Page 58 of Last Gift: Supernatural Battle

Sascha searched my face. “Thank you, High Esteemed. Knowing either way will bring my people closure. We do not lose many, and we always remember those we have.”

“In this, our people are the same.” I straightened. “I did not expect to feel such connection to any of you. For whatever reason that be due to, I am grateful for it. The coven looks forward to welcoming you again soon.”

Basilia hugged me first, and I heard the slight shock from the magus onlookers.

“Bit of culture never hurt anyone,” the princess said, pulling back. She touched her ear. “Thank you.”

Andie hugged me also.

I just never expected this. I returned her hug.

“We’ll talk soon,” she said to me, winking.

Kyros glanced after Basilia, who was wobbling to the waiting helicopter. “She was formidable either way,” he said to me after a beat. “But I am glad to see it gone.”

Her pain. “I was glad to do it.”

The Vissimo prince entered the helicopter after her.

Andie was stripping off, and Sascha shot me a quick look. “The repeat you mentioned. Can Luthers see it?”

“They can. And you’re welcome to watch it for yourself when you next return.”

The pack leader extended a hand. “Like the others, I have a good feeling.”

His hand was warm, and his grip purposefully kept loose enough not to crush my hand. Sascha’s power didn’t leak out everywhere as Kyros’s did, but the Luther had it in ample quantities. “Travel safe.”

Soon after, the helicopter was taking flight, and two Luthers were sprinting across the meadow toward the east.

There was a strange hollowness at their departure.

“I feel it too,” Wild said.

We’d never met others who had gone through a mating process. Perhaps that was to blame. But there seemed more to it. Rhona had said that fuckers like us worked fast, and I had to give the comment some credit. The six of us shared so many parallels. Each of us had been almost propelled into our current situations at the forefront of our peoples.

The stares and whispers of the watching magus snagged my attention. How many of the coven felt differently after sharing a meal with Vissimo and Luthers and seeing how open they could be? I smiled at the surrounding magus, truly proud of how the coven kept their shit together. That meeting could’ve gone wrong in a lot of ways, but we’d managed to pull it off.

I lifted a hand to the advisor pendant around my neck. “Better get everyone up to speed.”

We headed inside, walking slowly to the advisory chamber. Like me, I could tell Wild was deep in thought about where life could head next.

I’d known an alliance would be pivotal in the battle against the demons, but I’d underestimated how strong the potential shift for the culture of our coven could be. This could be momentous.

A person grabbed my arm, and I was hauled unceremoniously into an empty guest quarters.

I looked at Rooke. “Good morning.”

At her look, Wild cast a silence charm.

“We have a problem,” she said.

“A bigger one than the coven imploding or being slaughtered by demons?”

“I’d file it under coven implosion.”

I cast my mind back over the last day. What the hell happened? “Tell me.”

“People noticed Wild’s behavior yesterday. On the knolls and at dinner.”

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