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“Do you have the answer?”

The question startles her and she presses her hand to her chest as she tries to catch her breath. Slowly, she shakes her head. “M-My husband doesn’t know what you speak of,” she insists, the tremor running through her making me shiver too.

I can’t see who she is speaking to; they’re perfectly seated in the dark corner of the room, out of view. All I know is the voice belongs to a man.

“Does your husband understand the consequences of his lies?” She scrunches her face, shaking her head again, and the snarl from the corner takes my breath as it roars around the room. “Make sure he’s aware that your death will forever stain his hands.”

“Raven! Raven!”

The present slams back into view, but my breath is still lodged in my throat back in that memory.

“Raven. He’s gone. He’s gone.” I blink at Zane, his voice registering in my head, but the words don’t make sense.

Slowly, my senses come back, one at a time, and an awful burning tingles at my fingers. I look down at my hands and gasp. Tendrils of flames dance at my fingertips as large embers burn beneath them.

What was there?

What was decimated at my touch?

I frown, glancing up at Zane once again as he speaks. “Raven. He’s gone. Burton is gone, you can let go now.”

Wrenching my hands back, I take in the burning remnants as understanding washes over me.

He’s gone. He’s fucking gone.

I drop to my knees, my body aching from the magic still storming through my body. Maybe using multiple tendrils of magic all at once isn’t the best idea, even if it wasn’t intentional.

“Raven?” Zane repeats, but his voice is softer, distant, as I fall to my back, blinking up at the sky with deep exhaustion consuming every inch of me.

I need to sleep for a minute, an hour, a day, a week; I don’t know, but I don’t have a choice, I just know I have to. My eyelids grow heavy, weighing me down, but I don’t miss the first peek of the sun bursting through the clouded sky that has been cast over us for what feels like forever.

I smile.

A sense of relief washes over me as I willingly allow the darkness to take me while two mantras, filled with words that were once haunting, play in my mind before everything goes quiet.

Follow your heart, find solace in the shadows, and take down the dawn.

Follow the sun, destroy the shadows, and survive another dawn.

EPILOGUE

RAVEN

“The faster we get this done, the sooner you get your surprise.” I quirk an eyebrow at Zane, who wiggles his back at me, and my eyes narrow. “I’m just saying. Tick tock. Tick tock.”

Damn, it’s a good thing he’s handsome, because if he was this annoying without being so pretty to look at I think I may have throttled him by now.

“Maybe if you tell me what my incentive is it might make me speed up,” I retort, which only earns me a chuckle from Eldon.

“That’s not how surprises work, Little Bird,” he mutters before pressing a kiss at my temple. The move softens the irritation that was rising in me and I relax. “But it’s pretty good, so get a move on,” he adds, spiking the annoying intrigue inside of me once again.

Turning away from the pair of them, Creed and Brax too, I look at the shimmering emerald gate that appeared this morning.

“Five days. Five damn days of hoping for peace since fighting in an actual battle and they give me trouble like this. I thought I was going to be able to rest,” I grumble to myself, completely aware they can hear me.

“You had plenty of rest when you slept the first two days of that. Two days we, in fact, didn’t get to rest because we were beside ourselves with worry over you,” Creed points out, and I roll my eyes at him.

So dramatic.