Page 85 of Charmed

The light from her palms intensified, growing hot against his skin. “If you love me, marry me.”

“Yes!” She let out a warrior cry as the light consumed her whole body.

His pain evaporated, her light dissolving, and she fell backwards in the sand with a huff.

Lifting his head, he checked his leg. Cut in his jeans. Skin fused. Blood everywhere. Shirt as a tourniquet loose on the ground. Brady staring at the sky from his knees, chest heaving. Ceara rising to stand beside Kaida and Tristan.

Fiona moaning on her back. “That was too close.”

Riley wiggled his foot. When it didn’t hurt to do so, he rolled onto his knees and leaned over Fiona. Had they won? Their tasks, defeating the Minister, securing the box? Had they won tonight?

More important… “Was that a yes to marrying me or yes to the healing of my leg starting to work?”

She flung her arm over her face. “Both.”

He grinned like a moron. “You love me. Say you love me again.”

A shake of her head, and she lowered her arm. Her bluer than blue gaze met his, soul in their depths. “I love you again, still, and always will.”

Mercy, this woman. He loved her with an ache that he’d never known existed. With every cell and fiber. Beyond what mere words could ever express. “Aw. That was really mushy. I like it.”

Her chest shook with a laugh. “We need to get out of here.”

Tristan grunted. “The situation is handled, but you’re right. We should leave. He could return at any moment.”

“Go ahead. We’ll follow in a sec.” Riley watched his brothers and her sisters disappear behind a bend, then looked at Fi again.

She was intently staring at him, both weary and assessing. “I’m sorry for hurting you.”

Bending closer, Riley brushed his lips against Fiona’s, not recognizing the full sensation inside him, but cherishing it. He’d waited a lifetime for someone to see his worth and love him for himself. Flaws and all. He was never letting her go.

He swept an arm under her legs and behind her back, lifting her into his arms.

“You didn’t hurt me. You healed me, babe.” Inside and out. Heart and soul. “We won this round. Let’s go home.”

And look at that. She narrowed her eyes in suspicion, but for once, she didn’t argue.

Epilogue

From the couch in their living room, Fiona glanced at the faces of her family, her loved ones. Her sisters, their aunt, Riley, and his brothers. What a strange thing Fate was, could be, and had thrown at them. Often. She’d do anything and everything for each one of them, including laying her life on the line.

They’d been dealt a massive blow yesterday at the cove. Between discovering what the Minister could do to the Galloways in bringing them back from the In Between, him obtaining the box before them, and Riley almost dying, Fiona was reeling. Even after making love to Riley and sleeping nine solid hours, she still couldn’t form a tangible thought. Her synapses had been rewired.

Tristan sighed, breaking the tense silence. “Okay, I’ll say it. What are we going to do with it?”

By it, he meant the witching blade. It laid on the coffee table between the sofas, next to the open box from Celeste. Riley claimed to have no recollection of a majority of the events due to his injury, but it was crystal clear to Fiona. She’d never wipe it from mind, regardless of how long she lived.

That very blade swiping through her love. Riley’s blood. Everywhere. Him staring at her in awe, paler than a ghost, and declaring his feelings like he were preparing to die. Aunt Mara running to safety with the box. Tristan subduing the Minister. Kaida thrashing the bastard out to sea. Brady ripping his shirt and using it as a tourniquet on Riley’s leg. Ceara securing the blade the Minister had dropped in the struggle, then getting a healing potion down Riley’s throat to aid in Fiona’s efforts.

“We need to destroy it.” Kaida shrugged. “Simple as that.”

From beside her, Brady clasped her hand. “We can’t. Only the person who created it can destroy it.”

They knew that, all of them. When it had been Brady and Kaida’s turn for their task months ago, they’d discovered the origin of the blade. Centuries before, the Minister had taken chains from Celeste Galloway’s pyre to another witch, who’d factioned the weapon. When a witch was killed by it, the dagger stole their powers, trapping them within the blade. He’d slain thousands of their kind since then, and had attempted the feat with Kaida.

Like with Riley last night, if Fiona hadn’t used her healing gift, her sister would have died.

Blood. So much blood on Fiona’s hands. Magical PTSD, Riley called it.

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