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“I was worried at first, because it all seemed like it was going to plan.”
“Thanks to Jess holding us up. So what changed?”
“The whole thing short-circuited. That sense of bliss they get when he feeds suddenly evaporated. What replaced it was disgust and nausea, like they’d all swallowed poison. And then—”
He shook his head. “What?”
“Then they started retching and gagging and throwing up into the ocean.”
“It came up through us, too.” I said. “Just like everything else, vomiting into a candlelit cave wasn’t on my bingo card.”
Damian winced on my behalf.
“So then what happened?” I said.
“They sobered up quickly. Aurora lost her mind. She knew. She could feel his death. She tried to cover it up at first. She told them it was a natural reaction to the cleansing process, that real spiritual work needed a clean vessel.”
I laughed. “Ironic.”
“The women were pissed. They thought it was the food and the cacao. Vivienne called Aurora a disappointment. Karen threatened to sue. And then the whole thing became chaotic. A lot of yelling. A lot of demands for refunds. Aurora storming off, then having a meltdown in the kitchen, which I could hear from thirty feet away.”
“Oh my god,” I said, gasping, but also laughing. “So they’re all okay? He didn’t drain them?”
“No, whatever he took was reversed, and the reversal wasn’t pretty. They demanded a ride home. They went back to their tents to pack, and Kai and Adrian had to get them out of there. I was worried they might see you if the timing was wrong, but when I checked, the truck was already gone.”
“And Adrian?” I asked, because Kai’s warning had been living in the back of my skull for weeks. He’ll come straight for us.
“Adrian drove three shrieking women back to civilization thinking the rite failed because Aurora failed. By tomorrow, the coven will agree with him.” He turned his mug. “A true believer needs someone to blame, and the Mothers will hand him someone. His fury has an address, and it isn’t ours.”
I threw my head back, dizzy from a cocktail of laughter and relief and lust for the man sitting in pajama pants next to me.
“So now what?” I said, picking up my mug. The tea was still hot, warming my hands.
“Now you’re free. You’re all free.”
“And you?”
“I’ll be free, soon enough. Give it a few weeks, and things will start falling apart. When the Keepers find out they’re fired because there’s nothing for them to do anymore, it’s going to be a horrible day for everyone.”
“And their wellness empires?”
“My guess is that they’ll run out of the yield in a few weeks. They’ll quietly replace it with a substitute that won’t work, and sales will drop. Eventually, they’ll go out of business, or at best, sell the same stuff everyone else sells, and lose most of their market share.”
I hesitated, still holding the cup in my hands. “And what about…your mother?”
He paused with his mug halfway to his lips. “What about her?”
“Are you going to, I don’t know, stay in touch?”
“I’ll send her a birthday card. Maybe even a Christmas card, to really annoy her.”
“Have you told Branwen?”
“I called her on the drive back. I got the feeling she already knew. Her intuition is insane.”
I laughed. “It really is.”
I took the mug out of his hand and set it on the floor, and then I was astride him, and his hands slid down my back and tugged me closer, sliding under fabric. He kissed me slowly, his tongue finding mine, tilting his hips so there was nothing left between us.
