“Dude.” Nev turned his gaze to Shay and grinned. “Nice.”
Mason was still frowning. “So the Elemental Cross was actually a bomb?”
“Mason!” I snarled. “There was no bomb!”
“Just magic.” Adne smiled at him.
“A magic bomb,” Mason grumbled, and ducked when I swung at him. “Hey! You didn’t almost get pancaked by half a house falling on you.”
“Believe me,” Ethan said. “We had more than our share of trouble in here.”
“But you did it.” Nev was still looking at Shay. “This means we won, right?”
“I guess.” Shay’s smile faded. “I don’t know what happens now.”
“Speaking of winning, what about the Banes?” I asked. “I mean, the ones that didn’t come to our side.”
“When the house blew up…” Nev threw me an apologetic glance as Mason mouthed “bomb” again. “They panicked. I guess seeing the Keeper fortress crumbling made them panic.”
“We were winning anyway.” Mason grinned.
Nev shrugged. “Yeah. We probably were.”
He frowned, looking around our group. His eyes rested on Shay’s parents for a moment, but then returned to me. He drew a long breath.
“Where’s Ren?”
I looked away. Bryn slipped her arm around my waist. I hadn’t forgotten Ren. But I’d had to push his death out of my mind to make it through the fight. Now a pit of emptiness gnawed at my belly as the truth crashed over me. I swayed on my feet. Bryn leaned her head on my shoulder.
My father answered, “He fell in battle.”
Nev’s fists balled up. “How?”
“Emile killed him,” my father said.
Mason snarled. “Is Emile dead?”
“Yes,” I said.
“We saw Dax and Fey’s bodies outside,” Nev said quietly. “Did you?”
“We had to fight them to get in the house,” I said, nodding.
We fell silent, the weight of so many deaths settling on us.
I shivered, glancing at my packmates. “Follow me.”
Shifting into wolf form, I led my packmates to the place where Ren’s body lay. To my relief he hadn’t been buried in rubble. Debris encircled him in a ring of destruction without encroaching on him, as if the wild fury of the Elemental Cross had shielded his body from its chaos.
We spread out around him, forming a circle. I paused, letting myself gaze at the wolf I’d known from childhood, who I always had expected to be at my side leading our pack.
My father was standing beside me. I looked at him, waiting.
No, Calla. His quiet words entered my mind. This is your pack.
I turned back to Ren, dropping my head low to honor the fallen alpha. The circled wolves did the same. I lifted my muzzle first, my howl singing out the pain of Ren’s death, mourning him. One by one my packmates joined the song. Our howls filled the library, spilling out into the winter night. The death song grew as the wolves still outside raised their voices to honor the lost young warrior. The chorus of wolf cries, full of heartache, swelled in the night, carrying Ren’s memory to the very stars.
I shifted back into human form. Listening as the song continued, even as the howls began to quiet, the chorus echoed on the wind.
A hand encircled my wrist. Adne gazed at me. “Can I?” She gestured to Ren.
I nodded. She slid to her knees beside him, stretching the length of her body against the huge gray wolf. She wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his fur.
She hid her grief from us, but I watched her shoulders trembling, wishing I could give her back the brother with whom she’d been granted so little time.
Shay was standing apart from us. Tristan had an arm around his son’s shoulders, while Sarah was still clasping Shay’s hand. I met Shay’s gaze, finding his own sorrow there. And a question.
It was a question flickering in my own heart as well.
Had Ren’s death changed what I felt for Shay?
Meeting his moss green eyes, I had my answer.
Love wasn’t forged by circumstance or changed by sorrow. It simply was. Fierce and free as the wolf within me.
My love for Ren had been real. We shared a bond, a history. Losing him would leave scars on my heart forever. But I was a warrior, and love’s scars weren’t so different from battle scars.
At so many junctures I’d been given a choice: to follow my heart or leave Shay behind, forsaking my passion for the life I thought I was destined for. Every decision had drawn me closer to him and pulled me away from the world I’d known.
Those choices had led us here. I stood in the rubble of my well-ordered life, gazing at the boy who had changed everything.
And knew that I loved him still.
As Adne knelt beside my packmates near Ren’s body, I went to Shay. He held out his arms to me and I stepped into them, lifting my hands to touch his face.
“You didn’t die.” I forced a smile. “I told you so.”
“I know,” he said. “What happens now?”
“We live.” I pulled his face to mine, letting my lips touch his gently.
His fingers traced the tear tracks on my cheeks. “I love you, Calla.”
“Sarah!”
I looked up to see Anika running toward us, or rather toward Shay’s mother. The Arrow threw her arms around Sarah Doran. The two women clung to each other, laughing and crying. When they finally parted, Tristan grinned at Anika-he had the same mischievous, curving grin as Shay.
“I missed you too, Anika,” he said. She hugged him, and when he stepped back, he glanced at the iron compass rose hanging from her neck. “I see you’ve been promoted.”
Anika laughed, turning to Shay. “How did you reach them?”
“I don’t know,” Shay said. “When I pushed Bosque into the Rift, he was gone and I was standing in front of my parents.”
“Standing where?” I asked.
Shay glanced at his parents. “To me it just looked like a dark, empty room.”
“You stepped into the oblivion. Betwixt and between,” Sarah said. “You broke open our prison.”
Anika nodded, her face solemn as she spoke to Shay. “You crossed over.”
He frowned. “What does that mean?”
“Bosque imprisoned us in the emptiness between the earth and the Nether,” Tristan said. “We were the gate between the worlds. When you banished him, you were able to reach us and lead us out.”
Shay went very still. I took his hand, twining my fingers with his.
“Are you in pain?” Anika asked, her eyes moving over Tristan and Sarah.
“No,” Sarah said. “Our torment wasn’t physical. It was separation from the people we loved. Seeing them and knowing we couldn’t do anything to protect them. Especially our son.”
“You could see me?” Shay asked. “Was the painting like a two-sided mirror?”
“No.” Sarah smiled at him sadly. “More like a waking dream.”
“The passing of time wasn’t clear,” Tristan said. “And we couldn’t know if what we saw was the truth or a form of torture Bosque had devised for us.”
“Calla! Bryn!” Ansel was running toward us, waving. Bryn shrieked her joy, opening her arms. But a huge brown and silver wolf was streaking toward him from the side. My father shifted forms, lifting Ansel off his feet as he ran and clutching my brother against his chest.
“Dad!” Ansel threw his arms around our father.
Bryn and I ran to meet them. My father pulled us into their hug. The four of us stood together, holding on to each other as we shook with tears and laughter.
Ansel broke free when Shay approached us. “Hey! You did it!”
But Shay was frowning.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
His shoulders tightened. “Anika says it’s not over yet.”
TWENTY-NINE
AS NEWS OF THE BATTLE’S END spread, Searchers began gathering around us. Some stood in groups, speaking quietly and gazing around the destroyed library in awe. Others moved quickly into the practical work of recovery, gathering up the piles of books that were strewn across the floor and carting them away. Still others had assigned themselves to burial duty, solemnly carrying out the remains of the Fallen, now returned to their natural state.