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She tried to smile but couldn’t.

Bryn thought when she passed on, she’d feel peace, but what she felt was nothing close to it. She’d failed even after giving herself over to the Morrigan.

“Where are Declan, Justin, and. . .?”

Would Kian be here if he was Fomori?

“That’s a wonderful question. I am not privy to the universe’s bullshit, so I have no idea. I assumed y’all just end up wherever around here. Kind of a big place.”

Bryn realized she wasn’t near the veil like she thought. She was in actual Faerie.

“You can move about as you please?” she asked Travis.

“Well, not many things you can do wrong here, so I figured I’d push until someone told me no.”

His smile lit a dark place in her heart for a second of time before the caw of a crow called to her.

“Seems your bird friend wants to have a little chat,” Travis stated, putting his elbow out for her to take as if they were going on a romantic stroll.

Travis walked next to her, not saying anything as day turned to night, and they entered the hallowed ground of Faerie. The cemetery she’d seen in her visions was before them with the lush forest surrounding it.

It was peaceful in a way Bryn had never felt.

“None of these tombstones have names,” Travis noticed, and Bryn looked to see he was right.

Weird.

Senan, the black wolf, and the crows were near the fence. Bryn’s heart broke again at not seeing the silver wolf there with them.

“I know now that death isn’t the end,” Travis whispered, his thoughts catching on to hers.

Turning, she held her hand out, and Travis grabbed it in response, before giving it a squeeze.

“And it shouldn’t be. If you could go back, Travis, would you?” she asked, wishing she could send them both back.

“It sure is calm here, but I need the adrenaline rush of firing a rifle. Of standing between an enemy and my friends. I reckon I’ll get pretty bored here.” He laughed.

“I suppose we both will. Poor Danu.” She kept Travis’s hand in hers, the feel of him a reassurance and a balm to her nerves. “We were her last chance.”

“Some of the Tuatha Dé Danann still live. There is hope. It just might not be how she had planned. Maybe they don’t need all of you together...”

Bryn nodded, but she knew the truth. Only as a unit would they be powerful enough to kill King Bres.

A tightening in her chest caused her to rub at it with her free hand as Senan let out an agitated neigh.

The animals that had stood staring at them from the cemetery gates turned and left, running and flying back into the woods.

“You all right, Bryn?” Travis asked as her lungs started to burn, her vision blurring.

“I just feel really weird...”

Falling to her knees, she wondered if Faerie was punishing her for not upholding her duties.

“Bryn?” Travis helped her lie down on her back, keeping hold of her hand. She refused to let him go even if he tried.

“. . . hurts. . .,” she gritted out through her clenched teeth, closing her eyes as she arched in pain, her body tearing apart at the seams.

Bryn’s eyes burned as she opened them back up, but the pain lessened. She was certain she had died twice, and yet here she was—in horrible pain. That was not the blissful death given to those who fought honorably, and she knew it. Death was blissful and less bumpy, she was sure. It had to be.