhere where there"s green, Angel blood fell."
I glanced around the forest, seeing only specks of color in the gray. Just like it had in the Otherworld, the battle for humanity must have waged all around Earth. "Their blood is healing the world, like mine."
He nodded. "It"ll still take time, but at least we don"t have to drain you."