“Otto?” Katy took deep breaths. Her palms were sweating, and she rubbed them down her thighs. She watched the field where the others seemed frozen in shock. Who could have predicted this?
She focused on Bane, who still held Otto’s body. Slowly, the little lizard moved his head, giving it a shake. Then he pushed up until he sat in Bane’s hands. “My mistress?” Bane nodded toward the boat. Otto turned, his big yellow eyes and met hers. His reptilian face turned up in a huge smile.
Katy laughed even as tears ran down her cheeks. She covered her mouth to keep from shouting out something, anything. There was just so much emotion in her, and she was stuck on this boat. Her mind froze, and she looked at the bracelets on her hand. Then back to Marissa’s dead body. “Otto, the witch is dead. Do something about these freaking bracelets.” She watched the lizards lips move and then he gave her the equivalent to a thumbs up. Katy’s lips turned up into a smile that probably looked a little psycho. She jumped over the side of the boat, her feet hitting the wet ground, and she ran straight for the panther who held her friend. Katy snatched him and held him close as she turned and ran straight into Gage’s bare chest. His arms wrapped around her, and she breathed him in. “We’re okay. We’re okay,” she said over and over as if that would just make it stay true.
Gage’s hand came up to the back of her neck, and he held her to him, his lips coming down by her ear. “We’re more than okay. Breathe with me, my mate.”
She did. She let herself focus on him, and he calmed her breathing, her heart slowing to meet his.
“Thank you.” She pulled back to look up at him and then looked at Otto. “I’m so mad at you I could spit nails. But I know you just wanted to save me. So thank you, Otto.”
“I told you I make it right,” Otto said, a little too smugly. But she’d let him have it for now.
“What now?” Lola’s voice came from behind her. Katy turned in her mate’s arms so she could see everyone else.
“I will get the females.” Bane motioned toward the house.
“I can help if they’re hysterical.” There was no flirtation in Raphael’s tone. Apparently, he was just offering his ability.
Bane shook his head. “They’re strong females.”
“I’ll help,” Nico said. He and Bane jogged toward the house.
“Zeena deserves the burial of a royal,” Talbot said as he and Rose glided across the swampy grass toward them. “She would want her mate with her. We will honor what she deserves, even if he doesn’t.”
“What about her?” Rose pointed to Marissa.
“Her body will need to be burned here,” Raphael looked around. “It may not entirely cleanse this land, but it will help.”
“Good thing I like fire,” Nico said as he and Bane returned with the two wide-eyed women, who looked a lot worse for wear. Though they had no injuries, both bore tattoos on their arms.
Taras and Lyra stepped forward and smiled at the girls. Lyra, so gentle and kind, reached out a hand and shook both of theirs. “We will have those tattoos removed.” She motioned to their arms. “And you will be returned to your lives. Nico, this green-haired cutie, will assist you.”
Nico wiggled his fingers at them. “Don’t worry, ladies, you won’t remember a thing.” He placed his hand on their foreheads, and both girls collapsed. Bane caught one and Raphael the other. They carried them to the boat as Nico picked up Marissa’s body. “I’m going to take out the trash and burn it. I’ll meet you guys on the boat.” He saluted them and then jogged off with the priestess.
They loaded Azure and Zeena onto the boat and waited. When Nico returned, he worked some sort of magic on Jack.Katy was ready to collapse. But this was from sheer exhaustion, not from having her life force taken from her body.
She sat in Gage’s lap with Otto sitting in hers and tried to process everything that had happened. Katy didn’t know what she’d expected when they’d started on this journey, but never in a million years had she thought they’d be heading home with a lifeless Zeena.
Katy lay her head back against Gage’s shoulder and listened to his breathing. Her eyes drifted closed. She could see Zeena and that knife. “She deserved better,” she whispered, knowing her mate would hear her.
“She did.”
“It’s scary, what people will do for love,” Katy told him, as Otto patted her hand and made a happy trilling sound in his throat. “But life isn’t worth living without it.”
Epilogue
Feeling You Up With My Face.
“My favorite definition of chaos is this: the inherent unpredictability in the behavior of a complex natural system. Inherent unpredictability… That just sounds fun.” ~Nico
“You’re just going to walk into the council meeting and tell all the shaman that Wolfgang and Talulla were in bed with Azure with no proof?” Raphael looked at Nico. “The words of a dead woman won’t go very far.”
Nico lounged in his chair with nonchalant ease, a grin playing across his lips as he watched the incubus demon pace back and forth in agitation. “We will have the testimony of the Dire Wolf and his mate. Even so, proof is overrated, my friend,” he drawled, leaning forward to rest his chin on steepled fingers.“All we need is suspicion. The council will do the digging if we create enough doubt in their minds.”
“And what happens when King Wolfgang finds out you’re the one who threw them under the bus?” Raphael looked at him with raised brows. “What then?”
“By then, I’ll have found the next in line to be king.” Nico blew out a breath as he stood up. He tilted his head from side to side, trying to work out the kinks in his neck. “Wolfgang thinks he’s untouchable because there is no known heir to the throne of the Kingdom of Chaos. He thinks even if his treachery is found out, the council won’t be able to do anything about it. I’m going to be the rock that hits his glass house.” Nico had been thinking about how to handle the information Gage and Katy had given him. With the Kingdom of Venom dealing with the death of their former king and queen, and adjusting to a new pair, he knew the council wouldn’t want to rock any boats. But Nico couldn’t let this stand.
