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“Oh, my Goddess!” Talia gasped. She tugged on Grant’s sleeve and pointed down the street. I followed her gaze to see her parents and brother, along with Grant’s dad.
Pure joy fell over Talia’s and Grant’s faces. The two of them took off running before they could say anything else, and they fell into the arms of their family members. It’d been so long since they’d seen them.
Talia’s mother smoothed down Talia’s hair. “It’s so good to see you. Do you know anything about Tate? We haven’t seen her in months.”
“She’s safe, Mom,” Talia assured her. “I promise. She’s been recovering in a refugee city. I’m sorry we couldn’t get in touch with you.”
“It’s okay!” her dad insisted. “You’re safe, and that’s all that matters.”
I turned back to Lucas, who was looking down at our son. He wrapped his arms around me and pressed his forehead against mine, until we were cradling Marcus between us.
“I’m so relieved you’re both safe,” he breathed.
“For now,” I agreed.
Lucas sensed my hesitation. “Nad, we won tonight. That’s something to celebrate.”
“I know, and I’m happy we won,” I replied. “I’m just thinking about what you said up there, about how things will never go back to the way they were, because we aren’t the same people. I used to think that one day, life would be perfect. I thought we’d defeat the priestesses, we’d get married, I’d have my new kidney and my symptoms would go away, and we’d be given this brand-new life together. But we have so much of that already, and my life is better than ever, but it didn’t fix everything. In some ways, it got worse. I went through the surgery and got my kidney, but I still couldn’t have our babies on my own terms. I’ll be better, but I’m never going to be cured. We got married, and then we lost people. One day, we’re going to defeat the priestesses. But even when that happens, I’m not going to have that perfect life because I’m not the same person who dreamed it.”
Lucas rubbed my shoulders. “You can still have the life you wanted, even if that girl you were before isn’t there anymore.”
“Maybe I can move on and become someone new. But I can never resurrect the girl I was before all this shit happened to us,” I said. “After everything we’ve been through, there’s no going back. Things are going to keep changing, and I don’t know who this new person is. I have no idea who I’m going to become.”
Lucas smiled. “That’s exciting, though, because we get to meet her along the way. I’m not the same, either, which means we get to meet each other all over again.”
I looked around at the coven. Dozens of people had stepped in to help with the clean-up, and I still could hardly believe they wanted to help us. For so long, the coven didn’t want me here, and now, they wanted me to be their leader.
“If we’re meeting each other all over again, that means we get to meet the coven again, too,” I said. “I don’t know who I’m going to become, or what I’m going to do as their leader, but I know this is a brand new beginning to figure it out—not just for us, but for the whole coven.”
It may not be the beginning we hoped for. The priestesses were still out there, and we would face them again before all this was over. But it was the beginning of something new.
For all of us.
Chapter Twenty-Five
LUCAS
Our new beginning started with a sunrise the following morning. It was the most beautiful sunrise, with shades of pink and purple illuminating the sky. It reminded me of a rainbow, a signal of hope shining down on us after a devastating storm.
I woke in a guest room at the Olson estate. Nadine lay beside me, and Marcus was safely curled in her arms. Neither of us wanted to let him go, so we’d taken turns sleeping.
I expected to feel strange being in Lilian’s house, but it didn’t feel like the house of a priestess. If anything, it seemed more like Chloe’s home than her grandmother’s, and I felt welcome here.
It’d been a long night. The Executors I’d sucked through my portals had been discovered hiding in a warehouse across town. Ryan, James, Leroy, and Cody were among them. I’d hoped they’d perished with most of the others, but they had survived. We’d locked them up in jail, and they would stand trial for the part they played in the Miriamic Conflict at a later date.
We didn’t know where the priestesses had gone. They had enough power now to create ironclad protection spells, so we couldn’t track them even if we wanted to.
We all managed to make it back to the estate safely. We’d stopped by the hospital on our way and were able to bring our friends home to rest. The doctors had given Verla a clean bill of health, and Professor Warren had to get a cast on his leg. Mandy was shaken up, but she was able to get her first decent meal in a long time. We’d filled Onyx, Miles, and the others in on everything that happened once we arrived at the estate.
My eyes landed upon Nadine, and I pushed a strand of hair out of her face. “How are you feeling?”
“I’ll be all right,” she replied.
She said so much in so few words, and I felt it deep in my core. Things were okay for now, and we were safe for the time being, but there was so much to face before our family was safe for good.
I heard footsteps across the house. “It sounds like the others are waking up. We should join them soon. There’s a lot to do today.”
Nadine and I were staying in a corner of the house that I could only assume was meant to house staff. We had a bedroom, a private bath, kitchen, and sitting area all to ourselves.
