Page 124 of Magic Claimed

But I didn’t need to see her face.

“What happened after we left?” I asked, my words falling harshly into the brittle silence.

“Your boy,” Tairen announced, “is a far better person than I am. He insisted on clearing the facility before he buried it, and we discovered this one ransacking an office. She was carrying a bag full of stolen magic, about a million in cash, and several hard drives I can only assume are filled with lovely evidence to be used against Blake in whatever court of law decides to try him.”

The woman’s shoulders began to shake, and a moment later her head lifted, revealing white teeth bared in laughter.

“You’ll never convict him,” Heather told us with a dreamy smile. “He has too many connections. Too many friends. He’ll only come back. Stronger. Smarter. Because by now everyone knows what’s possible. You can’t put this back in a box. They’ll be coming for your magic sooner or later, and when they do, I’ll be here. Laughing. The same way you all laughed at me when I was powerless…”

Her words droned on and on, and I looked up at Tairen, both of us recalling the pact we’d made when Callum’s life hung by an uncertain thread.

Heather’s hand might not have wielded the blade, but she was the one who’d made it all possible.

But while I’d once thought that I would cheerfully return the favor, today I’d seen enough death. Witnessed more than enough hatred. Callum was safe, and vengeance could not undo what had been done.

“She’s in your hands,” I said calmly.

Tairen’s nod was a solemn thing, and I half expected her to pronounce judgement right then and there.

But she didn’t. She turned instead to Logan.

“What do you think we should do?” It was a genuine question, and he looked back at her without flinching.

“I know she’s done a lot of terrible stuff,” he answered. “And she deserves to pay for it. But I don’t think we should be the ones to decide.”

Tairen regarded him curiously. “You believe we would not be able to administer justice because we are too close.”

He nodded seriously. “I think we should let the courts decide. Whoever she’s hurt the most should have a chance to vote on a just punishment.”

And Tairen began to smile—a slow, wicked expression that should have left Heather in considerably greater terror than before.

“Very good,” the former dragon queen said softly. “Perhaps we will do it your way. As much as I would like to eat her and be done with it, it will be far more entertaining to see what the fae and the shapeshifters will do when we inform them of her actions.”

I saw Heather blanch, and rightly so. She’d conspired with the fae to assassinate Callum and Rath, then paid Hector to kill Faris, nearly implicating the shapeshifters in three deaths in the process.

While Faris might be willing to leave the matter of punishment to others, neither the fae nor the shapeshifters were knownfor being lenient. In the end, Heather might actually wind up wishing for Tairen’s idea of justice.

“There’s an empty cell downstairs,” Faris called out. “I say we figure this out tomorrow. Tonight… tonight is for family.”

And so it was. Tomorrow would come soon enough, bringing with it all of the problems that we’d left at the door.

A city to repair.

Foundations to be built.

New relationships to forge.

And somewhere in the middle of all that, I still had a water-damaged apartment, a sprite child who couldn’t stop disappearing, and a summons by the Shapeshifter Court that needed to be answered.

And yet…

“What are you thinking about?” Callum murmured, wrapping his arms around my waist and resting his chin on the top of my head. “Something changed. You feel… content.”

I leaned back against him, letting the warmth and comfort of our bond wrap around me like a favorite sweater. No more fear. No more anxiety. No more secrets. To know and be fully known was a gift beyond anything I could ever ask for, and I would spend the rest of my days being thankful.

“I am,” I admitted. “And you?”

There was about to be so much on his plate. The burdens of his office had never been light or simple, and they were about to get so much heavier. It wasn’t going to be easy to balance them with our relationship, but no matter what…