“Yes. I’m going to feed the deep magic into myself. Remember the undoing spell?”
Susan nodded and grasped Morgan’s hand all the tighter.
“We’re going to stop it, Ave!” Morgan shouted over the whir of the portal.
The deep magic fed into her, cold and heavy and she let it settle into her being, mingling with the shadows that wound around her furiously.
Susan began an incantation and Morgan followed along, speaking the words of undoing. They pointed their intention at the portal and released their combined magic in a steady, searing flow that rushed out of them toward the source of the ringing.
The world filled with shadows and light, water and earth as an eruption blastedthrough herand smacked into an invisible wall.
Immediately, the world was silent except for the panting of the three women’s combined breathing.
Morgan let go of Susan’s hand, collapsing in the snow. Her vision was blurred and everything hurt. She could barely make out Avery’s small frame, crawling through the snow, the oversized coat left in a heap on the crimson snow. She reached Morgan’s side, wrapping her body around Morgan. The familiar scent and feel of her sister near her brought tears to her eyes.
“If you want to go home, I think I have a way.” Avery’s voice was rough and raw, almost unrecognizable.
Morgan shook her head. “Not yet. I’m not done here.”
She couldn’t keep her eyes open as she let herself slip into sleep.
Chapter 44
Avery
Avery wrapped her arms around Morgan. She could tell by the steady rise and fall of her sister’s breathing that she’d slipped into what could only be the dreamless sleep from deep magic burnout. Susan also seemed to sleep in the snow, red hair blending with the carnage on the ground around them.
Savine’s cry for her shook her from the fog she’d drifted into.
Avery stood up, walking to the jacket in a pile on the snow, and wrapped the heavy coat around herself, tucking the bowl into the oversized pocket.
“Savine!” she cried, running to the ridge as best as she could through the deep snowfall. “Savine! Savine!”
Savine’s tall, broad frame crested the ridge, fire in his blue eyes as he looked down at the scene in the ring of trees. She tugged on the bond between them and his eyes snapped onto her.
Never could she imagine that such a large, strong man could run across the snow with such speed. His feetflewacross the snow, leaving hardly a print behind as he ran to Avery. She trundled through the snow, still making painstakingly slow progress to her soulmate.
Their bodies crashed together when he reached her. In one smooth motion, Savine scooped Avery into his arms, their mouths meeting in a tangle of teeth and tongue, the desperate need to be reunited pulsing between them.
Savine pulled back and looked at Avery with pain in his eyes. His voice was raw with emotion. “I failed you again. I don’t deserve to be your mate, Little Flower.”
Avery touched his hand with her broken gloves. “You make me stronger. You were with me when I defended myself. It was your essence that I used.”
Savine shook his head, and she could see the bitter self-loathing on his face, but she cut him off. “Savine, you can’t be with me at every moment, and I’m becoming stronger because you believe in me. Because Kyla and Rue make me work every day to be better.”
“Did they kill Darby?”
Avery shook her head, not even trying to stop the small smile that stretched across her lips. “No, that was all me. She’s the one who brought me here. She’d been working with the Hunters for years.”
She didn’t care that Darby had been like a mother to him; Darby had gotten in between Avery and Savine, and there was no space for someone like that in her life. To her surprise, Savine’s face turned up into a smile.
He let her body slide down his, but opened her oversized coat and wrapped the front of the coat around himself, pulling her to his chest.
“Good. If she tried to hurt you, she deserves to die.”
Avery looked at the bodies in the snow, her sister’s sleeping form included. “The portal was pulling me toward it, and I almost went through. Morgan and Susan shut it somehow. I think they’re suffering from burnout. We need to get them back to the King’s Residence.”
Savine nodded, picking up Avery and carrying her across the snow on nimble feet to where her sister slept. He whistled toward the ridge of the mountain and moments later, guards led by Garnel and Jay made their way down the steep slope.
