“Don’t be. I'll get to be with her again.” he said with a choked sob, then a serene smile spread across his face.
Sadness welled up in my throat. “She's going to be so happy to be reunited with you again.”
“I'll never have to live a day without her again.” He took one last crackled breath.
I turned my face into Alister’s neck and wrapped my arms tightly around him.
“I’m sorry to interrupt, but what happened? Where is he?” Rebeka asked, wringing her hands as she glanced up and down the halls.
I slammed my eyes shut and breathed Alister in. “I used a paralytic on him. He tried to stop me.”
“Is he in there?”
I nodded as silent tears dripped down my cheeks.
I heard her quick footsteps enter the room.
“My soul is mine again,” the warlock told her in a croak.
A few agents of the Supernatural Council rushed down the hall and took a look at Samson before their expressions crumbled.
“We’ll take care of him and do a proper burial,” one said.
Alister and I nodded, and Alister picked me up and carried me back into the room where the necromancer’s body was aging rapidly.
“What’s happening?” Rebeka asked, tears slipping down her face.
“My soul has returned, and it's my time.”
She grabbed his hand and held it tightly before bending down and putting her ear to his mouth. He whispered something in her ear before her eyes widened.
Rebeka turned to us sharply. “Alister, get your mate back to the academy infirmary right now. Her magical energy is flickering, and it's almost completely drained.”
Bone-deep exhaustion plowed into me from nowhere as Alister shouted at me, rushing out of that room. That was all I remembered before I woke up in the infirmary surrounded by each one of my mates.
FORTY-SEVEN
Wren
ThewarinKalistawas over.
A devastating war with three different contenders had started and ended within one year.
It was almost unbelievable. The Supernatural Council had been deemed the winning party, the dragons in Blezen had an official—better—change in leadership, and the humans with nefarious intentions had been forced to surrender while the humans with the faction desiring equal footing had entered the fold. It had been one of the Supernatural Council’s demands after the war, that they would adopt newer, more inclusive ideals from this faction and employ them within the human syndicate so Kalista would truly be at peace.
While I had been tasked with destroying the relic, my mates had to face their own battles—and I was so immensely proud of them for what they’d accomplished.
Rowan had faced Roak and put an end to him and his crazy ideals about the Dragon God. Blezen had been taken over by another dragon who had good intentions and was now part of the council alongside Rowan. The mates of dragons were now able to live without fear, and that was something incredible. Rowan was finally able to confront the dragon who had been the sole cause of pain for him, but it wasn’t without sacrifice. Rowan had lost a few scales in the fight, and it took him two weeks to fully recover. When I came to after the war, I was in a bed next to him in the academy infirmary, and the amount of devastation that slammed into me at his prone form lying there had been scary. Though, of course, he was more concerned about my health than his.
I had been dangerously low on magical energy. While the relic wasn’t able to actively drain my magical energy due to my powers, I wasn’t able to replenish my energy at a fast enough rate as I was using it, and it caused me to black out.
Kian had stood against the necromancer village with Shade and had to kill his own father. He’d witnessed his mother’s corpse be destroyed by Claude, and little Shade used a fatal spell on Claude with magical energy he’d been saving up. We were all impressed with him, but my heart ached for Kian and what he’d endured. I was also immensely proud of him. He walked around as if a weight had been lifted from him, even though he was now the only known necromancer in Kalista.
Lachlan had been struggling with the events of the war, but he and his father had gotten closer than ever. His mother had chosen his sister’s side when she brought the human specimens to the camp. His mother and sister being dead hung over him, but he knew it was out of his hands. The werewolf pack had managed to keep most of their members alive, but there were much more casualties than there would’ve been, thanks to Lily’s intervention.
Thorn had leaned into a different side of himself. A side he’d only learned about with the war. He seemed much more free, and it was like he finally found what he’d been searching for. He’d never truly wanted to become king, that much was obvious now. Birch had decided to give him full command of their army, and he was more than happy to accept that role. Plus, he would be a permanent resident of Kalista henceforth.
Alister had a strained relationship with his mother after the war, and he had told me it was because she knew the necromancer would try to stop me and didn’t tell him until after I had already gone into the room for the relic. I didn’t really know how that made me feel, but the whole situation was a work in progress. Rebeka had apologized to me several times after, and she was actively trying to be in Alister’s life.
