A moment later, the last traces of Nivarrah's magic finally fall away. The magic signature, like white noise in my head, dies off as Heidi transforms between our eyes until it's a fae girl with blond hair, pointed ears, and tears dripping from her face.
The illusion of the fae woman standing outside the cell dissipates.
Nivarrah finally drops the sword. She's still screaming and wailing, though, covered in the blood of her fated tormentor, whom she's finally done with. I've heard it hurts like hell when someone bonded to you dies, and she's clearly in pain, but it's not only physical.
"Thank khaos.Heidi," Zak breathes, rushing away from us.
I turn to see that all along, Heidi was in a different cell down here, unharmed but utterly motionless on the ground. We must have passed less than two feet away from her while Nivarrah's magic was still messing with our heads. Crypt is nowhere to be seen on the floor of the dungeon now, so I assume he's conscious again and in Limbo, healing from his neck wound.
Soon, we're all gathered around as Zak cradles our girl. As Zak and I check her pulse, Ian helps Kaenon get the translatorback on his ear. The shifter hisses at the pain of getting it on again before all our focus is on her.
“Heidi?” I rasp.
Wake up. I really need you to smile at me right about now.
"Here," Zak says, passing her to me as gently as possible. Then he takes a significant step back. "Okay, use your nasty-ass magic to wake her up."
I focus, summoning Arati's armored blessing once again. Usually, I can't summon it back to back, and it already took a slight toll, waking up the others earlier. But I dig deep into my magic reserves until a soft white glow surrounds us.
Heidi's beautiful brown eyes open. She blinks dreamily up at me, confused. Then she remembers everything and gasps, going pale as she tenses.
"Oh, my gods. Veld had me. What?—"
When she cranes her neck to look around and figure out where we are, Ian moves swiftly to stand in front of her view of Veld's dismembered body, ensuring she won't have to see all the gore or the still-wailing fae woman.
He reaches out to cup her chin, frowning slightly at whatever emotions he's picking up from her.
At this point, I'm getting really fucking jealous that the others can do that with her.
"Everything is fine," Ian promises Heidi. "It's over. We've got you."
"Veld is…" She looks at all of us with wide eyes. "Dead?"
"Very," Kaenon answers.
"So I just took a nap, and now everything is fine? Gods, I feel useless but also well-rested." Then her brow furrows in the most adorable way. "That's Nivarrah crying, isn't it? Set me down, please. I know she's been through alot, but I want to try to comfort her?—"
"No need. I'll do it," Maven's voice says.
I glance over and scowl when I see her striding into the dungeon.
Ian is irritated, too. "Took you fucking long enough. Did you know about this shit plan? Why didn't Crypt get you here sooner to?—"
She moves too fast to see, stopping directly in front of Ian—and the look she gives him is death incarnate. When she takes another step toward him, the thrall takes two steps back until he bumps into one of the cells, eyes wide.
I abruptly realize Maven Amato must have inherited something from her mother, the goddess of reaping and fear, because shit, she is scary ashellwhen she's mad. Even Heidi flinches in my arms when she speaks.
"You don't get to eventhinkhis name right now. Apologize for feeding on my incubus."
As if that summoned him, Crypt appears behind Maven. "So vicious on my account, darling?”
The brief glare she sends him over her shoulder makes it clear he's also in the doghouse for getting hurt. The fucker just smiles and blows her a kiss before she's back to scaring the shit out of Ian.
"I didn't know it was—" The thrall cuts off, apparently choosing life over whatever the demigoddess would do to him for giving an excuse. "I'm sorry."
"No. You're not. But dare to taste his blood ever again, and you will be. I don't care if you're with Heidi and Asher?—"
"He's not with me," I clarify.
