“Oh, and they absolutely will,” Brady spoke up. “I’m not looking forward to reporting back to Mrs. Marth. So far, we’ve been able to keep her and the rest of the family in the dark, but that won’t last much longer.”
“That reminds me,” I started, but hesitated to ask the uncomfortable question on the tip of my tongue. “Morea, what, uh, what did you do with Mr. Marth? His family deserves to have him back.”
Morea closed her eyes for a moment, and a pulse of magic shot from her. A second later, her eyes fluttered open. “I returned him to where he died,” she said, and I suppressed a shudder.
“We’ll take care of it, and of Ms. Chamberlain’s room,” Brady said and signaled to the guards that had accompanied him. They dashed away in a flash of robes.
“Now, I will pay the price for what I have done,” Morea said resolutely and stuck both of her wrists out at Flora face up. “Arrest me. I will not resist.”
Flora nodded and waved a hand in front of Morea. Sparkling golden cuffs appeared on the oread’s wrist, and with another wave of her hand, the grate of the elevator lifted, and Morea stepped aside to allow Flora inside. As Flora closed the grate again, Morea fixed her haunting eyes on mine, and smiled. “You are special, human,” she said, and disappeared along with the elevator.
As soon as they vanished, Blair, Jadis, and Thorn enveloped me in a group hug. “I’m so glad you’re okay, Selena!” Thorn said into my ear, his warm breath and words sending goosebumps rippling down my back.
“We all are,” Blair agreed. “When Flora came back to the kitchen to tell us what you’d learned, and we realized you were alone in the elevator with Evie — or who we thought was Evie — I knew right away you were in serious trouble.”
“I can’t believe I didn’t see it sooner,” I said, shaking my head. “After all the times I saw those terrible blue eyes in my nightmares, how could I miss the fact that Evie had a matching pair?”
“It doesn’t matter now, love,” Blair said. “The only thing that does is that you’re safe, and that we all didn’t just get swept away in an avalanche.”
“Right? I bet you never thought you’d be grateful for all those awful nightmares,” Jadis joked. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I obviously hated that you were going through that and that there wasn’t anything I could do to help, but knowing what I know now, it’s a good thing it happened.”
“Weird as it sounds, I agree. Though I’ve gotta say, I sure hope this means they’ll stop now,” I said to laughs from everyone, and the sound made my heart swell as I thought how close I’d come to never hearing it again. “In all seriousness, though, I meant what I said when I told Morea that this is my home now. You’re all my family.”
“Aww, you didn’t really need to tell me that — I already knew — but I still love hearing it, anyway,” Jadis said and squeezed my arm as we all released each other.
“What a weekend this has turned out to be,” Blair mumbled. “I knew we were in for fireworks, but this? I never would’ve guessed.”
Thorn sighed and shook his head. “I’m so sorry. I still feel like this is all my fault.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, dear! Of course, it isn’t your fault,” Blair said and waved him away.
“How isn’t it? I’m the one who brought all these people here. I organized all this, brought it on us, and if I hadn’t, then maybe Mr. Marth and Ms. Chamberlain would still be alive.”
“Don’t beat yourself up about it, Thorn. You could never have known any of this would happen. You were just doing your job!” I said and wrapped my arms around him again.
“I know you’re right, but I can’t help feeling that way,” he mumbled into my shoulder.
“None of this is your fault,” I said and squeezed him tighter. “By that logic, I could also be blaming myself for not making sense of my dreams sooner. The only one who’s to blame here is Morea, and she’s never going to be able to hurt anyone ever again — not that I think she’ll want to after this.”
“Selena’s right, dear. There’s no use dwelling on this,” Blair said. “So, why don’t we head downstairs and see what culinary confections we can find in Emile’s kitchen to cheer us all up?”
“That sounds great to me,” I said, and slipped my hand into Thorn’s before he had the chance to object. Though I saw on his face how much he wanted to mope, a smile still bloomed at my hand in his.
“Me too, but I guess I need to give you two lovebirds some space,” Jadis teased before winking at me and leading the way to the stairs with Blair just behind her. Even if we could’ve taken the elevator, I wouldn’t have wanted to — because now that I’d almost lost the ability to forever, I never wanted to stop holding Thorn’s hand. We
“What you said back there was really amazing,” Thorn said as we took the first step of the staircase together.
“You think so?”
“Yeah, I do. I don’t know where you find your courage, and maybe you don’t even have to look for it, but regardless, I admire that in you,” he said, and though I hated myself for it, I couldn’t stop the blush from scorching both my cheeks. “I mean, for Lilith’s sake, you got into an elevator with a murderous oread, and you not only survived the encounter, you got through to her in more ways than one afterward.”
“I don’t think she ever really meant to kill me, actually,” I said, surprising even myself.
Thorn snorted and shot me a look like he thought I was crazy. “Are you serious?”
“I am! She did attack me, there’s no denying that, but
