by Lexi Blake
I looked up at my vampire, and his eyes were shining with unshed tears.
“And I am grateful to be here,” he said.
Haweigh’s head came up as though she was hearing something the rest of us couldn’t. “We don’t have much time left. They will leave right before the evening comes, at the in-between time. She wants to speak with you. She’s held on for so long.”
My predecessor. I nodded and followed Haweigh inside. Everywhere Marcus and I walked seemed to come alive. It wasn’t that the palace wasn’t beautiful, it was simply that where we walked it was more. There was a glow we left in our wake that I couldn’t deny. And down each hallway I saw familiar faces. My tribe was there, and others. Little brownies peeked out of doorways, watching us. Trolls and sidhe stopped their work as the new king and queen entered. I could feel their relief, their deep joy at our appearance.
Their sorrow because an era was ending.
I left my parents, Dean, and Kelsey with my foster father, who joked with my mom about how she could take an arrow. Haweigh hustled us to the royal wing of the palace.
“They are in their bedchamber.” Haweigh stopped outside the big, elaborate doors. “Hurry. There’s not much time left. And daughter? It is so good to see you again. I have missed you and I forgot something.”
“What is that?”
“You were so blessed,” she said with a sigh. “You had such a great destiny that I forgot that you were also a little girl who needed to be told how loved she was. I did. I loved you, but I thought you would know. You should be told. I love you.”
I let go of any resentments I had. My tribe had loved me. “I love you, too.”
“I will take care of your parents while you speak to her,” Haweigh promised. “Night will fall soon, and it has been a long time since the palace has had a functional Night King. I can’t wait to see it again.”
I didn’t know what she meant, but she was jogging away from us, and I could feel the need coming from the room that would become mine and Marcus’s.
Marcus held up a hand. “She’s waiting.”
He opened the door and we entered a room of exquisite beauty.
“I knew you were finally here when my roses bloomed again,” a quiet voice said.
She stood in the center of the room, a tall woman in a simple white sheath. Her hair was almost a pure white, her face ageless. She gestured to the walls of the room, covered in red and pink and white roses.
“They’re beautiful.” The whole room was fit for a Fae queen.
She looked to the other side of the room. The trellis that covered it was bare. “I almost wish I could see the jasmine again. They will come with the night.” She looked to Marcus. “A vampire Night King. That seems fitting. These lands will flourish again under you, and the outer planes will be safe. I thank you for taking this burden from us. That is the wrong word since it isn’t a burden at all. Forgive me. The last ten years have been a struggle.”
They had been a burden because I’d been stubborn. “I’m sorry. I didn’t understand.”
She held up a hand to stop me. “They were necessary. You had to find your king and he had to finish his journey. Are you ready to begin your lives here?”
I looked to Marcus, who gave me a sure smile. I nodded. “Yes.”
Her hand moved to offer me her guidance. “Then come with me. You must witness our passing. And I know the word that is going through your head, but like burden, death is the wrong word to define what will happen.”
I let her lead me into a circular chamber. This was the bedroom and it was open to the air, letting in the beauty of the sky. It wouldn’t rain in the Summerlands. The beauty of nature around us would be fueled by our magic, mine and Marcus’s. We would become the living heart of this paradise.
I stopped short of the big bed. A man lay there, his broad body dressed in trousers and a tunic, a crown of deep obsidian on his head. He looked like he was sleeping, a faery prince waiting to be awakened with a kiss.
She stood staring down at him with love plain in her eyes. “He was a boy in my village back on the Earth plane. This was long before real civilization. This was in the days after the fall, when Earth was populated by angels and demons. We were among the first of their children, the first balance to the planes. Even during those wars, when our notions of good and evil fought for supremacy, there was love between many of us. We were so young when we were placed here and told to rule the outer planes, to give all the flourishing creatures new homes. Millennia we spent here. When we took our places, we were also told how it would end, what we should do. Nothing is truly immortal. It is not the will of the universe.”
“What is its will?” I asked. Many answers were running around my head. Being in this place of power opened up worlds of knowledge to me, but that final question, the one we ask for all of our existence, eluded me.
“That we love,” she replied. “That we learn. I am a goddess of the outer planes and I do not know what will happen to me when I leave this form. I only know one thing.” She reached for his hand. “I know that I will be with him as we were before. We spent this time apart, in separate bodies, but he is the other half of my soul and wherever we go to, we will be reunited.” She smiled at me. “Maybe I know one more thing that you are about to learn. At the heart of all things, there is love. Only love.”
His eyes opened, a deep relief there, and he managed to stand. If he noticed Marcus and I were there at all, he didn’t show it. He had eyes only for her.
“It is time?” he asked.
She took him in her arms. “Finally.”
I gripped Marcus’s hand as I watched them fade, their arms wrapped around each other. Their living flesh gently turned to dust that mingled and danced until I couldn’t tell where he ended and she began, the crowns they’d worn gently falling to the floor.
A wind picked up what was left of the queen and her king, carrying them into the twilight. We stood there and watched as they climbed higher and higher, being spread across this plane they’d watched over and ruled with loving hands for millennia.
This was the cycle all creatures endured. We live. We end. We begin again. Nothing is lost or wasted.
The king and queen rode the winds to their next life, to whatever would come now, but I knew what she’d told me was true. Those words she’d said took up residence in my heart and soul.
At the heart of the universe, there is love.
“The sun is going down.” Marcus picked up the crowns and laid them on the oversized dresser. “I feel the change. Night will be here in moments. I’m a daywalker. I do not feel the changing of the sun in this way. At least I didn’t feel it before, but now I can feel it coming, feel the moon and stars waiting for their time.”
I loved the eagerness in his voice. Sure enough, the sky darkened overhead as day gave way to night. Since I’d walked into the Summerlands, I’d felt an energy suffuse me, but now it subsided.
That was the moment the castle changed, white marble giving way to the most beautiful obsidian I’d ever seen. It was as deep as the night and infused with millions of crystals like stars in the sky.
This was Marcus’s time.
I took the dark crown in my hands and faced the love of my life. “This is yours, King Marcus of the Summerlands.”
He lowered his head and let me place the crown. It fit perfectly since it had been made for him.
“And you, my queen,” he said, picking up the gloriously beautiful day crown. It was light and air to his deep night.
He placed the crown on my head and I felt complete. I looked up at the heart of my personal universe. I was ready to begin my life.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Zoey
We spent the night in the Summerlands, learning the wonders of the palace. I’d been sitting with Dev and Danny when the sun had set and the palace had changed from day to night, the stars shining in its very walls. The plants had changed, too. Where there had been vibrant roses on the walls of the pal
ace, at night jasmine and evening primrose took over.
We spent time with our daughter and son-in-law. It was odd to call Marcus that, though it was not at all odd to call him family. After all, he’d been that since the moment he’d decided to take a newly turned vampire under his wing.
We’d been blessed the day Daniel met Marcus, blessed to call him friend and now family.
He was formally family because that evening, Marcus and Summer stood on the massive balcony overlooking the shining sea, their crowns on their heads and hands entwined, and Dev had married them. He hadn’t even fought when Summer had asked him to perform his duty as high priest.
They’d stood under a glowing moon and promised to be together forever.
I’d cried, but they were tears of joy. Well, not all of them. I’d wished her brothers and sister could be here, could know her.
Now it was morning and I had to leave my baby again.
“I can get you to the place where you dropped out of the painting,” Summer was saying as we stood outside the palace. It was a pearl again, shining in the early morning light, vibrant because the queen was in residence. “I don’t like the idea of you using that false door that the wizard created. I wish I could simply open my own door and return you to the Earth plane, but I’m still learning. There are thousands of doors and it could take me a while to find the right one.”
“I wish we had that time.” Daniel put a hand on my shoulder. “I wish we could spend it with you.”
“I know, Dad. But I am well taken care of and my siblings need you,” she replied with a sad smile. “It won’t be forever. When it is safe to come back, I want you to bring them all here. I’ll be able to either send someone to you, or if you have a psychic around, I might be able to speak directly to you. But know that I will find a way. I won’t let time slip away again.”
We’d gone over and over this—the best way to get back. The Planeswalkers were waking up and beginning their journeys, but they couldn’t pay us back with a trip. They were obligated by the Hell plane to take a soul for the cost of the ride. None of us were willing to do that. We’d thought about asking around, trying to find someone who knew where a door was. Again, it would take time, time we didn’t have.
So we would have to take the risky way. We would have to use the door Myrddin had provided.
I was worried. According to our calculations no more than a few days could have passed, but my children were there and they would be vulnerable to Myrddin. I couldn’t waste time. Summer said the portal was still open. She could feel it specifically because it wasn’t meant to be there. She could feel the abnormality in the system.
It was our best bet to get back to Earth quickly.
But I didn’t want to leave her. Not when I’d just gotten her back.
I hugged her, breathing her in and trying to memorize everything I could about the first child of mine. It could be years before I saw her again. I would have another sibling for her by the time I held her once more.
“I love you,” I whispered. “Never forget it. No matter how far away I seem, I am with you.”
She was crying when she pulled away. “Me, too, Momma. This time with you…I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Tell Lee and Rhys and Evan that I love them.”
“They will be thrilled to find out their sister is a goddess of the outer planes.” Dev sighed as he hugged her. “Blessings on you, daughter. Until we meet again.”
“I love you, Papa.” She wiped her eyes and then simply walked into Daniel’s arms and hugged him tight.
How hard was this on my Danny? She was literally a piece of his soul and he had to say good-bye. He whispered something to her, something that had her nodding and promising she wouldn’t forget.
Kelsey walked up with Dean beside her. She’d spent much of the night in a room with her young charge, going over and over the book she’d been willing to stay behind for.
She had it in her hand as though she didn’t want to let go of it. She tucked it under her arm when she approached Marcus. She stopped in front of him. “I can’t believe I’m saying good-bye to you.”
Marcus gave her a warm smile. “Not forever. When the queen returns, I expect you to bring your family, too. I eagerly await meeting your children, Kelsey. You’re going to be a wonderful mother.”
Kelsey hugged him and when she stepped back, it was obvious she was trying not to cry. She sucked it up and nodded. “All right, so the plan is Summer uses her power to open the painting portal thing and that will put us right back where we came in. The king here can fly again so he launches us through and voila, we’re right back in his office where hopefully the wizard doesn’t immediately murder us.”
“Kelsey, we have to go back the way we came. We don’t have another choice.” She’d already argued this point.
“I know.” She pulled her backpack off and shoved the book inside. “The good news is I think this sucker will work on any plane.” She had a sonic pistol in her hand. “Taggart has no idea I took it. He was pretty freaked out by the flowers.”
Dev held up a hand. “I might have stolen one, too.”
It was good to know thievery was still our hobby. And really, I should have thought about it. “Well, at least we’ll have weapons if we need them.”
“There’s one more thing we should talk about before we go,” Kelsey said. “It’s about the prophecy, about Dean’s prophecy. I studied it last night. It looks like Myrddin’s scheme might end up working.”
“What do you mean?” Danny’s face went grim.
“I don’t know if I’m reading it right or not.” Kelsey settled her pack on her shoulder. “I’ll know more when I can have the academics go over it, but best I can tell it wasn’t that two beings in the universe could kill Myrddin. It was that they had to work together to kill him. It will take their unique powers to kill the wizard, and the way it talks…it makes it sound like they’re the same age when they do it. It’s something about halves of a whole and bringing their lives together would be what brings him down. So Myrddin was smart. Had Dean stayed on the Earth plane, he would be Lee’s age.”
I couldn’t even think about that now. “Let’s not borrow trouble. We’ll have the academics and Gray look at the book. Maybe they were never talking about Lee at all. Perhaps there’s someone else who is supposed to help Dean.”
“I think you’re right. I think I’ve been dreaming about him,” Dean said. “I had another dream last night. This one was about the guy from the first dream. I have to find him. I don’t think it’s a lost cause. I’m ready to go. Summer, when you can, I left a letter for my parents.”
Summer gave him a hug. “I promise I’ll get it to them as soon as possible. Be safe, Dean.”
“We’ll take care of him,” Kelsey promised.
“Let’s go because if I don’t go soon, I’m afraid I won’t go at all.” Daniel ran a hand through his hair. “I have a feeling we’re needed at home.”
I held my daughter one last time and then turned to see the door she powered with her magic. I couldn’t believe I was leaving, but Danny was right. We had to get home, had to save our world from the wizard who threatened it.
I looked back one last time before the door closed and Summer was waving, holding Marcus’s hand, and I knew that she was safe and happy, that she was loved.
It was enough.
The door closed behind us and we found ourselves in that same field, the long grass swaying all around us. I clutched the crystal Summer had given me. It held a bit of her power and would point us in the direction of the door. She’d tuned it to find the portal’s odd energy.
Daniel held his hand out and took it. “I’ll find it and we’ll get home. Kelsey, be ready. You’re going first.”
She gave him a jaunty salute. “I wouldn’t have it any other way, Your Highness.”
Danny took off and Kelsey turned my way. “When you go through, keep your head down. I’ll check the office out. If there’s trouble, get behind me. The king will
come in last and then we’ll all get behind him and let him do his thing.”
Despite the fact that I was full up on king’s blood, I agreed. The night before Daniel had taken both Dev and I to bed and fed us, making sure we would heal if anything happened. Then they’d lain with me, rubbing my belly and talking about what we would name her.
Her. Our daughter. It was handy to have a fertility god around.
Daniel flew down and held out a hand. Kelsey took it.
This was the moment, the moment I would take back if I could. This is the moment I would return to and begin again. But I can’t. If I could stop the story here, I would, because in that moment we were happy and we knew what we would find behind that door. We might have been worried about the danger, but we knew our world was waiting for us.
We were wrong.
* * * *
Kelsey
This is the moment I think about all the time, the moment that changed everything for me. As Donovan flew me up to the door, I was eager to get home, to see Fen and my guys.
But if I could go back, I would find a Planeswalker. I would sell my soul and get home that way so I could avoid what happened next, what they took from all of us. It was Myrddin’s magic that did it. One final trick in case we escaped the trap.
The queen would later tell me that the prophet Jacob had told her she must begin the next battle with a loss.
Not all losses are blood and death. There are worse things to lose.
Donovan pushed me through that invisible barrier and I found myself in a dark room.
This is the moment I regret most of all.
* * * *
Zoey
I was the last to take that trip with Danny. He’d pressed Dev through that invisible door and come to get me.
