Merisfinallypaled, Toland’s jaw dropped and the coven behind me gasped softly.
Zara whispered, “Holy shit, they deserve it.”
Tabitha murmured a satisfied, “As the Goddess Mother wills it.”
Rowan looked at me again. “Do you request additional protections?”
I swallowed hard. Savla’s presence pulsed behind me—steady and unshakeable.
“Yes,” I whispered. “Full severance.”
Rowan nodded.
“Granted.”
Magick vibrated through the hall as the Circle severed the parental tie-bond, cutting the last lingering magickal thread between me and the people who’d birthed me.It felt like a weight falling off my chest. A weight I had carried my entire life. Savla stepped closer, his fingertips brushing the small of my back—reassuring, grounding and careful.
Rowan looked at him with approval. “Your clan may take her home.”
Savla’s voice was deep and certain. “We will.”
My breath whooshed out of me. I was finally free.
And Corwin’s muffled scream in the background only confirmed what I already knew. I wasnevergoing back.Not to their house, not to their control andneverto their cruelty.
My life was mine now. And as Savla’s hand found mine—warm, strong and certain—my future was too.
Chapter 42
Hanna
The moment we stepped outside the high stone arches of the Circle Court, my legs gave out. Not all at once or dramatically.Just… slowly. As if the strength seeped out of my bones.Savla was there before I hit the steps—one arm around my waist, the other bracing my shoulder as if I were made of something precious and breakable.
“Hanna—” he started, his brow furrowed.
“I’m okay,” I managed.
I wasn’t.
The bond hummed low, trying to soothe me, but my chest was too tight, my breaths too shallow. The world spun in warm sunlit colors that felt unreal after the cold tension inside the Court.
Savla guided me to a stone bench beneath an oak tree. Ribbon pressed himself against my knees like the giant living, concerned, squishy boulder he was.The rest of the clan and coven hung back respectfully—watching and ready, but givingme space.Savla crouched in front of me, his large hands gentle on my knees, grounding me with his warmth, his steadiness, his quiet presence.
“Breathe,” he murmured.
I did. Or at least Itriedto.It came out halfway between a gasp and a sob. Savla didn’t look alarmed and he didn’t look pitying. He just opened his arms.Which wasexactlywhat I needed. I folded into him like I’d been waiting years to do it.
His arms wrapped around me, firm and strong, one hand cupping the back of my head, the other smoothing slow circles down my spine. My cheek pressed against the warm center of his chest, and everything in me trembled at once.
“They’re gone,” I whispered. “They can’t hurt me anymore.”
His breath shuddered softly against my hair.
“No,” he said. “Never again.”
I let out another breath—this one broken—and he tightened his hold, murmuring something soft in his own tongue.A vow, I thought. A promise of comfort.
I wasn’t sure how long we stayed like that, but it was long enough for the world to settle and long enough for my heartbeat to match his. When I finally pulled back, Savla brushed a tear from my cheek with his thumb.
