Misty
Cole doesn’t let go of my hand. He hasn’t since we left the infirmary, and I walked on unsteady legs for the first time in days, my healing powers finally reigniting to speed through the damage done by using every ounce of my powers to close the portal.
He didn’t let go of my hand when Sydney whisked us through space and time to the tropical forest that hugs Serpentia, where the trees are so thick it blocks the moonlight on the forest floor.
His fingers are knitted between mine, holding tight, as I follow Sydney, Ryan, and Aviva down a fresh wolf trail and into a clearing on a bluff with a view of Serpentia, and the battlefield.
Ella’s kneeling at the edge of the bluff, Ryatt standing beside her, leaning down with a hand on her shoulder.
Dad stands nearby, his head lowered as he runs his fingers through his hair repeatedly, his eyes locked on… on the clothing in the clearing.
Cole lets go of my hand, falling in step with Ryan and Aviva, while I step forward with Sydney in shock.
Kenna kneels next to the clothing, picking up Grandpa Maddox’s favorite watch. Long ago, when we were kids, we’d painted him a picture, and our parents had it sized down to fit on the watch face.
He’s been wearing it for… fifteen years, at least.
My stomach hollows out as I look at where Ella is kneeling at the edge of the bluff and walk to her side.
The sand stretches for miles before reaching the battlefield. It’s endless, flawless, covered in golden waves from the rushing wind.
But two sets of paw prints lead away from the bluff before disappearing completely.
“They might just be lost in their wolf forms,” Dad says somewhere behind me.
I turn back to the clearing, my heart in my throat as I look at the shadowed eyes of my family members. Sarah wrings her hands, glancing around. “I could–I could turn back time?”
Sydney gives his wife a look and shakes his head. “It would take us back through the battle.”
She licks her lips. “Just to the end of the battle, when she used her powers. I could see where they went.”
Dad stares at her, unsure. Ryatt and Ella continue to look out over the desert, neither of them speaking.
Aviva wraps her arm around Ryan’s back, leaning her head against his chest. Sydney and Sarah look like they’re debating Sarah’s offer through the mind-link, but Cole… he’s looking at me.
‘You could show them,’ he says sadly through the mind-link.
‘I know. I’m not sure I want to.’
‘I think it would give them the same kind of peace it gave me.’
I hold his gaze. I think he knows that deep down, I’d rather stay ignorant to what happened to my grandparents, but he’s right. It’s not about me, or my feelings. I glance at my Dad, who just lost his mom and dad. I look at my aunt, who’s still looking out at the sand, waiting for them to return.
I extend my hands and let my powers flow.
Figures of mist appear in the woods. Wolves darting through the trees–warriors of all crowns, all kingdoms.
Grandpa Maddox is alone in the clearing. He’s been fighting in his human form, wearing a button down shirt and trousers like he was just at a meeting with King Anthony in Maatua rather than racing through a battle ground. Why he didn’t shift… I don’t think we’ll ever know, but the look in his mist-filled eyes tells me the truth.
Grandma mentioned to me that he was sick. He refused her healing powers, her tears. He was ready, I realize, to pass on his torch to my dad… to go to the Goddess, who had been calling him home for a while now.
So, he fought for his family, going out in a blaze of glory, just like he wanted.
His figure of mist whirls with wolves and warriors in their human forms. Decades of experience keep him on his feet longer than the others. My family turns to watch in shock as my powers dance around the clearing, and in the distance, my powers paint the moment I closed the Gate.
I watch in awe as the Gate fractures into mist, sending an echo of power through the battlefield, just as Grandpa falls to the ground.
He grips his chest, his body untouched by bite marks and weapons.
He died of a broken heart knowing his children, and his grandchild, were lying on the battlefield in pieces. His heart simply gave out.
Tears stream down my face as Grandma appears. Her clothes are tattered as she reaches his side, helping him to the ground. Their conversation is nearly silently–muffled whispers I have to strain to hear.
‘Isla, let me go. I’ll go with them. I’ll keep them safe.’
‘We promised we’d go together.’
My heart shatters as Grandpa Maddox reaches up to cup her cheek. She leans into his touch, her tears starting to fall, but he says, ‘Save those beautiful tears, my flower. I love you.’
‘I love you.’
Grandpa Maddox dies in her arms. She doesn’t scream and curse the Goddess for taking him. She thanks Her, running her fingers through his hair, kissing her mate goodbye.
Several minutes pass before she rises, resigned and plotting. In the distant battlefield, all of us are dying. I’m saying goodbye to Cole, somewhere, believing this is the end. The bitter end.
But Grandma knew that Grandpa fought, knowing his heart was weakening, to save his kids. His family.
And she’d be damned if she didn’t finish that fight for him.
The look on her mist-filled likeness is set with determination as she raises her hands and lets her powers thunder. A burst of light so fierce it blinds us erupts through the clearing.
“Misty,” Ella bellows nearby, but I push forward, showing my family what Grandma Isla did for us to be here right now.
Grandma Isla stands and uses all of her power. Every drop. Sending her healing magic in waves to cleanse the desert of death. She broke through the curse—erasing it completely–but she had to fight so hard and for so long….
The sun rises as the last of her power flares across the battlefield. A separate image appears nearby of Ella screaming at Cole to mark me at the same moment Grandma slumps to her knees, weak, and spent. She takes Grandpa’s face in her hands, telling him she loves him, and then she falls to the side.
Grandma lies beside Grandpa, knitting her hand in his.
She dies there, with her mate beside her. And in the distance, her children, and her grandchildren, wake up.
I start to stumble against the rush of my powers, but Cole is behind me, steadying me with a hand on my lower back. His eyes are locked on the scene playing out–and my body freezes.
I saw this. I saw this moment months ago in a dream.
Two white wolves appear in the clearing, standing side by side. They look out over the battlefield, over a war, won.
They watch their family reunited. Parents will go home to their children because of them. The sun will set on a new Eastonia, one where goodness reigns, and evil dies before it’s born.
Ella’s eyes spill tears as the wolves walk through her and over the bluff, leaving footprints in the sand before their bodies disappear, carried away by the same breeze we’ve been healing in, embracing in, finding peace in.
I release my powers, letting them flicker out, the mist falling and bouncing around us before soaking into the ground.
No one speaks for a long, long time.
Slowly, Dad begins to gather their clothing. He folds it neatly, tucking it under his arm. Ella joins him, the siblings quiet and wearing identical expressions of grief and understanding. There will be no bodies to bury. No graves to mourn. Just… pieces to hold. A necklace. A watch. A pair of shoes…
Grief is a strange thing. It can be angry, all consuming, and desperately sad.
But I feel… hopeful as I turn to my mate and he wraps his arms around me, holding me, giving me a moment to just… feel.
Grandpa passed his torch to my Dad.
Grandma passed hers… to me.
Every time I use my powers, I’m with her. Every vision, every tear… is her gift.
* * *
The door to my old dorm squeaks painfully as I shove it open. The familiar scent of Georgia’s perfume and our shared vanilla laundry detergent fans the room, cutting through the lingering smell of smoke. It’s untouched, surprisingly. Most of the dormitory survived the original attack and the recent war.
There’s no running water, of course. It’ll be cold when the sun sets again, but there’s a bed, and that’s all that matters to me right now.
Cole closes the door behind us and locks it. I move to the window at the far end of the snug room and look out at the campfires and groups littered across the campus square.
“Sydney and Sarah are returning to Moonrise tonight,” I say into the silence. “Sydney said he’s going to come back in the morning to start moving his warriors back to the border.”
“Ryan and Aviva are also planning on moving out in the morning,” Cole says behind me. I hear him pull his shirt over his head, hanging it over my old desk chair.
“What are we going to do?” I turn to face him but I’m nervous. I expect him to push me away again, tell me I’m leaving, that this… can’t continue.
But he says, “We’ll need to stay in Tarsian for a few weeks, at least, to oversee the transition of splitting the kingdom and the crowning of the new kings.”
“Do you know who they’ll be yet?”
“I gave your aunt my opinion on who should rule their territories, but the decision is hers alone.”
“Then you’re really giving up your title?”
“Yes.” His eyes meet mine in the gloom. He runs his tongue along his lower teeth in thought. “Misty–”
“Don’t you dare,” I rasp, edging a step toward him. “If you’re about to stay I need to return to my family, I swear to the Goddess, Cole, I’ll smack you.”
The corner of his mouth ticks into a smile. “I was going to say, you’re a princess. I’m… about to be no one. Packless. A commoner.”
“That doesn’t matter to me.”
“It matters to me.”
“I’ll always be a princess of Crescent Falls. The princess, actually. And you’ll always be my mate. That’s not going to change.” But everything else will. I can see that truth on his face as I take his hands in mine. “We’re going to be okay. All three of us. You, me, and the baby. We’re a family, and we have a fresh start. You can finish your residency.”
He leans down, pressing his forehead against mine. “You can finish your degree.”
I snort a laugh. “How?”
“Well, you’ll probably have to go to Wellington and major in plain old history, but then you can work there and start a protohistory program of your own, teach the next generation.”
I wrap my arms around him, holding him close, breathing in his scent.
He runs a hand down my back. “Misty, I’m sorry about your grandparents.”
I close my eyes, letting my grief flare for a moment. “I think she knew this was going to happen. She mentioned it to me, how Grandpa was sick and….” A tear slides down my cheek. “I’m happy they went together. I’m grateful for the way it happened. I know that sounds… crazy, but… they were together until the end. They’re together now.”
He cups the back of my head and kisses me long and slow.
“Promise me,” I whisper against his mouth, “that we’ll be the same. That we’ll be together until the end.”
“I promise”
I wrap my arms around his neck, deepening the kiss until we fall onto my rickety old twin bed.
I gasp in alarm when the frame gives out completely, crashing to the ground with us on top of it.
Cole groans a laugh.
“You have a real bed at your… house? Right?” I ask, then cough as dust swarms around us.
“In Crescent Falls?” he chuckles. “I was a resident doctor, Misty. I have a shitty one-bedroom apartment in the Neutral Zone.”
“But is it at least a queen sized bed?”
“Yes,” he laughs. “It is. It’s enough for two.”