Page 105 of A Trial By Blood

I listened to the steady thud of his heartbeat, and joy filled me. “We’re mated,” I said. “I can’t believe it.”

He tilted my head back and looked down at me. “Neither can I.” His gaze moved over my face. “I can’t believe you’re mine. What did I do to deserve this much happiness? To deserve you?”

I ran my hand down his muscled chest. There were still several bruises and a couple of cuts, one deeper than the other. “I’ve loved you for so long. I fantasized about this. About being yours, but I never allowed myself to hope.”

“I don’t ever want to leave your side, petal, not ever again,” he said.

I ran my finger down the wound. It was raw and healing, but slower than the others. It had to be deep to still look that way. I leaned in and dragged my tongue along it, looking up at Ronan when he groaned and trembled against me. “Does it work the same way as my bite? If I lick your cut, will it heal faster?”

“Yes,” he said huskily.

I licked it again, and he groaned deeper. It began to visibly heal. The redness subsided, and new, healthy skin slowly replaced what had been damaged. “You confronted him?”

“Yes.”

“Are you okay?”

He slid his hand up and down my back. “I am.” Ronan shook his head. “Yes, we fought, but in the end, only because Azel chose it. I don’t think I needed it, because I’d already won. I’d won before I went down there; it just took me seeing him again to realize it.” He brushed my hair back. “I have you and I have my sister back. Seeing him like that.” A fierceness filled his eyes. “Without his powers, without me or Luna, I realized he’s nothing. No one.”

I pressed a kiss to his chest.

The fierceness remained in his eyes. “That doesn’t take away all the things he did to me and Luna.” He shook his head. “Nothing can do that. Beating or torturing him was never going to be a cure, but I won’t say it didn’t feel good to hurt him. And the knowledge he’s burning in Hell, while I’m here with you, definitely helps.”

“Will you tell Luna? What you did?” I asked.

“No. She’ll never hear his name from me, not ever again. It’ll only hurt her to think about him.”

I entwined my fingers with his. “You’re a good brother.”

“I haven’t been, but I want to be now.”

He pulled me higher, draping me over his chest, and wrapped his arms around me. His body was smooth and hard. I rested my head on his chest so I could listen to his heart beating again. “So much has changed in such a short time,” I said against his skin. “I just want to get past all the hard and scary things and focus on the good, on this. On me and you.”

“We will, petal. I promise.”

I hugged him tightly and let his hands move over my body and lull me to sleep.

* * *

I woke with a start, a silent scream trapped in my throat. I spun toward Ronan. He was still asleep. I covered my face with shaking hands and tried to calm my breathing.

Death.

I had only days left, and he decided I needed a reminder. Zinnia hadn’t called back with an answer, and I was starting to think that was because there wasn’t one, that my cousin was scrambling to find something to help me that didn’t exist. Ronan was finally my mate, and I might only get a few nights with him. I wanted to tell him, badly. But all that would do was spoil the time we did have left together.

I stared up at the ceiling, my mind racing. I knew we didn’t have anything in our library about Death, but maybe we had something about the mother? Specifically, what would happen if a witch died in the middle of her task.

There was no way I was getting back to sleep now, so I eased out of bed, pulled on my robe, and quietly stepped out of the room. The house was dark and quiet, and I quickly headed downstairs to the library and shut myself in.

I turned on the lamp and made my way around the room, searching for anything I could find on the trials, anything we had on the mother, then sat down to wade through it all.

I don’t know how long I was searching, a long time, when I shoved another book aside and dragged the next closer. Still nothing. I searched the shelves again. I was sure there was a book, a kind of rule book. We’d never had occasion to look at it until the role of Keeper had passed to Willow.

I scanned the shelves again, and with nothing to lose, I let my intuition guide me, like Willow told me to.

Running my finger along the spines, I stopped when it felt right. My finger was against a small red leather book on the shelf behind the desk. I slid it free.

This was it.