Page 65 of The Last One Standing (Rogue X Ara #4)

She lifted her gaze to Vaelor, Alden, and Ara, her hands clasped in front of her. “Say your goodbyes. She cannot stay much longer. Her mate is…struggling.”

I shook my head, a hand flat over my chest. “Struggling?”

She pressed her lips together, tilting her ear to the pool as if listening. “Yes, it would seem so.”

My heart thundered as I turned to face my family, taking a deep breath to steel my nerves. Alden pulled me in for another hug, and—he touched me. They had been touching me, and I didn’t panic.

Ara, the grandmother I never had, wrapped her arms around us both, and I wound an arm around her too.

When they released me, Vaelor threw an arm around my shoulders and spun me into him, hugging me tightly. “I’m sorry, love. I’m sorry for everything that’s happened, but none more so than the fact that I can’t be there for you when you need me most.”

“Stop apologizing,” I muttered. “Nothing that’s happened was your fault.”

“Sometimes we apologize simply to voice our pain and regret, and missing your entire life has been and always will be my biggest regret. Please know that I loved you—I love you still. You are our daughter, and I’ve never been more proud of anything in my entire life. I am so damned proud of you.”

Tears pooled in my eyes when grief swallowed me in a way I wasn’t prepared for.

More than sadness or nostalgia, it was loss.

I mourned not for the years stolen from us, but the future we would never have.

I’d spent months envisioning my childhood with him and Mother: their hugs, their love and warmth, the days we’d spend in the sun, and the stories he’d tell under the stars.

He could’ve taught me to paint, and Mother would have smiled a thousand more times than I ever saw.

All the birthdays, the quiet talks, the simple comfort of his presence… but now?

Now, I understood the magnitude of what was missing, the weight of everything I’d never have, and it materialized in the arms holding me like he was trying to memorize what I felt like. This was all we would ever have: this one fragile moment.

The years lost stung, but a lifetime lost cut so much deeper.

My arms tightened around him when someone placed a hand on my shoulder. How could I be expected to say goodbye when I never really had the chance to say hello?

But a small voice whispered in my head, Maybe this is enough. A gentle warmth flowed through my chest, into my heart, and through my veins, a sureness that allowed me to release Vaelor.

Maybe this was all we got, but it was more than most, and I was grateful for it. I was grateful to meet Vaelor, to speak with and hug him. I was more than grateful to see Alden reunited with his son and his love.

“Be brave, my girl.” Vaelor released a breathy laugh, his eyes crinkling around the edges.

“Be brave and love wildly, and the fates will bow at your feet.” He sucked in a deep breath and gave my shoulders a quick squeeze.

“I love you, Ara, and please tell Elora that I love her, too. Tell her that her bravery reaches me even here, and…tell her, ‘every day, my love.’ Though I can’t return to her, I know she’ll return to me one day, decades from now, and it better not be a single day less than multiple decades. ”

I grinned. “I’ll pass that along.”

Alden pulled me into a hug and quickly whispered, “In the back of the library, there’s a hidden room. Find it. If you feel afraid, you’re in the right direction.”

“What’s in there?”

“A book that’ll help.” He swiveled me toward the Goddess. “One that mentions a weapon named Sacrifice.”

My heart stopped, then raced. He pushed me forward with a pat on my back, but I peered at him over my shoulder, eyes wide and ears ringing.

Sacrifice, the name carved into stone above where the mystical weapon should’ve been.

The Goddess placed a palm on my cheek and turned my face to hers before cupping my face with both hands.

Her eyes hovered so close to mine, I could see the flames flicker and surge in her sun and the craters marring her moon—exact replicas of the ones in our sky.

Were they replicas? Or was she simply watching over our world day and night?

“On the longest night, I must slumber, and the veil will thin while the sky is empty. When the stars fall, you must meet him on the battlefield with severance, as he will greet you with sacrifice.”

My eyes bulged, head spinning. “Wait, but what?—”

“You are the light that balances a great darkness, and while you must fight the war, never forget that both fate and destiny are on your side, my child. They always have been.”

She pressed her lips to my forehead, and a surge of her power split my skull in two. A blood-curdling scream ravaged my ears, echoing through the small cave. My vision went black when stars danced behind my eyelids, and my entire body sagged until I collapsed, but I never hit the ground.

Instead, I fell…and fell and fell, free falling through time and across realms.

When I finally hit something, it wasn’t stone or water.

My eyes fluttered open, my vision blurry and mind hazy, but the world…

I smiled as black crept around the edges of my consciousness.

The world was right again, because warm arms enveloped me, and maroon eyes looked me over, flames dancing, and his voice…

His voice was safe.

I was safe, and I was home.

“If I am ever to be chained again,” I mumbled, my words slurred, “let it only be to you. I would gladly wear your shackles, my love.”

More of his safe words floated around me, but I couldn’t decipher them, his touch my last anchor as my eyes slid closed. Between soft murmurs, his breath sawing in and out, his pulse racing beneath my ear—a lullaby too sweet to resist.

I drifted off as two words sang in my soul.

I remember.