The frozen opalescence dimmed and the sharp shrill fell flat, revealing Naia and Ruelle in its draining light.
Finnian glanced over at Cassian. His chest was still, with bated breath, as he peered at the two goddesses. Blood smudges stained his fair cheeks. His hands were covered in it, but the threads were completely untangled from Finnian.
As if he could sense Finnian’s staring, Cassian turned his head to look at him, offering his hand in between them. He opened his enclosed fingers to reveal thebidziilcrystal in his palm.
Finnian glanced up from his hearing aid onto Cassian’s weak smile. Guilt and sorrow and an outpouring of so much damn love flooded Finnian. Even after all the years that had passed between them, Cassian still had his well-being in the forefront of his mind.
He accepted his hearing aid, quickly inserting it as he fixated back onto Naia and Ruelle.
Ruelle slid down the bark of the tree, her auburn strands matte under the sunlight. The sheen of her divinity was stripped, and it showed in the pallid hue of her complexion, the muted brown in what once was a bronze, glittering gaze.
Naia took a step back and bowed her head. Always the respectful one. “I apologize for what has transpired here today, Lady Ruelle, but it was the will of the Council.” She lifted her chin then, looking straight at Ruelle. “And the will of my heart, for the pain you have brought upon my younger brother.”
Strangely, Ruelle regarded Naia with a wistful smile, crinkling the skin at the corners of her tear-filled eyes. “No need to apologize, Lady Naia. You have my gratitude.”
Finnian exchanged a look of apprehension with Cassian.
Why would Ruelle be grateful? Especially after everything she’d put them through to seek her revenge.
Naia held Ruelle’s stare for a long moment.
Acacius crossed the grove in a trail of charcoal-blue smoke to Ruelle’s side.
Naia made no move to back away at his close presence. She acknowledged him with a small dip of her chin that he did not return as he rushed to scoop up Ruelle.
Together, they vanished.
Cassian let out a frail sigh, shifting his attention to the souls surrounding them in the grove.
Finnian took one last look at each of them, memorizing their distinct energies, the faces, saying his peace to them one last time.
You could keep them all.
The voice came in a distant whisper, under the muffled shrill scratching in his mind, prodding at the nerves in his jaws, down his spine. He was growing so used to the curse’s chronic itch and manic murmuring that it did not immediately trigger an unfurling fear throughout his insides.
Mind it no attention.
His eyes found Eleanor and Isla, their arms hooked, waving and smiling at him. “We love you, Finny.”
Cassian snapped his fingers, and the souls disfigured and took flight in the air as luminous orbs.
Fireflies.
A blissful grin broke apart Finnian’s blood-crusted lips. “I love you too,” he whispered.
Iliana rotated to Cassian, her expression somber, disheartened.
Cassian held her gaze, silently exchanging grief-stricken feelings.
Acacius had chosen Ruelle over the Council, over his siblings. How would they recover from that?
Iliana gave a single nod of mutual understanding before teleporting away. Milky wisps curled in the air where she had stood.
Azara passed Cassian a brief look before her form dispersed into crackling embers shortly after.
Finnian looked at his sister, her deep green eyes shining and squished in a broad smile directed at him.Truly her.Not an illusion or a hallucination.
Warmth seeped like spilled wine in Finnian’s chest, and he smiled, stretching his arms wide.
