Having Neera and Magnus reunited was magical, and yet, there was a tinge of loss from the missing piece ofour family that I knew would never disappear. I only hoped it would be easier to swallow as time passed.
“All right, what else have I missed?” Magnus asked. “You’re our alpha now?”
“It appears that way,” I said, moving my hand to the dagger strapped at my hip.“Let’s catch you up on the journey back home,” I said as we rose to our feet. “Solaceawaits.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Skylar Cathal
Magnus dressed in the spare clothes Neera brought for him, and Shaw shifted to join us, embracing my uncle and exchanging words of confidence before we started the journey home.
I retold my stories about the trials and the state of the Inner Kingdom. Rhea and Talon remained in their wolf forms, listening and adding in their own details while we informed my uncle about all that had happened. And then, when we stopped to rest and take a drink from the river, I told my uncle about Daxton.
“Are you officially mated and marked?” he asked, glancing at my neck.
“No.” I blushed, onlyslightlyembarrassed about discussing a claiming mark with my father figure.“We haven’t marked each other yet. I wanted to wait until I shifted to claim him as well.”
“I see.” Magnus stepped closer and sniffed my head. “That’s why my bear didn’t recognize you at first. You smelldifferent.”
“That’s the first thing I said,”Rhea chimed in, paired with Talon’slaughter.
“That makes sense,” I said, giving Rhea and Talon a sideways glance.
Magnus stroked his beard as he sat back. “I’m surprised I didn’t see it before.”
“I did!”Talon boasted with a playful yelp in his wolf form.“And I’m never going to let Rhea forget it.”
“You have one…”Rhea drawled.“One accurate hunch in twenty—”
I closed my connection with them, chuckling to myself at their banter.
“He truly is your mate… Daxton Aegaeon?” Magnus looked at me with a pang of sadness in his eyes, for Julia’s passing.
“Yes. But regardless of the bond, I would still claim him. I fell in love with him before I recognized the bond linking us together. He’s—”
“He’s the other half to your whole,” Magnus finished with a firm nod of understanding.
“Yes.” I smiled, sitting cross-legged in the snow near the winding river. “I need to return to the Inner Kingdom to finish the trials and not only free Daxton, but his people as well.”
“His people?” Magnus questioned.
“The queen?” Shaw asked.
I nodded.
“She is a tyrant, literally sucking the lives out of her people so she can remain in power. Daxton and his brother Castor have a plan to overtake her with the help of their allies in Crimson City once the Heart is free.”
Magnus gave me a firm nod. “I see.”
“War is surrounding us on all sides.” Neera sighed. “When will all this fighting stop? I hate this. All of it.”
I reached out and grasped her hand. “I understand your frustrations. And feel the loss just as much as you do. But, if we do nothing in the face of injustice, then what kind of creature does that make us?”
Neera started off across the river.
“Peace is won, my daughter,” Magnus said. “Won after many are lost. Doing the right thing now allows others who follow to have a brighter future.”
“Will we join forces with the High Fae, Sky?” Shaw asked, drawing our attention.
