"No." I push to my feet with Asher's help. "That's not who we are or who I want us to be. I've got a better idea." I pull my phone from my pocket, my fingers only shaking a little as I dial.
“You’re a spineless child,” Laurel snaps.
"Or maybe I know the difference between justice and revenge."
Sienna Draven answers on the second ring. "Poppy?"
"We have Laurel." My voice carries across the circle, making sure the former High Priestess hears every word. "We're at the Hallowind standing stones. Come and get her. Use the stones to portal if you need them."
"On my way." Steel underlies Sienna's tone.
I end the call and meet Laurel's hate-filled gaze. "You think I'm afraid of facing the wrath of the Order?"
I scoff. "Oh, that's not who I called. The Draven clan has been looking for you. Davina came to me in her death and I made sure Sienna Draven knows exactly what you did to their daughter."
All the color drains from Laurel's face, and when she pulls against her restraints, Rowan's shadows tighten and Wylder's vines dig deeper.
I grin. "That's right. You're about to reap what you sowed, bitch. Get ready to suffer for the decade they’ve suffered."
At that moment, the air charges with magical energy, and a portal opens within the stones.
Sienna Draven and four very imposing men step through and find Laurel pinned to the ground. The smile that curves her lips is nothing but calculated and cruel. "Thank you for the call, Poppy. We'll take it from here."
EPILOGUE
Islip out of the parlor, pulling the door closed behind me with a soft click. My chest aches—not from injury this time, but from the weight of so many emotions colliding at once. Relief. Joy. Grief for the years we lost…
Mom looks stronger than she had weeks ago.
Time among the ancestors has strengthened her, knitting together the fraying edges of her spirit. Watching her wrap Violet and Lily in her arms, seeing the way their faces lit up—it was everything I'd hoped for.
I press my palm against my sternum, trying to steady my breathing.
"Hey." Wylder pushes off the wall where he's been waiting, concern written in the lines around his entrancing green eyes. "You okay?"
I take a steadying breath and clear my throat. "Yeah, I'm good. It's just... a lot."
He crosses to me in three long strides and pulls me against his chest. I sink into his embrace, breathing in pine and earth, letting his solid warmth anchor me. His hand cradles the back of my head, fingers threading through my blue hair. "How's your mom?"
"Good. Really good, actually." I lean back enough to see his face. "Whatever she did with the ancestors, it worked. She's solid. More... present."
"That's great." His thumb traces the line of my jaw. "And how are you? You've been through hell, Poppy. Literally. I'm worried about you."
I huff a laugh. "I'm fine. A little tired, maybe, but fine."
Those green eyes study me, seeing more than I want him to. "Is it Tharuzel? Are you having dreams again? Has he been pulling you?"
The question drops like a stone into still water.
"No. Nothing like that." I step back, wrapping my arms around myself. "I haven't felt or heard him since he escaped Emberwood. No dreams, no tugging, no whispers in my head. It's like he just... vanished."
"And that worries you."
"Shouldn't it? He's out there planning who knows what, and I have no idea where he is or what he's doing. I've tried to use the blood-bond to locate him, but there's nothing. The tether between us is silent."
"Maybe that's a good thing."
"For me, yes, but not for the rest of the world."
