by Kate Keir
He blinked in shock. “A blood inheritance secures allegiance,” he murmured.
I nodded. “Yep, Pen’s Draugur inherited the exact same blood as you did.”
Chapter Forty
The battle was won. The mortal world Draugur threw down their weapons and surrendered as soon as they saw their stronger cousins kneeling before Finlay.
My Dion quickly shifted back into human shape and began embracing each other in celebration and delight. Sluag was in the Síorraidh box, and we were all still alive.
Finlay had begun leading the Supers to the cellars of Castle Dion—better safe than sorry. We had no idea if they might decide to go rogue again, and the cellars were a good place to keep them under control until they could be returned to the Endwood.
I had begun to feel a little better, and I knew I needed to apologise to Lyall for what I had done. I knelt beside him and gently touched my hand to his cheek. It was ice cold and I had to stop myself from recoiling in shock.
“Lyall,” I whispered, suddenly afraid.
He didn’t reply, and my hands frantically sought the pulse-point in his neck. There wasn’t even a weak pulse, and he wasn’t breathing.
“Lyall,” I cried.
This time the other Dion heard me and ran to my side.
“Flora, what is it?” Freya dropped to her knees next to me and held the back of her hand over Lyall’s blue lips. She was trying to feel for breath.
I struggled to find enough of my own breath to speak. “He’s not breathing, Freya. He’s dead. How is he dead?”
Artair was kneeling at Lyall’s head now. He studied my dark-haired Dion’s face before gently hooking his fingers under Lyall’s right hand, which was extended out from his body as though he had been reaching for something when he died.
“Flora, lift up the bottom of your jeans,” Artair instructed me.
Choking back tears, I did as he asked and gasped when I saw a pale blue handprint against my ankle.
“I don’t understand,” I sobbed.
“I do,” Freya said softly.
I turned toward her. My heart hurt so much I could barely breathe.
Freya frowned sadly. “He woke up and knew you wouldn’t accept his help. So, he did it without you knowing, Flora. I don’t know how he managed to force you to take his energy, but I think that’s what he did.”
I thought back to the way my palm had pressed against his, just before we marched on Castle Dion. His energy had flickered around my fingertips even though I had tried to stop him from sharing it with me.
Just a little insurance policy, love.
I bowed my head over his chest, and the tears escaped me. He’d known I wouldn’t be able to do it, and he’d made sure that when the time came, I wouldn’t have a choice.
I thought back to when the bolt of extra energy had surged through me. I should have realised it wasn’t a miracle—miracles don’t happen. Lyall had given every single piece of himself. He had sacrificed himself, to make sure he stopped Sluag and saved my life. My mind was suddenly filled with the image of his crooked smile.
I’m gonna save the girl and the world.
Finding his cold hand and wrapping it in my own, I shook my head over and over again, denying that my soul mate was truly dead.
“What have you done?” I whispered. “What have you done?”
Grief completely overwhelmed me. I bent my head until my forehead came to rest on the familiar black T-shirt that covered his chest. I kept trying to form words to tell him how angry I was with him, but all I could do was let the tears fall with such ferocity I didn’t think they would ever stop.
The other Dion stood up and took a few steps back as though to give me some privacy. Each of them had bowed heads and tears staining their cheeks.
I finally managed to speak.
“I told you not to leave me, Lyall Harris. You promised me what we have is eternal. It goes beyond even this. I can’t live unless you’re there with me,” I whispered brokenly.
As I spoke, I could feel the truth of my words, and I began to really understand what it was for a Soul Keeper to lose a bonded Dion. My body might have started to shut down when I used too much energy in the fight against Sluag, but this was something completely different.
I had never even felt the stirrings of my soul trying to shut down before. I hadn’t truly known it was possible.
Now I did. It was as though my soul was a caged bird that had been deliriously happy inside its gilt prison until it realised there was a whole other world out there, that it had never even known existed.
Once the bird had a taste of how exquisite that big wide world was, it wanted out, and it was content to die trying. The bird would keep on flying into the bars of its cage, until its body was a battered and broken mess—because in truth, even that was better than the alternative.
My soul was the bird, and it flew against the cage of my chest over and over again, breaking apart a little more with each desperate collision. It was determined that it would continue doing so until I died, because a life without Lyall, was no life at all.
I vaguely registered the sound of Finlay’s voice, and even that brought me no solace. Even though for months now, I had been desperate to hear Finlay’s real voice again, instead of the strange tone his Super body had used. I heard him from a thousand miles away. I was just a temporary spectator here, waiting to die.
“What happened?” Finlay.
“It’s Lyall, he’s gone.” Artair.
“No, he can’t be.” Finlay.
I felt Finlay kneel next to me and his arm wrapped around my trembling shoulders. “Flora, it’s going to be okay. I promise you it’s going to be okay.”
It didn’t matter. My soul was almost done. It only needed to crash into those bars just a couple more times, and I would be free—my soul would be free.
I tried to tell Finlay that it was okay, that I was dead now. But he wasn’t talking to me any longer.
He had pulled a short blade from his hip, and I watched in horror as he drew it across his wrist. As the blood welled up in the channel of the wound I tried to cry out to him.
You’re not supposed to die. It’s me, I’m doing the dying, Finlay.
But he couldn’t hear me, probably because I was nearly dead now, I thought.
He leaned over Lyall and started to let the crimson fluid drip into Lyall’s slightly open mouth.
What are you doing? He’s dead. Let him be, I screamed from inside my cage.
Finlay couldn’t hear me, and he carried on letting the warm blood drip from his wrist into Lyall’s mouth as I stared in horrified fascination.
“I don’t know if this will work,” he said to the other Dion. “I don’t know how long he was gone.”
My little bird was frantic now. No sooner did it pick itself up from the floor after its last failed attempt at freedom, than it would launch itself at the bars again, earning yet another broken bone. The bird wanted to protect Lyall. It had to protect him at all costs. All I could hear inside my mind was my own voice screaming and screaming for Finlay to stop.
And then there was silence.
The tears cleared from my eyes, and I was able to focus on the amber wolf-eyes that stared back at me.
My bird hesitated mid-flight, unsure if it was supposed to carry on trying to die.
“Lyall,” I whispered.
“Hello, love.” He blinked.
Epilogue
“Are you seriously bringing jelly?” I laughed.
“Damn straight, I’m bringing jelly. What sort of party doesn’t have jelly?” Lyall’s eyes grew more wolfish as he leaned forward and snaffled a miniature quiche from the cooling tray I had just placed on the kitchen counter.
I reached out, lightning quick and slapped the back of his hand.
“Ouch.” He laughed as he collected the tray and headed for the cottage door.
Looking at the clock that my parents had fixed on to the kitchen wall when they very first moved
in to this house—all those years ago—I swore under my breath.
“We’re going to be late,” I yelled.
“Why do you think I’m leaving, love.” Lyall’s voice trailed back through the open front door.
A yowl near my ankles caught my attention, and I looked down to see three hungry faces staring up at me.
“Okay, okay. I’ll feed you before I go.”
Achilles, Phobos, and Deimos purred appreciatively as I filled their bowls with food and quickly dropped them onto the floor.
“Now be good. I have somewhere I need to be.”
When I reached the garden, I sighed in frustration. I couldn’t believe Lyall had already gone. I gave one last glance around at the overgrown weeds and trees that still surrounded my parents’ cottage—my cottage.
“I’ll deal with it next week.” I shrugged before imagining myself inside the Everwood.
As I materialised beneath the Síorraidh trees, I marvelled again at their new purple colour before setting off to catch up with Lyall.
My Everwood had been restored to its former glory since Sluag had been boxed for eternity, but it did have a few small differences. The colour of the flowers was one of them.
A few days after we had taken back Castle Dion, I had gone for a walk down to the shore of Loch Ness in the dead of night and taken the blue box with me.
Just before I hurled the Síorraidh box into the centre of the deep, green water, I had pressed my mouth against the crack of the lid.
“Your days of hurting people are over, monster. Sleep well.”
I could have sworn that Sluag was screaming as the box arced through the air and splashed into the water to settle for an eternity within the depths of the loch.
I hurried through the trees, excited to see Finlay. I hadn’t seen him for a while. My best friend was now technically Sluag’s replacement. He was immortal—which took some getting used to. Although, if he hadn’t inherited Sluag’s immortal blood, then he would never have been able to bring Lyall back to me on the day of the battle.
So, I was more than grateful for Finlay’s new status, but I was aware that it was taking him a little time to get used to his new role.
Finlay had free reign to come and go through both the Endwood and the Everwood it seemed.
According to Eric, it would stay that way unless I revoked his permission—which was never going to happen. Finlay was one of us, one of the good guys.
The Endwood looked completely different these days too. The trees were starting to grow back and they had recently begun to bloom with purple flowers, just like the ones in the Everwood. The dawn had remained to permanently replace the cold night sky that had roofed the Endwood for so many thousand years.
I stepped into a large clearing and found that my Dion had set up the mother of all parties. There were trestle tables laden with food and banners and bunting strung from every tree.
The animal souls were here in droves, and thousands of pure souls ducked and bobbed around me in delight as I walked across the clearing to greet my friends.
The rogue souls had all disappeared when Sluag was boxed, and we had no idea where they had gone. I was sure we hadn’t seen the last of them, but it was nice to enjoy the respite for now.
Enid stood in the centre of the group, and she held a huge birthday cake that was alight with candles.
“Happy twenty-first birthday, Flora,” she shouted happily.
I shook my head at Lyall, who stood next to Enid.
“Surprise.” He smirked.
I blew out my candles and scowled at each of my friends, half-jokingly.
“I thought we said no birthday celebrations?”
Finlay stepped forward and wrapped me in a bear hug. “It’s not a birthday celebration, Flor. It’s a ‘yay, you didn’t get killed by a prophecy before your twenty-first birthday, celebration.’ So that’s okay.”
“Smart ass.” I laughed.
The party was surprisingly relaxed and exactly what I needed. It was amazing to spend time with each of my friends and not have to look over our shoulders every couple of minutes. I sat on a tree stump, alone for a moment while I studied the group.
It was going to take me a while before I stopped worrying about Finlay, but he seemed to be happy right now, and that was good enough, after everything we had been through.
I smiled at Artair and Enid as they sat, huddled together, deep in conversation. They were the perfect couple. Not like Bear and Freya, who fought like a cat and dog but always made up afterward.
“What you thinking about?” Finlay’s voice made me jump a fraction before I calmed down enough to gesture that he sit with me.
“If I said I was thinking about everything, you’d know what I mean, right?”
He nodded. “Yeah, I get that. You’re doing okay, though, Flor?”
I smiled at him. “I’m doing fine. It’s you I worry about.”
“What, about me being the new Host of the Unforgiven Dead?” He laughed.
I shuddered. “We really need to give you a new title.”
“How about just Finlay?”
“That’ll do for now,” I agreed.
Finlay stood up and headed toward the others. “I didn’t get jelly. I’m so in need of jelly. Want some, Flor?”
I shook my head in frustration as Finlay headed back to the party. “We’re adults. What is it with bloody jelly?” I growled.
“It’s sweet,” a voice whispered in my ear as strong arms wrapped around my waist from behind me.
I leaned back against Lyall and laughed. “Just like me, huh?”
“Well…” He shrugged and I punched his arm playfully.
“Have you had a nice time?” he murmured.
I thought about it before I answered. “Actually, I have.”
“See, I told you birthday parties aren’t that terrible.” He stood up and pulled me against his chest.
He looked down into my eyes, before placing a gentle kiss against my lips. I pushed on to my toes and leaned into him before closing my eyes as I allowed myself to bask in the warmth of him. I felt a flicker of elation as my soul responded to his, and I felt thoroughly and wholly complete.
“I don’t want any more, though,” I grumbled, pulling back from him ever so slightly.
Leaning back in to kiss me again, he laughed softly. “I’m afraid that’s non-negotiable, love”
THE END
Thank You
A thousand thank yous’ to anybody who chose to pick up Soul Eternal, and read it. I am honoured that you gave me the opportunity to bring you along for the final part of Flora’s journey. I really hope you enjoyed reading this trilogy as much as I enjoyed creating it.
Reviews are the life-blood of any Indie author, and I remain eternally grateful to those who leave a review for Soul Eternal after reading it. If you enjoyed the book, I’d be thrilled to know, and if not then please tell me what I could have done better. Feedback from readers is the best way for me to improve and grow as a writer.
Much love to you all. See you for the next series xxx
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Facebook & Twitter: @AuthorKateKeir
Website: www.katekeir.com
Acknowledgements
A huge thanks to Katrina at Crimson Phoenix Creations for designing my beautiful book covers for all three books in the trilogy. You are so talented lady!
Thank you to my favourite ladies for reading the first draft of babble that I created, and telling me when I had got it right or wrong.
Thank you to my wonderful editor Lia. I can’t believe you came back to edit three more of my books after the lengthy job you had with my debut. I would like to think I’ve improved a little since then, but thank you for polishing my manuscript up to publication standard.
Leigh, I am a nightmare. Thank you for your beautiful formatting skills, and your extreme patience.
To my long-suffering hubby, who had to endure
writer’s widowhood for six months while I wrote all three books, thank you for your unwavering support. I love you xxx