Page 122 of Magic Claimed

His expression softened. “What happened?”

“It’s fine. We just… I don’t know how it ended. We got the kids out and rescued Tairen, but I left her there with Logan to wrap up. He said he could destroy the artifacts, but…”

Faris looked at me blankly for a moment.

“Logan? But he was supposed to be…” Then he just shrugged. “I guess it doesn’t matter how he got there. If he said he could do it, he can.” He threw a glance at the field, where Blake’s body had fallen. “And even if the gateway went down with Blake, Tairen will get him home—you can bet on it.”

I already had.

“How long before the police and the ambulances show up?”

“Already on their way,” he assured me, shifting in his seat and wincing. “I called them to start mopping up as soon as Callum went after Blake.”

“And… are they going to arrest you?” After all, from a human perspective, a portion of their city had just been turned to rubble by rampaging Idrians.

Faris’s lip curled, and a satisfied gleam appeared in his green eyes. “I have a good enough relationship with the city that they listened when I told them what was happening. And I recorded Blake’s phone call to play back for them. By now, the head of the Bureau of Idrian Affairs has been relieved of his position, and the governor will be making a strongly worded recommendation for more equitable hiring in the future.”

Wait, did that mean…

“So you told them everything? Even about the stolen magic?”

Faris grunted an affirmative. “Thankfully, it’s been destroyed by now, and no one outside of Blake’s people knows why he wanted Kes. But it was past time for more transparency between us. We can’t go on as two separate groups, with separate laws, sharing the same cities. We need cooperation. Bridge builders.”

He was right, and yet… It was such a huge step.

“The only reason Blake almost succeeded is how divided we are,” he pointed out. “How little we understand or trust each other. That has to change.”

And today, hopefully we’d made strides in the right direction.

“Where is Kes? Did she go with Kira, Morghaine, and Ari?”

He nodded. “They’re all at my place with Hugh.” Then he looked at me a little sideways. “I don’t know what happened, but Logan wanted to stay behind to defend your apartment, and… I decided to let him.”

Not like I was going to argue under the circumstances.

“And Ethan?”

Faris didn’t answer, just looked at someone over my left shoulder, and then…

“He healed me.”

I turned, let out a soft cry, and threw myself into Callum’s arms, burying my face in his chest so my tears could fall unnoticed.

Tears of relief and joy, because he waswhole. I could feel his emotions again, wrapping around me like the warmest of blankets—safe and secure.

We stayed there, unmoving, barely noticing the crowds and the noise until we were jostled by a team of paramedics moving past at a run. When we broke apart, I looked up at him, and then laughed a little at his choice of clothing.

Someone had apparently borrowed an outfit for him from the ballpark’s gift shop—a pair of sweatpants with thecurrent team’s logo and a sleeveless purple workout shirt that outlined his chest to perfection.

It was very unlike his usual attire, but not even a tiny bit less attractive to my eyes.

“When you say Ethan healed you…”

“He neutralized the poison,” Callum explained. “No idea how. I don’t think he knows either. But we were desperate, and when he asked to try, I decided I might as well hope for a miracle.”

And Ethan had delivered one.

“I’m so happy for him,” I murmured, with a rush of thankfulness for every strange twist in the path that had brought him back to us. That path had finally given him purpose, along with a new family and hope for the future.