Page 181 of The Mirror of Beasts

In his eyes I saw the brother I’d lost, the little boy at Tintagel.

“It wasn’t a dream, was it?” he whispered. “Those years. All of it. It was real.”

“It was real,” I told him, my eyes burning.

“Will you still remember me that way?” he asked, his voice trembling.

“Always.”

My stomach dropped as he lifted the horned crown and settled it on his black hair. A shiver rolled through his body as sparks of silver magic spread over his skin like chains. I couldn’t watch this, I couldn’t, but it would have been even more unbearable to look away.

“Look for me,” he said, “when winter comes again.”

He turned back toward the open pathway, his body straightening as he watched the souls slash through the sky like a meteor shower.

“Cab,” I said, feeling the pressure collect in my throat, behind my eyes. “I love you.”

His face was in profile, but I saw the small smile all the same. “Don’t die.”

I drew in a hard breath and dropped into a crouch, digging the heels of my cold palms against my eyes. It wasn’t enough to stop the tears.

An unexpected warmth draped over me, easing the tightness of my body as it sank into my skin. A phantom hand ghosted down my back, once, twice. When the wind spoke to me again, whispering into my ear, the painful pressure that had been building inside me released.

You will never be alone.

It was strange to realize that I could recognize each of my friends by the sounds of their footsteps. Caitriona’s long, quick strides, Olwen’s light steps, Neve’s hurried pace.

“Tamsin?” Caitriona began, sitting on the large boulder beside me. Her voice was as raspy and deep as it always was, but the tension in her face had softened into something that might have been serene. In Avalon, in all our time in the mortal world, she had always seemed older than she was. Maybe it was the uncertainty in her face now that made her look her age.

“Is it … finished?” she asked.

“Is it ever really finished?” I asked, rubbing my arms for warmth.

A short distance away, Olwen drank in the sight of the forest. A look of peace crested over her expression as she closed her eyes and turned her face up to the soft moonlight. Neve stood just behind her, hugging her arms to her chest as she looked down at Excalibur in the moss and snow.

“I’m sorry,” Caitriona said. “For leaving you and the others. I just … I told myself that only I was strong enough to see this through, but some part of me was so ashamed of how badly I wished him dead that I couldn’t bear for any of you to witness the act.”

“I understand,” I told her, because I did. It was unbearable to expose the ugliest part of yourself to others and risk losing them. “We were only worried about you.”

I ran a comforting hand down her arm. Relief broke across her face. We huddled together in the darkness, breathing in the sweet perfume of the nearby roses.

“Are you all right?” I asked her.

“I am not,” she said. “Are you?”

“Not even a little.”

To my eternal relief, we both left it there. Some things just defied explanation, anyway. Caitriona stood, then reached down to help me up. I clasped her hand and she smiled at the sight of our braided bracelets, still knotted tightly around our wrists.

“He let us go,” Caitriona said, looking into the dark heart of the wood. “Cabell. He could have stopped us hours ago, when he caught me freeing Olwen from the house they’d held her in. But he didn’t.”

I nodded, grateful to know for sure. “How did you guys find me?”

“The same way Neve did, I assume,” Caitriona said, inclining her head in the sorceress’s direction. “Madrigal left the Vein at Summerland House open. I truly think she believed she’d return victorious.”

Eventually, Olwen drifted farther away from us and the clearing. She worked quickly, burning Children’s remains to ash one by one.

Neve seemed to decide something, and with a little nod to herself, bent to retrieve Excalibur. The sword pulsed with power in her hand. A short distance away, the other shards glowed in answer, allowing her to find them.

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