Page 191 of Cherish

“Everybody ready?” Macy asks as she starts spinning a portal open.

“As we’ll ever be,” Heather answers with an exhausted sigh.

Eden rests a hand on her back. “We’re almost done. Just a couple more stops.”

“I know. We’ve got this.” She even manages to punch a fist in the air for emphasis. It’s a sad fist, lacking her earlier enthusiasm, but it’s a call to arms nonetheless.

“I think you mean wehadthis,” Flint says and has everyone laughing.

“Everyone’s got to start somewhere,” Jaxon answers, his gaze holding Flint’s until Flint reaches over and slides his hand in Jaxon’s, pulls him close. Whatever nightmare Jaxon experienced in the Chamber seems to have really shaken him up, if the way he pulls Flint to him, lays his forehead on the dragon’s chest, is any indication. It’s very rare to see Jaxon allowing himself to seem vulnerable, and I duck my eyes to give them some privacy.

“And here I thought we were ending,” Hudson murmurs in my ear, and I don’t know if he’s referring to the prison or his brother’s relationship. He rubs a hand down the center of my back, and in that touch I feel everything that’s going on inside him.

Relief that, against the odds, we’ve made it this far.

Fear of what’s going to happen to me when we get to the Shadow Realm and the Shadow Queen realizes I wasn’t able to keep my side of our magical bargain.

And most of all, love. So much love for me that a part of me wants nothing more than to sink into him and just breathe for a while. Just be.

But the clock is ticking, and we’re in the final countdown. Mekhi is dying, and I’ve lost the only chance we had at a cure. The Crone and her hunters are preparing to attack. And the Shadow Queen is just as likely to kill us all when we tell her we failed to save her children.

There truly is no more time.

And so I step into Macy’s portal and let her whisk me straight back to the Witch Court.

106

Take a Jump on

the Wild Side

Macy’s built her portal to come out right in the middle of Mekhi’s room in Lorelei’s tower, which I discover when I stumble out of it and nearly crash into the bed of a sleeping Mekhi.

Lorelei is sitting next to his bed, and she springs up when she sees me. “You came back!” she cries, right before Hudson comes strolling out of the portal, followed by everyone else.

“Of course we did,” I say but don’t meet her eyes.

“Did you get the elixir?” There’s so much faith and hope in her voice that my stomach churns.

I shake my head, and my stomach twists even more. “It’s a long story.”

“Oh no.” Her voice trembles as she looks at Mekhi. “How are we going to save him?”

“Throw ourselves on your mother’s mercy and hope for the best,” I tell her at the same time I propose my plan to the rest of the gang.

I watch as her shoulders sag. She lets out a sigh. “I don’t know my mother very well, obviously, but from what I hear, she doesn’t have a lot of mercy in her anymore.”

“Yeah, that’s kind of what we figured.” I blow out a long breath. “But it’s not like we have any better options. That’s pretty much all we’ve got.”

“I wish I could come with you,” she whispers as Macy closes the portal behind her and Remy. “If I could, I could at least try to talk to her.”

I don’t tell her that I don’t think there will be a lot of talking going on—that I’m pretty sure the time for all that is long past, especially in the Shadow Queen’s mind. She’s as likely to snap my neck with a shadow rope as she is to even hear out my proposal to trade the honey for Mekhi’s life.

To be honest, the trade feels incredibly one-sided—even I can admit that—but if I’ve learned anything in this strange new world, it’s that everything that can be bargained with can bring value. Surely there’s something the queen wants that the honey can fetch her, even if it’s not the one thing she wants most. I’m just not sure that value will be enough to save Mekhi—or the messengers.

I glance at my friends, the same friends whom I watched dying in a meadow less than an hour ago, and realize this isn’t a trip we all need to make. “My friends here will help you find a way to make a better life for yourself, Lorelei.” I take a deep breath, bracing for the storm about to unleash on me. “Hudson and I can take Mekhi to your mother.”

“Bite me,” snarls Jaxon.

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