One by one, they opened their palms. Cade’s blood sparked with tiny flames. Louis’s ran almost black in the dawn light. Silas’s steamed where it hit the air. Each cut was deliberate, ritualistic, and binding.
The dagger reached Rowan last.
He stared at it, his shoulders slumping. “As you all know, I’m no longer the fae heir.” His voice cracked on the words. “Perhaps I shouldn’t be included. If my blood ruins this?—”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Silas cut in. “We need you, man.”
“We acknowledge you, and only you, as the heir and future king of the Kingdom of Fae,” Killian declared, his voice carrying the weight of a royal decree. “Your father’s words mean nothing. Your blood and our bonds mean everything.”
“You’re one of us,” Cade added. “And the second smartest one.”
Louis narrowed his eyes. “Who’s the smartest?”
“Not you, vamp, that’s for sure!” Silas retorted. “Rowan’s always been the one to keep us from killing each other when Cade isn’t around. Remember the incident with the chimera?”
“We agreed never to speak of that,” Cade muttered.
Silver tears welled in Rowan’s eyes. He slashed the blade across his palm with more force than necessary, as if he were cutting away more than just skin.
Then the five heirs clasped their bleeding hands together, their blood mingling where they joined.
Cade’s voice rose with an ancient cadence. “By blood of five, we speak as one. By will of heirs, let it be done. The Brides Selection served its course. We void its power. We break its force!
“No more trials of death and pain, no more loss for power’s gain. The Ones are found, the prophecy met. Release all those within its net.
“By dragon’s flame and vampire’s night, by shifter’s moon and fae’s twilight, by mage’s spell and bonds we’ve made, let every candidate be saved.
“From the Underworld’s darkest maze, from the demon queen’s hellish power, we call you back to the safe embrace of Shades Academy. As we will it, so it shall be!”
“So shall it be!” the heirs chorused.
Power erupted from their joined hands in an explosion of pure magic. Their eyes blazed with otherworldly light—Killian’s flaring dragon gold, Cade’s burning blue-white, Louis’s glowing crimson, Silas’s flashing wolf-amber, and Rowan’s shining pure silver.
The force of it knocked over furniture. Windows rattled in their frames. Even Sy and I paused, our cake forgotten, as raw power saturated the room.
“Shit,” I breathed.
“Double shit,” Sy added, a smear of icing on her lips.
“Holy smoke,” Bea whispered, her voice trailing off in awe.
The air above us tore open; not a clean portal, but something rawer. Reality rewrote itself at their command. Through the rift, I glimpsed the Underworld’s maze: candidates still fleeing from traps, some huddled on top of two trains that ran on a loop…
Belts of pure magical energy materialized, shimmering in silver and gold and every color in between. They shot through the tear like fishing lines, hooking onto each candidate.
One by one, then in groups, then in a flood, the candidates were reeled in. They tumbled back into their own House common rooms—disoriented, terrified, then hugging and crying as they realized they were safe.
Grace wasn’t among them. Somehow, I’d know if she were. And she wasn’t among the dead either. Somewhere, my dark mirror still hunted.
The tear in reality sealed itself with a definitive snap. The Underworld would never again have a chance to steal our students.
The heirs released hands, the cuts on their palms already sealed.
“It’s done,” Cade said, exhaustion etched on his handsome face.
“No more Brides Selection,” Killian growled.
Shit, he was so hot when he was enraged.When his intense gaze swept back to me and softened, I forgot to put the rest of the cake in my mouth.
