That thought stole my breath, and I poured more healing into her. Thankfully, her wound sealed, and the last of the attacking spell left her body. A sigh of relief rushed from me when her heartbeat picked up, resuming a normal pace. Once I was done healing her as best as I could, I gathered her into my arms, only noticing then that I was surrounded on all sides. Strong emotions, which had been dulled by the darkness, swelled within me when I saw Jessa close by.
“Jess,” I said softly. “I’m so sorry.”
She shook her head, her eyes filling with tears as she swallowed hard. “No,” she choked out. “It’s not your fault. This is because you went to the demon land. You did that for us, and you suffered so much because of it.”
She launched herself at me then, and Braxton didn’t even try and stop her. “I’m so glad you’re back,” she cried into my chest. I managed to hold her and Tee, both women so very precious to me.
“She’s okay, right?” Jessa said as she pulled back slightly. Her eyes locked on Tee’s face, which was right by hers.
I nodded, watching Tee closely, happy to see color back in her cheeks. “I healed most of the damage, and now her body is in a recuperative sleep. She will probably be unconscious for a few days.”
A throat cleared nearby, and I met the ancient eyes of Rufus, a sorcerer who I’d had a very good relationship with. Well, until today.
“You came back from the darkness,” he said slowly, eyeing me with some suspicion.
“Tee … Elizabeth is my true mate,” I told him truthfully. “Our souls bonded … in her dying moments. That was the catalyst we needed. Her light chased away the darkness.”
More of the tension in the crowd around me faded, and I gently dropped Jessa to her feet. Tee remained cradled in my arms. “I know that you’re all going to want an explanation from me,” I said, looking between the familiar faces. “And I plan on doing everything I can to rectify the situation I have created here, but right now I need to ensure my mate continues to heal. She keeps the darkness at bay for me, and if she dies….” I trailed off, because everyone already knew what would happen. They knew that Tee was the only thing stopping me from destroying the world. If the darkness came back, I would be a mindless monster. Much worse than before. I would take the world down with me, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop me.
The fragile supe in my arms was the only thing stopping the world from ending.
11
Elizabeth Teresa Montgomery II
Ihad regrets. So many regrets. I was not ready to die yet, not when I’d only just decided to start living, but sometimes you didn’t get a say in that. Sometimes your number was up and you had no choice but to accept the inevitable.
The warmth in my body increased, and just when I felt like my time on this world was done, the pain faded. With that came energy and clarity, and I had no idea how long I had drifted in my semi-dead state, but eventually I realized I was not dying any longer.
I’d been saved.
There was only one sorcerer with that sort of power. Louis had saved me, brought me back from the twilight of death, and there was so much light and warmth in my chest that I almost felt like I was on fire.
As I rose from unconsciousness, his deep voice was the first thing I heard. “…I remember the first day I saw you. Gods, you couldn’t have been more than five or six, and you had so much hair, even then. It was spread out around you, like a golden cloak, as you ran through the field. You were so wild. Wild in a way that I never saw from Regina. It was like more life filled you than the rest of us, and you embraced it. That was the day I decided we would be best friends, and you thought that was an amazing idea.”
I remembered that day so clearly. Louis had been two years older than me, and I worshipped him. His family was wealthy. They lived on the good side of town and had all the respect of the supernatural community. We, on the other hand, were not wealthy, and in those days there wasn’t as much money to go around our communities, so we were looked down on. Even worse, my parents were not powerful. In fact, my mother never even made it to sorceress, spending all of her days as a witch. Louis befriending me caused a lot of talk, but we didn’t care. Our friendship blossomed and strengthened over the years. The first supe to ever come between us was Regina. My sister hadn’t liked Louis much when we were growing up, treating him like an annoying younger brother even though they were the same age.
Until she no longer saw him that way.
I still had no idea what had made her pursue him like she did. One day she just saw him differently. It was the same for me, but I spent too long worrying about the consequences, and she beat me to it. Then he was smitten, falling hard for my charismatic sister.
My eyelids fluttered open, hazy memories washing away as I blinked. Sunlight was streaming in from the open bay windows nearby, and when I could finally see clearly, it was all greenery out there. I pulled my gaze from that view to meet a pair of purple-blue eyes. We stared for a few long moments. “Hey,” he said, his voice raspy.
“Hey,” I said back, my voice breaking.
Louis looked so beautiful, no darkness surrounding him, his handsome face filling my vision. I remembered very clearly that we had a bond; it was beating in my chest strongly, and my body ached to touch him, but I resisted. Just because we were true mates did not mean that we could make this work. There was so much history between us. Maybe too much. This was almost a cruel happening for us both. But I was grateful that it had brought him back to the light. Killing Louis would have killed me, and now I understood why.
We were true mates. Two halves of the same whole. Bound by fate.
When Louis leaned forward, I expected soft and kind words to come out of his mouth; instead his eyes darkened as he growled, “If you ever, and I meanever, attempt to jump in front of magic meant to take me down again, I will kill you myself, Elizabeth Teresa Montgomery.”
I blinked at him, not sure at what I was hearing. “W-what?”
Louis bared his teeth, and I almost flinched back. “You nearly died. If our bond hadn’t kicked in, allowing light back into my magic, I would not have been in a position to save you.” He was on his feet then, power flowing almost visibly around him. “You almost died!”
He was just short of yelling, and I was both fearful of and fascinated by the new Louis I saw before me. He was glorious, his gorgeous face filled with hard lines and his power washing across everything. It appeared the darkness was gone, but … it had changed him.
I struggled to pull myself higher in the bed, still aching despite the fact I was fully healed. He let out a low curse and rushed to my side, lifting me into a sitting position with ease. “You need to rest,” he reminded me, tucking some of his emotions away again.
