As she watched silent tears fall down Elijah’s cheeks, her own welled. For years, Echo had held herself apart. Emotionless. A wall to protect her from the world of William “the Bloody” Payne. Now all those walls crumbled into dust, and everything Elijah felt, she felt.
Elijah bravely gazed upon his dead father. Looked upon him and saw him as the man who had died protecting the people he loved.
Forcing herself to look, Echo turned to see Margaret’s body.
Unlike Elijah, she didn’t mourn the years of memories filled with love and support nor the future of more of that.
She mourned what should have been. What could have been.
She blamed herself for ruining what was left of Margaret’s life. A life she could have finally lived in freedom now that William was dead.
“I’m sorry,” Echo whispered, hoping wherever her birth mother was she could hear her.
“It’s not your fault,” Odette soothed.
Echo looked down upon her little sister’s sweet, tear-streaked face.
“Margaret knew it wasn’t your fault. We spoke. Before we came here. I know who she is. She loved you, Echo. All she ever wanted was to know you were okay.”
Fresh hot tears scalded her cheeks as she pulled her sister hard against her, taking comfort in not just her presence and well-being, but in the wise words of a young girl who’d seen more of the world than most adults.
“We’re holding up Astra’s barrier!” a voice boomed across the hill. Echo followed it to see a tall, familiar middle-aged man who rippled with power.
A warlock.
A powerful one.
“But we need to move now,” he continued, directing his words to Niamh.
Niamh nodded solemnly. “Will you help us?”
“It is the least we can do after our council failed to protect this world from the Blackwood Coven.” He pressed his lips together in harsh regret.
Niamh shook her head, giving him a kind smile. “You didn’t fail. You came here, and you didn’t fail.”
The warlock nodded, and Echo suddenly understood why he was familiar. He was Dane Aldrich, one of the highest-ranking members of the North American High Council. Echo vaguely wondered what else Niamh had kept from them after turning up here with council members and hundreds of wolves. She suspected the Irish fae had long ago hatched this plan, its blueprint kept secret so it would play out exactly as they’d needed.
They had won.
Her lips trembled as Elijah met her gaze.
Echo hadn’t known until that moment that sometimes winning meant losing too.
As if she’d heard Echo’s thoughts, Niamh spoke to her. To them all. “We lost a lot today!” Her voice carried on the wind. “But their lives were not sacrificed in vain. We put an end to a centuries-long plan to reopen the gates to Faerie and bring unimaginable destruction upon our world. We leave here having done what was needed for the greater good. We leave here knowing we stood for something. We stood against greed and hatred and power … And we did it because we love. Welove, and we will continue to love. That’s all grief is. They don’t exist without the other.”
When Niamh’s gaze met Kiyo’s, her eyes flared gold for a moment and then a calm settled through the bitter hollowness around them.
Gratitude wove through Echo as she held on to Odette and reached for Elijah’s hand.
Because at that moment, she’d needed—they’d all needed—the reminder that ultimately only one thing had brought them here to this moment.
Love.
Love had destroyed their enemies.
Love had mended the fracture between two worlds.
For so long, Echo had lived in darkness, in a world where love was corrupted and not to be trusted.
