by Wendi Wilson
Easton’s hand slipped into mine and squeezed it as tears trickled down Robin Goodman’s face. Real tears, born of love and guilt and the warm embrace of forgiveness.
“I forgive you, too,” Shaela said, filling the moment of silence, “for spending the last few weeks Glamouring me into believing you were the best thing since chocolate bars. Of course, you didn’t need to use magic to make me feel that way.”
She smiled at him, and he smiled back, saying, “Thank you, Shaela. I’m truly sorry for manipulating you into ruining your friendship with your cousin.”
“I understand it was for Aubrey’s benefit,” she replied, then elbowed me in the ribs. “But something you should know about December right off the bat is that she doesn’t give up on those she loves. She’s waited too long and fought too hard to have a real family to let any of us go without a fight. Your plan failed before you even began. She would’ve rescued me from your dastardly clutches. Do not doubt it.”
She waggled her eyebrows and everyone laughed as the tension in the room eased. She looped an arm around my neck, and I hugged her back. Then I pulled her necklace from my pocket and held it up in front of her. Her face lit up, and she took it and clasped it around her neck, the golden wings resting against her chest.
“Now that we’ve cleared the air,” my dad said, “we should get back to business. We need a plan to bring down Sebille before it’s too late.”
Everyone began throwing out suggestions, and we came up with a solid foundation for a plan. I watched the people around me, working together, building off of each other’s ideas, and I was overcome with emotion.
I had a family. Everyone in that room was my family, blood relation or not. We shared love and friendship and we watched out for each other.
And that was the key to true happiness.
Epilogue
“Where is she?”
Sebille stomped out of the elevator, snapping the words at the guard by the front desk. She’d fumed all the way down to the main floor after receiving the call. The guard trembled at the sight of her rage and lifted a shaky hand to point toward the couches in the lobby.
She strode forward, not stopping until she stood toe-to-toe with the young girl who was not supposed to be there. She was supposed to be safely ensconced behind the walls of that dreadful academy, reporting helpful information and planting the seeds of its eventual downfall.
“Speak,” Sebille ordered, the timbre of her voice deep and frightening.
“I’m sorry, Your Highness. I underestimated the half-breed’s strength, and she saw past my Glamour for only an instant. It was enough for her to bring her suspicions to Finn Oberon. I could not avoid the confrontation and they pulled the truth from me.”
“And what truth might that be?” Sebille asked, her voice deceptively friendly as she stroked a hand over Aubrey’s black hair.
“That I was there as a spy, reporting vital information back to you about their training, their army, and their best fighters. I also told them I let you in that night and took you to Finn’s office.”
“Why did you not lie, Aubrey?”
“I—I couldn’t. December has the power of command.”
A growl formed low in Sebille’s throat, rattling in her chest before escaping from her mouth as a high-pitched screech. The hand she had in Aubrey’s hair fisted around the limp strands, and she yanked, throwing her onto the couch behind her.
“You lie,” she gritted out, pointing one long-taloned finger at Aubrey’s face.
“I swear, I do not,” Aubrey stuttered as she cowered in fear against the cushions. “The king mentioned his grandson, Easton. He said that because Easton is heir to the throne, his power of command is developing. He told the girl to try it with me, because she in first-in-line to your throne.”
“And she was able to do it? You could not resist?”
Aubrey looked down at her lap as she answered. “I tried, Your Highness, but the girl is strong. I was compelled to answer her truthfully, and the words were forced past my lips against my will.”
“And what of Puck?” Sebille asked, placing a fingertip beneath Aubrey’s chin and lifting her face so she could look into her eyes.
“I told them only that I was to keep an eye on him for you because he is a strong faery and a threat.”
“You told them nothing of his treachery?”
“No, Your Highness. The girl did not ask for clarification or more detail before I broke free and escaped.”
“Good. Now, get out of my sight before I kill you for being such a disappointment.”
The young Zephyr scrambled off the couch and ran for the front doors, using her black wings to propel her forward. Sebille watched her go, but her mind had already wandered back to Oberon Academy and what threat those idiot Sylphids might pose to her ultimate plan.
She strode back to the elevator and rode it up to her penthouse apartment. Lost in thought, she wandered over to the wall of windows, looking at the city that spread out before her. She looked out as far as she could see, imagining the ocean behind the hills and the other continents beyond that.
“This planet is mine,” she murmured. “I still have Puck in my back pocket, and I will use him to bring down the academy. Once that is done, I’ll be free to move forward with my plans and finish this.”
When those plans came to fruition, the humans would be practically obliterated. The few who remained would live as slaves to the Zephyrs.
And the Sylphids would be exterminated.
“It will be a perfect world,” she whispered, her feral smile reflecting back at her from the glass wall. “Absolutely perfect.”
Chapter Ninety-Nine
1
“I am sad to announce that Oberon Academy has been infiltrated by a Zephyr spy.”
You could have heard a pin drop in the silence, despite there being a few hundred people crowded into the gym where Finn had called the assembly. I’d expected outrage, or at the very minimum, gasps of shock. The complete and utter silence was a little eerie.
“I know many of you knew and were friends with Aubrey Ellsworth,” Finn continued, “but do not feel badly about yourselves for not sensing the truth. She had us all fooled.”
Now the gasps did ring out, along with cries of disbelief and outrage. Aubrey had been at the pinnacle of the social strata, always hanging onto the shirttails of the school’s reigning queen, Tiana Avery. I glanced over my shoulder at Her Highness, whose dark navy eyes were glaring daggers right back at me.
Somehow, in her psychotic blonde head, she’d decided this was all my fault.
Great. That’s just what I needed.
“We must remain vigilant,” Finn said, his voice booming with its magical amplification. “Sebille has raised the stakes, sending a child to spy for her. She has no boundaries, no line too low to cross, and now that we’ve discovered her espionage, there is no telling what she may do next. This war is upon us. We cannot assume, as we always have, that our preparations are for some event in the far distant future. We must be ready for battle at all times.”
He paused for a moment, his eyes scanning the sea of faces. His expression was grave, his eyes communicating far more than his words had. Things were getting real.
“I hope you all are of the same mind. The same heart. The world is in a shambles, but we can change it. The power is inside us all. This world is what we make it. Thank you,” he said with a clap of his hands. “You are dismissed.”
The gym filled with chatter as Finn swept from the room. I looked at the students around me, trying to picture them at battle, exchanging elemental blasts with the dark, powerful Zephyrs. How many of them would survive it? How many would we lose?
Something trembled up my spine, a sort of trepidation that felt prophetic. Maybe going to actual war wasn’t inevitable. Maybe, somehow, we could stop it and come to some sort of compromise.
I shook my head to clear it of the hopeful, yet irrational, thoughts. Of course, there was no way to st
op it. If there were, the council and Finn Oberon would have acted on it long ago.
Sebille was too hungry for dominance and power. The only way to prevent an all-out war would be to kill her first. And even then, there would be no guarantees. Her people seemed to thrive on the prospect of world domination as much as she did. Her death may change nothing.
But if she dies, you’ll be queen, a tiny voice in my head whispered.
“Hey.”
Strong arms circled around my waist and soft lips met mine, erasing all thoughts of black-winged faeries and genocidal agendas.
“Easton,” I breathed, my hands automatically tangling in his hair as if that’s exactly where they belonged.
He pulled back just far enough to gaze into my eyes. His held a hint of worry, and because I was wearing the ring he gave me, I could see the blue tinge to his aura confirming the emotion.
“Look at these kids,” he said, keeping his voice low. “They aren’t ready for this. None of us are.”
I looked around at all the nervous, edgy faces. Eyes glassy with unshed tears. Restless hands pushing through blonde locks. They were scared. With good reason.
“You are responsible for this.”
We turned to stare at Tiana’s snarling face. Easton stiffened, his hand moving to my lower back as if to present a united front. My shoulders drooped, resignation flowing through me. I’d expected this.
“How, exactly, am I responsible for the fact that your bestie turned out to be an enemy spy?” I asked in a lazy, unconcerned drawl.
Tiana’s face reddened and a guttural growl vibrated in her throat. I stifled the urge to yawn in her face. The days of her intimidating me had long since passed, but that didn’t stop her from trying. When she didn’t get a reaction, she planted her hands on her hips and leaned into my personal space.
“You probably put her up to it,” she hissed.
“That doesn’t even make any sense,” Easton said. “December has been here, what? Six months? You and Aubrey have been best friends since the second grade.”
“Maybe it was her black-hearted Zephyr father, then,” Tiana spat.
“Watch your mouth, Tiana. You don’t get to talk trash about my family,” I warned.
I was starting to get angry. And when I got angry, bad things tended to happen.
Of course, my powers didn’t really rage out of control anymore. I’d learned to keep them reined in when my emotions were heightened, and I hadn’t caused a freak storm or even a lustnado in weeks.
But Tiana didn’t know that. And she was playing with fire. Literally.
“Oh, you mean your bitch of a Zephyr-queen grandmother and her bastard son?”
Easton caught me around the waist as I lunged forward, intent on ripping every strand of blonde hair from her head. No magic needed.
Tiana flinched and took several steps back before she caught herself. I stopped struggling against Easton’s hold and smiled at her, a smile with no humor and lots of teeth.
“Psycho,” she muttered and, with a flip of her hair, spun around and stalked away.
I pulled out of Easton’s grip and straightened my uniform before smoothing a hand over my hair. He watched me without speaking, one brow arched and the corners of his mouth tilted upward.
“What?” I asked. “I warned her first. She can talk about Sebille all she wants, but she needs to leave my dad out of it. He is off-limits.”
“Yeah, but you weren’t even really that mad. You just enjoy scaring the piss out of her,” he replied, his smile growing until I couldn’t help but smile back.
“Damned aura reader,” I grumbled.
“No aura-reading necessary,” he said, slipping his fingers through mine as we headed for the exit. “I know you, December Thorne. I know what makes you tick.”
“And what makes me tick?” I asked, a saucy lilt to my voice.
“Among other things,” he said in a suggestive tone before growing serious, “serving justice to those who’ve wronged you or your family is at the top of the list.”
“Is that what I was doing?” I asked as we walked up the stairs toward my room.
“Nah,” he said, grinning. “That was good, old-fashioned revenge.”
I smiled back, saying, “You really do know me so well.”
“I really do,” he agreed, pressing his lips to my temple as we came to a halt outside my door.
Turning toward him, I raised onto my toes and pressed my mouth to his. He soft lips moved against mine, a soft kiss that spoke of love and devotion. His fingertips traced the curve of my jaw as he stepped back, mumbling a goodbye.
I watched him go in a daze as I backed into the door and fumbled with the handle. As my fingers latched onto the knob, it turned on its own volition and the door flew inward. I stumbled, catching myself before I fell on my butt.
Shaela’s laughter rang out as she helped to steady me.
“Finally,” she said, lending special emphasis to the word. “Let’s get this girls’ night started!”
Chapter One Hundred
2
“It feels weird hanging out and having fun after everything that’s happened,” I commented once we settled down on my bed in our pajamas, my bunny, Blossom, snuggled in my lap.
“Everything that has happened is exactly why we need this, D. We’ve been through so much awful shit, we shouldn’t feel bad about taking a few minutes to just relax and be normal.”
I nodded, memories of Shaela’s anger and aloofness playing through my mind from when our grandfather was using his Glamour to try to rip us apart. Of course, it was all for Aubrey’s benefit, so she could report back to Sebille that Puck was doing as instructed and wrecking my life.
And of course, it didn’t work. Shaela always came back to me when she’d spent enough time away from him and his Glamour wore off. As best friends, we were inseparable.
As cousins…we were indivisible.
It had been a few weeks since Puck’s big reveal, the arrival of my mother and the discovery that Shaela and I were indeed related, and we adjusted to our new roles as cousins without a hiccup. It wasn’t that different from before. We were still family by choice, and now by blood. It was the best of both worlds.
“I think you should come visit me over the summer,” Shaela said, gaining my attention. “My dad wants to meet his only niece.”
“He has met me. Remember parents’ day?”
“I know,” she answered, “but he didn’t know who you were then.”
“I’d love to come,” I said with a nod.
“Maybe you could bring your mom,” she suggested. “She might want to meet her only brother.”
She kept her tone light, but I could tell it was important to her. Or to her dad. Or both.
“If she goes, my dad goes,” I murmured.
He just found her after eighteen years. No way was he going to let her leave his side. I was pretty sure they hadn’t separated for longer than a bathroom break since he brought her to the school.
And most Sylph families would not tolerate a Zephyr in their midst, despite his noble intentions and past good deeds.
“My parents love you, and they know you’re half-Zephyr,” she responded. “They wouldn’t disrespect Cris or treat him like an outsider.”
“Are you sure?”
She nodded, her solemn expression adding weight to her words as she said, “Positive. I’ve talked to them about you and your parents. They were a little weirded out at first, but in the end, they’re just glad I found you. And look what you brought us—a father and grandfather in Puck, a sister and aunt in Ellie, and a niece and cousin in you. None of this would have come to light if you weren’t half-Zephyr because Sebille wouldn’t care about you and would never have sent Grandfather here to destroy your life.”
“Well, when you look at it that way…” I deadpanned, and we both laughed.
I agreed to talk to my parents, to try to convince them to join me on my trip to visit Shaela. In the back of my mind,
I knew they’d come. Just like Dad wanted to keep Mom by his side, she wanted to hold me near.
After more than seventeen years of mourning the loss of me, of thinking I’d died at birth, I was suddenly and miraculously alive and she didn’t want to miss a moment of it. While she tried not to impose and let me have my space, I could feel her edgy tension whenever we parted ways. It was going to take some time for her to relax and realize I wasn’t going to disappear again.
No way was she going to let me travel to Shaela’s home without her.
If I was being totally honest, I didn’t want to leave her, either. Or Dad. I just found them and we were still working on existing as a family unit.
“Speaking of your parents,” Shaela said, pulling me from my thoughts, “did I tell you I caught them making out in the gym yesterday after school?”
“What? No! Did they see you?”
“Of course they did,” she responded with a predatory smile. “I cleared my throat…loudly…to get their attention. You should have seen it, D. They broke apart like a couple of teenagers, their faces bright red. They couldn’t even look me in the eyes as they mumbled out some excuses. It was so freaking cute.”
I barked out a laugh as joy warmed my heart. Most teenagers would die of embarrassment at the mere thought of their parents making out in public, but my situation was different. My mom and dad had their happiness ripped away from them against their will. They were tricked, lied to, and lost to each other for nearly two decades, and they’d only just found each other again.
And they just found me. So, instead of concentrating on each other and rediscovering what made them fall instantly in love and conceive me in the first place, they’d been focusing all of their energy and attention on me. While I loved having real parents who doted on me, I’d been subtly encouraging them to spend more time together. Alone.