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“Yes. I vouch for the veracity of Tallak’s statement, and I’m sure once we interrogate Sophie, what he found out will be corroborated.”
“This will have consequences. I promise.” Shobha’s voice was as sharp as a whip. “We will not let that go unpunished. She will be tried as an accomplice to Selene’s crimes, and at the very least, she will lose her head-of-family status—now that we have the means to transfer the title to another witch—and spend some extended time in a dungeon. And any new head of family of the Laroches will have to swear a binding oath not to harm any members of our community, which includes the demons who have joined our ranks, and then compel each witch in the family to comply. Enough is enough.”
Hazel hadn’t known how much tension had knotted her muscles until her sigh of relief released it. “Thank you.”
“No, thank you. If you hadn’t discovered this, I would have lost another member of my family last night. We all would have lost so much.” A short pause, Shobha’s voice turning pensive. “And I know you’ve been working tirelessly at trying to keep this community together, at making sure we’re strong enough to survive all these changes in the world. I am only sorry it took us so long to act on it.”
In front of her, Tallak mouthed, Tell her, “I told you so.”
Hazel lightly slapped his shoulder. “I appreciate it, Shobha. Let’s just move forward and fix what needs fixing.”
“Pragmatic as ever, my dear,” Shobha said with an audible smile, then her tone became serious again. “I will send someone over to the Laroches’ to find and arrest Sophie. We’ll have an Elder meeting soon, but for now, we all need to rest…and bury our dead.”
Hazel swallowed. “How many?”
Shobha was quiet for a few seconds. “Enough for us all to know it was the right decision to ally with Arawn. I will talk to you later, my dear.”
They ended the call, and Hazel stared numbly at the wall for a long moment, her mind and heart swirling with too many emotions to feel them all.
“With all these changes and big news,” Tallak said softly, “there’s one more thing you need to know.”
She turned to him, laying a hand on her racing heart. “Oh, gods, what now?”
His smile was slow and warm. “Merle had her baby last night.”
“What?” She covered her mouth with one hand. “How is she? How’s the baby? Did everything go okay?”
Tallak held up a hand and nodded. “Mother and babe are just fine. They’re being tended to by an annoyingly proud Rhun and Merle’s deliriously happy dad.” He produced his own phone and wiggled it. “Rhun texted me earlier. They’re resting right now, but we can go see them later today”—he paused, swallowed, his voice turning tentative—“together, if you want.”
Her heart made a flip at the question in his eyes, at the underlying implication in his suggestion. Inhaling a ragged breath, she reached out and grasped his hand.
“Tallak,” she said hoarsely, her heart beating triple time. “When you asked me before, last night, in the kitchen, it wasn’t that I didn’t want to be with you.” She shook her head. “I did. I do. I was just standing in my own way, couldn’t break out of that mold I was in. Not for fear of you being mean like Robert—”
His throat muscles moved as he swallowed, his eyes shimmering with emotion. “But I was.”
She shook her head again, the pain of his words from the fight only a faint echo in her heart. “Even with the things you said, it’s a pale shadow of his viciousness. You—” She laid her hand on his chest. “I never thought I’d find someone like you. You’re amazing, wonderful, funny, loyal, caring. You’re so much more than you give yourself credit for.”
“Hazel,” he murmured, his voice rough.
She pushed on before she lost her nerve, before he could say something that would derail her. Because much like he’d needed her to hear his apology last night, she needed to say this to him now. “Your love shines so bright, and I—I was just afraid of letting you in, of feeling too much, of having your love only to lose it at some point, of letting myself be happy when part of that happiness would depend on someone else’s presence in my life. I was caught in my own fucking head.”
Raw emotion carved into the lines of his face, he studied her for a long, quiet moment, the intensity of his gaze making her flush with heat. “And are you still? Caught in your head?”
She took a deep breath, then spoke the word that loosened the irrational shackles around her heart. “No.”
A spark of warmth in his amber eyes, a teasing glint. “Was it my groveling?” The sexiest little half smile snuck onto his lips. “It was my groveling, wasn’t it?”
Her laugh was unexpected, fragile, and laced with a small bite of pain, but genuine. “That,” she said, “and almost losing you last night.” Lowering her eyes, she threaded her fingers through his. “Nothing like staring death in the face to make you realize life is too short to spend it being an idiot. Or alone. Without you.”
She caught his gaze then, her voice soft. “Ask me again.”
He came to attention the way all predators do, with intense focus and the silent tension of the hunt. Eyes glittering like crushed ambers in the sun, he said, “Mate with me.”
The smile she gave him opened her heart, bared her soul. “Yes.”
* * *
One word. Just the one, but it held his salvation.
