Chapter 449: Chapter 449

Chapter 449

Xander Watching the High Council become nothing more than dried-up husks had been one of the most terrifying and satisfying sights of my entire life. Yet, already, the memory of it was fading. We’d fled the island on the boat the High Council had arrived on, and Stella had managed to keep us safe to just beyond the wall hiding the island. The farther away we got, the blurrier everything became.

“How much will we be able to remember?” I asked her. We were all in an SUV she’d commandeered for us as soon as we made it back to the mainland. I knew that’s what had happened, although the details of the journey were almost gone.

Stella was in the passenger seat and turned to me. Her gaze was solemn. “Probably nothing. The dead might not have been able to take our bodies, but they had to be satisfied with something. They will gnaw on the memories of that battle for eons.”

I looked into the rearview mirror at my three mates. Lanie’s gaze met mine. Shadows hollowed her cheeks and under her eyes, but she smiled at me. She was the most beautiful woman I’d ever known.

Mason leaned forward to look out the front windshield. “Are we ready to do this?”

We’d returned to Brightsky. This time, we’d stopped in Standard to go through the regular process of being admitted to the enclave. None of us wanted to face whatever security defenses Malachi might have put into place after we left. Stella had been unable to tell us if we’d been in danger or not.

“My visions have gone dark for now,” she had said without any strain or concern in her tone. “When I need them again, they’ll return. For now, we have to rely on our instincts.”

It might have felt like a punishment, being denied the guidance from…well, whoever or whatever it was that had guided Stella as a Celestial. Instead, it felt more like a reward. We had come through the fire and been hardened, like diamonds.

We could trust ourselves to make the right choices.

“Let’s go in,” I said. “See what kind of welcome we get.”

***

Gabriela I stared into the mirror with a sigh at my reflection. The glasses didn’t feel right. I just couldn’t get used to them.

“I think you look gorgeous with them,” said Targon as he hugged me from behind to kiss my cheek.

“Admittedly, I’m biased. But still. Gorgeous.”

Targon Alonius had saved my life with a couple discs of glass and wire frames. The eyeglasses had honed my vision and revealed the third eye implanted by the High Council. The moment I found out about it, all the memories of Orion and what he’d allowed them to do had come flooding back. In minutes, I’d blocked every vision that could be sent to the scrying device.

I’d expected an attack from the High Council because of that and had even warned Malachi to prepare, but to our mutual shock, nobody came. Everything in Brightsky had been quiet. Stable.

For the first time in years, I’d allowed myself to entertain the idea that I could be happy with a partner who didn’t try to use me for his own gain. Targon and I had fallen for each other hard and fast…but I wasn’t complaining. I’d learned that life was too short to waste.

“Grammy.” Alaina tugged my sleeve. “Daddy.”

Startled, I shook my head. “Honey, this is Dr. Alonius, remember?”

Alaina burst into laughter, shaking her head. She pointed toward the living room. “No! Daddy!”

I turned with a gasp of surprise. “Xander!”

My boy had come home. Until I had my arms around him, or at least as much around him as I could get, I couldn’t believe that he was real. He lifted me off my feet, squeezing the breath out of me, and twirled me around.

All of them had come home. I hugged them each in turn. We laughed and cried with joy as the twins greeted their parents and their sister. And then I introduced them to Targon, and although Xander grumbled, he also shook the doctor’s hand.

The door flew open, and we all turned toward it. Malachi flew toward Lanie and grabbed her up to fly her around the room so fast they both became a blur. She staggered, laughing breathlessly when he put her down. The Ancient vampire hugged her, then held her off at arm’s length.

“Welcome home,” he said. “By the Sun’s golden mantle, I thought for sure all of you were dead.”

Within minutes, he was calling for a celebration throughout the entire enclave. We had so much to celebrate, the festivities would last for days. The whirlwind of our reunion finally simmered down when Malachi left us alone once again.

The twins were sleepy eyed despite the excitement, and Stella took them off to bed with the promise of a bedtime story. Nothing too scary. My heart swelled with gratitude as I looked at my family, returned to me. We had so much to talk about…but in the end there was one ending to the story that they all expected and I couldn’t provide.

“We’re leaving the enclave,” Xander said. “This isn’t the place for us anymore. We can go after the parties are over.”

“No. Not me.” I said to each of them, meeting their gazes one at a time. “I’m going to stay here. This is where I belong.”