Too late? Yeah, I didn’t want to get trapped here, so I nodded, wiping at my face. Gramps gave me one more hug and then leaned closer and whispered into my ear.
“Julian’s body is fresh,” he said. “If you’re quick, you can heal him and transfer Honor’s soulandwolf into it.”
Then he pulled back and winked.
My jaw dropped.What thewhatdid he just say?
But before I could ask any questions, the Keeper snapped his fingers, and then I was flying into the air, through a portal he’d created to the mortal realm, my head spinning.
My feet slammed onto solid ground, and I glanced around the clearing, taking stock of my surroundings. Kaja and her sisters wept silently over Reyna’s shredded body. They’d closed her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. There was a small measure of relief that I hadn’t been the one to cause her death by pulling her over the cliff with me. I needed to thank Rage and Carson for that small miracle … but first…
There!
Julian’s body lay slumped to the side, at the base of a tree, his ankle bent at an odd angle but otherwise intact except for the knife in his abdomen.
Was Gramps for real? That I should put Honor’s soul and wolf into Julian? And how to heal the wound that’d killed him before I put the soul in—was that even possible?
My mind raced with what to do first, and I was frozen in thought when a blur of motion caught my attention a heartbeat before Rage slammed into me.
“Nai!” Rage pulled me close and pressed his lips to my temple, burying his face in my hair. “Woman, you disappeared through a portal into the Realm of the Dead! Don’teverdo that again.”
“Yeah.” I nuzzled his neck, taking in his scent, the way his pulse in his neck beat against my lips. “I promise.”
I looked over his shoulder at the bodies. Several lines of beheaded blood mages lay on the ground, and I closed my eyes and asked, “Are they all dead?”
“Yes, we got them all and either beheaded them, or you had them sucked into that portal. We did it, Nai.” Rage cupped my chin but pulled back to look me in the eyes. “Wewon.”
Relief flooded me and I sagged into him. And then Honor in his wolf form, Justice, and Noble rushed toward us. Kaja looked up from her silent weeping, her eyes filled with unshed tears, and I looked at my mate. “I’ll be right back. Will you … get Honor and meet me at Julian’s body?”
He raised one eyebrow.
‘Trust me,’I said and then ran to Kaja. My bestie and her sisters, Fiona, Rue, and Nell, all stood clustered together, clinging to one another as they wept over Reyna’s body. I fell to my knees, bowing my head over Reyna’s shriveled form. Somehow, she’d taken all of the blood mage queen’s wrath. Like what had happened to Honor at the midyear games, she was the last to pledge—and she’d taken the final result.
“Kaja, Nell, Rue, Fiona … I’m so sorry,” I croaked. “I just saw Reyna, in the Realm of the Dead … I promise, she said to leave her there … I swear … I tried to convince her to come back, but—” Tears burned my eyes, and I wished there was some way to make this right.
Fiona slipped her hand into mine and squeezed, pulling me in for a hug. “She was a die-hard protector. She’d wanted to be a shield since she was five. This would’ve meant everything to her. To die protecting… ”
Kaja nodded, joining us in our hug. “She was so upset she couldn’t save your grandfather. She would’ve thought this made it right.”
It didn’tfeelright. No one should have to die so another could live, but I’d respect her choice. I didn’t want to take her honor. “She was the best,” I said earnestly.
We hugged for another moment, and then I looked at the girls. “If you’ll excuse me … I think there’s a way to make one thing right tonight.”
I looked back at Rage, who stood over Julian’s body with Honor, Justice, and Noble around him.
“Come on,” I said to the Harvest girls.
Honor was getting put back together. It wouldn’t cancel out all of the death, but it would make his sacrifice all those months ago easier … if he could have a chance at a full life once again.
Chapter Twenty
“Wait,so Honor’s wolfandsoul”—Fiona pointed to Honor and then swung her hand to point at Julian’s corpse—“are going inhim?”
I gulped, staring at the former high master of water. “That’s what Gramps said.”
Kaja frowned and shook her head. “But Julian was such a douche … and Honor is so … amazing.” She blushed and then stammered, “Are we going to have to look at douchy Julian’s body and then have to remember that it’s Honor?”
Fiona smacked her sister’s arm. “Don’t speak ill of the dead,” she muttered.
