Hekla sniffed and crossed her arms. “You still have some amends to make, vampire.”
“Whatever you ask, it will be done.” Kaippa gave her a bow that actually appeared respectful.
“Was that the first time in your life you agreed to something without sarcasm?” I asked.
“There is a first time for everything,” Kaippa said, “or so you modern folks claim.”
Lucus glared at him. “We’re going to heal and set broken bones, vampire, and attempt to make amends for the horror we’ve caused in this place. But first…”
“It’s time we make sure the Duke isn’t a problem,” I said.
“Agreed.” He took me into his arms, and we flew over Franklin’s newest battlefield toward the cursed castle with Hekla and Kaippa not far behind.
On the ramparts, the Mage Duke stood, silent and unmoving, overlooking an array of color.
“What is that?” I twisted in Lucus’s arms to try to see.
Heaps of yellow, pink, orange, blue, and green blanketed the ground around the castle walls. The scent of lilac, rose, lily, and phlox drifted on the October breeze.
“Flowers.” Lucus set us down not five feet from the Duke, who just kept staring down at the multitude of blooms. “So you did hear my suggestion?”
“I did. And I told Kaippa to spread the word.” It was beautiful and also achingly sad. The people who hadn’t been out casting the spell with Hekla’s blood must have been busy ravaging florist shops and neighborhood yards for this bounty. I swallowed and faced the Duke. “This is in honor of Lucilla, who forgave Lucus and spoke to me during my first casting.”
The Duke’s head jerked like we’d surprised him, even though we hadn’t been stealthy on our approach. His eyes filled with silver tears, and he raised his dimpled chin. “During your first casting…”
“I am one of your distant descendants.” I’d told him as much already.
His gaze narrowed, and he looked like he was going to shout or rush me, but no magic sparked to life in his hands. “You saw Lucilla.”
“I did. And she forgave Lucus for what he did. He didn’t intend to hurt her. He was young.”
The Duke held up a hand to stop me from speaking and looked toward the flowers. Tears fell from his face and dropped all the way to the rainbow of petals on the ground. “You do resemble my sister.”
“I’m telling the truth.”
He looked at the sky, and his tears ran down his wide cheeks and into his collar. “I loved her so much.”
Lucus stepped closer, his arm brushing mine. “As did I.” Lucus knelt. “I am sorry. I never intended to injure her.”
The Mage Duke let out a noise like a gasp of pain or a sob, then fell to his knees. He grabbed his shirt. “My heart. I’m dying. You’ve slain the demon, and all my power rested in that curse, and its gone. Fled along with my…” He leaned on the wall and worked his way to standing as he stared down at Lucus’s bent head. “My life is at its end. If Lucilla could forgive you, and this descendant of my own blood, this Yew Queen…” A cough tore at him, shook him hard. “If you believe him, maybe…” He coughed again and peered down at the blooms. “To honor my daughter. They brought her flowers. How did they know?”
Lucus’s emerald eyes shone as he looked up at his enemy. “I told Coren, and she asked it of her people.”
The Duke’s glazed eyes turned to see Lucus. “You. You both did this?” He sobbed, fingers at his mouth as he shook his head in disbelief. Then he raised his head and stared over the place where the flowers rested. “Lucilla?”
A chill ran down my back. Was he seeing her ghost?
“Forgive,” the Duke murmured. “Forgive. I forgive you, Lord Lucus. Farewell.”
He clutched his chest, his face gone red, then tipped over the wall and fell down, down, down, landing in the colorful blooms that had once given his beloved daughter such joy.
31 Coren
The crunch and groan of construction equipment faded as I walked into the castle. We’d all taken turns working together—with all our varying strengths and powers—to see every person involved in the melee either sent off to be buried with respect, to the hospital for further recovery, or to their homes to begin the long process of rebuilding.
Lucus had healed the trees that were scorched in the courtyard during the battle and was currently shifting their upper branches to create a bower of sorts. He flicked a hand, and sapphire flowers bloomed along slender vines that wrapped the trees’ trunks and lower branches.
“It’s a beautiful display for them,” I said quietly as the birds chirped around us.
The names of the ones we’d lost shifted through my mind. Sebastian the Binder. Corliss the fae. Baccio and Aurelio.
I kissed Lucus’s hand, and he curled his fingers around mine before giving me a smile.
“It’s time we leave this place for the earth to reclaim.”
“You don’t want to continue living here?”
“No. I will encourage the earth to take this castle, my brothers, and those we lost into itself, to be born again as the earth does with all living things eventually.” Lucus lifted me and set me on an oak’s low, large limb. Below me, he looked up, his eyes sparkling like gems. “Would you be willing to wed me, Yew Queen?”
My heart did a little dance. “Hell yeah.” I kind of surprised myself agreeing so quickly. But Lucus was mine and I was his, and if he wanted a ceremony, by all the scones in Franklin, he was going to get one.
Smiling wide, he swept me from the branch and held me tight. “I love you, Coren Connelly. Every magic I have is at your beck and call.”
I ran a hand down his hard stomach, then rubbed lower. “I’m in the mood for the oldest kind of magic, love.”
Lucus’s chest rumbled with a quiet laugh. “I can probably be
