Wrath

so hard for us and would protect us until her last day, which was hopefully a long ways away. I sobbed for my son and all that he had been through and that he was back home where he belonged. Where he would always belong. I sobbed for how much he had already changed, how he brooded even now as he sat in his bedroom with Sasha, rather than playing outside.

I sobbed for my grandmother, my leader, my role model, my idol, the woman I thought I could never understand, but I understood more than I knew, for realizing too late how much she loved me and everyone else. I sobbed for my mother, who had raised me on her own as a Norman for my safety, who had always protected me, who had taken care of my son so I wouldn’t have to be a single mother, who had taught me to be strong and noble and loyal. I sobbed for the life we shared and for the future I now had to live without her. I sobbed for the baby girl we still hadn’t conceived and maybe never would. I sobbed for the Amadis, the ones we had already lost, the ones we would still lose, and the ones we would gain. I sobbed for all of humanity and the dark future ahead.

When I finally finished, my gut aching from crying so hard, I wiped away my tears and looked up into the most caring, understanding, loving, and beautiful pair of eyes I would ever know. My husband’s. He gave me the strength I needed. He was my rock, my pillar, my Second. I didn’t have my mother or grandmother in this world with me, and I didn’t have a daughter. I was the only one of my kind left. The only Amadis daughter.

But I had my son and my Tristan.

He brushed his lips across my forehead and pulled me tighter against him in confirmation.

And for the first time in weeks, I smiled.

Epilogue

“Explain to me again how your taking Dorian was in everyone’s best interest.” I leaned over Owen, who actually looked kind of small as the chair seemed to swallow him. I sat on the edge of my desk in Rina’s office, which I’d reluctantly taken over, with my arms crossed and my fingers tapping against my bicep, as he slid lower in his seat. “I’m still not sure I understand.”

Weeks had passed, and by now I’d heard his story several times, but I didn’t miss an opportunity to torture him. Whatever I could dish out would never compare to what Tristan and I had gone through when our son had been taken.

“You’d barely left Hades before Kali told me what Lucas had planned, and she divulged her own plan to me,” the warlock explained once again. “She thought she had everything figured out with the stones she created. Lucas had asked her to create them—they weren’t her own idea, although she took credit for them. He’s been working with governments around the world, promising them super-soldiers, but his real goal was to be able to take control of the Normans and use them.”

“But why?” I asked. I hadn’t yet tried to make sense of this part of the story, but I needed to understand now. As matriarch. My stomach knotted as it always did when I was reminded of my new title. “He has his own army already.”

“Because Normans are expendable,” Owen said, and he cleared his throat when I gasped. “In Lucas’s eyes, that is. He wants an army to fight the worst battles so he doesn’t lose too many of his own. But when he asked her to create the stones, Kali saw them as her opportunity to take control. Her goal for centuries had been to oust Lucas and take over as leader of the Daemoni. So instead of making the brothers and their offspring—which also meant the soldiers who shared their stones—respond to Lucas, she ensured the spell made them respond to her. But Lucas had already come up with the idea of the lykora blood.” He let out a dark chuckle. “Kali threw a fit when Lucas was about to one-up her like that. Since both you and Tristan were away from the safe house, Lucas acted, and Kali knew she had to act, too. Lucas wanted Sasha, but Kali wanted Dorian.”

“Why?”

“To use him, of course. She had all kinds of plans to use him against Lucas. Starting with pissing you off so you’d go after him. She thought you and Tristan had the best chance of killing him, and then she could lead. But even if you didn’t, she had possession of what the Daemoni wanted most. She wanted the Ancients to see she wasn’t afraid to take Dorian. She wanted to hold him as a pawn over them and the Amadis. Along with her Norman army, Dorian would be her key to the throne.” He shifted in his seat, sitting up higher as he explained his actions. “I instantly saw that the fastest way to hammer down her trust in me was to volunteer for the job and follow through on the one thing that would hurt you the most. Plus, it meant I had Dorian and nobody else did. I could make sure he stayed safe. I was protecting him.”

“Which you could have done by not abandoning us in the first place,” I pointed out. Once again.

“Right. But you needed Kali’s soul, and I wanted her gone, out of this world forever. And I needed you to do it. We had to work together. I discovered her weakness. You had the jar, and I knew you’d do it right.”

“And why couldn’t you let us know you were behind it all but still on our side?”

His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “You know that first time you reached Kali’s mind—when you ticked her off so bad? She said you felt her.” I nodded at the memory of the scream in my head. I hadn’t recognized it as Kali at the time, but knew that’s what he referred to. “She implanted a mind-trigger in you. Every time you got close, she hit it, and it gave her access to your mind. It’s kind of along the same lines of what she did with some of the Council members a couple of years ago. So if you knew, you could give me away without knowing it. Then Dorian and I both would have been dead.”

I exhaled sharply. “Okay, but six months, Owen? Really? Do you have any idea what we went through?”

Six months had felt like a lifetime. When I noticed how much Dorian had changed, it still felt as though years had passed. I swore Kali put some kind of age-progression spell on him. He’d grown half-a-foot, standing three inches taller than me, and looked more like his father than ever. His hair had darkened to a dirty blond, and he appeared to be twelve or thirteen rather than nine. He had the attitude of a preteen, too. Owen said he wouldn’t be surprised if Kali had done such a thing—the faster Dorian came into his full powers, the more valuable he became—although the magic had probably died with her. I hoped so. He was already growing up way too fast without any help.

“I’m sorry,” Owen said for the thousandth time. “I am so, so sorry, Alexis. I don’t know how many times I have to say it. I tried to make it happen sooner. I dropped the cloak so you could find us, and I left clues for Blossom’s tracking spell to pick up on. But Kali was psycho. She’d get all paranoid for no reason and change her plans without telling me. I made the portal, instead of letting her do it, so I could keep it open for you to come through. Before that, I took us on the route by the Fairfax safe house so you would pick up our mind signatures.”

“Well, you really pushed Blossom and me,” I said, pouring on the guilt factor. He probably didn’t need it. Rina had told him many times before that he pushed our limits—especially mine—way too far, and he needed to be careful. Sounding like her made me sad, so I could only imagine how it made him feel, being on the receiving end.

“Are you done torturing Scarecrow for the thirtieth time?” Tristan asked as he sauntered into my office. “You know that’s not the real reason he’s in here.”

I shrugged. “We were waiting on you. What better way to pass the time?”

I glared at Owen, silently daring him to roll his eyes or make a smart aleck remark. He knew I’d forgiven him, but he also knew I wouldn’t forget for a very long time. Not three days before he’d taken Dorian had he promised me he would never take my son anywhere without our permission. He’d broken that promise—and all kinds of trust on multiple levels—and I wasn’t going to let him off easy. Even if he did blame himself for Rina and Mom.

Owen had never known the part of Kali’s plan that brought Mom and Rina into danger. He’d thought she’d chosen to go to northern England because she had a castle near there, not because the soldiers tied to Noah were based out of Yorkshire. And apparently she’d chosen to take Noah specifically to get her revenge on Rina.

Owen had hoped we’d followed them through the portal and were on our way. When he planted Dorian on the sacred grounds, he had no idea Kali had used Noah to lure Rina and Mom to her, so it had never occurred to