“Anything to bring you back to me,”he said into her mind, hoping she wasn’t too far gone already. Hoping she heard him.“Because I won’t let you go, mate. Not now. Not ever.”
“No, you won't,”Mórrígan growled, then purred, reminding him just how much he loved his mate. Rallying him on, so she didn’t die along with Raven. “You would never let your mate go.”
She was right.
He would not.
Couldnot.
Especially when ravenous purplish-blue flames flecked with silver burst around them. His heart leapt at the telling fire only to realize Raven had dragged Mórrígan’s spirit too deeply into herself to ever pull free.
To ever escape death.
“No,”he roared into the flames, releasing his own fire. His utter heartbreak. His absolute defiance. He wouldnotlose her again. Not after they had been separated for so long. Not after the pain they went through saying goodbye in the first place.
Because it all came rushing back in that moment.
Their youth. All the memories. The new beginning.
Then the heartbreaking end years ago.
A singular moment that had crushed the joy he’d felt when they created a child together. Raven had been keeping secrets from him. First, she shared the reason she had solidified. The deal she had made with Mórrígan before that. How she would do whatever the goddess asked to keep him and all the souls she had touched safe.
Then she shared that their child was in grave danger.
All of humanity.
The prophecywasupon them.
A war with Mórrígan at the lead determined to rule all.
“No,” he had growled, shaking his head at Raven when she told him.
“Yes.” She had come close and pressed her cheek against his chest. “I’m so sorry, Tor. So incredibly sorry. Somehow, someway, I fell right into her trap and didn't realize it until it was too late.”
They were pregnant.
When she broke off, sobbing, he had held her tighter and stroked her hair. It had all been a twist of fate with nothing but greed and power at its center. With gods determined to usurp each other. Play their games and move dragons, seers, and humans around at will. The only good thing that came of it was five couples finding their fated mates. Falling in love.
And they had.
Every last one of them.
It was that certain knowledge, what had come of all this, and how he felt about Raven, that made his decision easy. Clear to see.
He poured all his healing seer abilities, all his inner medium, into pulling her back from death. At the same time, he attacked Mórrígan’s dwindling spirit with every ounce of dragon magic he possessed. Everything Raven had given him when her spirit touched him in the womb.
Every ounce of rage he felt.
Even as it broke his heart, he loved Raven for doing the only thing she could. Doing what was right. Letting him and her son go to keep their offspring safe. Telling him the truth in the end then going to every length to give everyone half a chance. Giving up happiness and battling tremendous negativity if it meant they might all have a shot again someday.
He focused on hating Mórrígan. On dragging her spirit down a dark path souls sometimes went. Not a final death but a horrible purgatory capable of trapping even the strongest creatures for eternity. A fate far worse than anything.
To that end, his love and his hate within the Forge, gave way to focus.
Certainty.
And a final goodbye.
