“I don’t have a plan for right bloody now,” I finally confess, angrily snapping the journal shut. “Just tell me how Morgana not only survived, but also managed to fight.”
“My niece can raise the dead,” she says quickly, giving me a look when I glare at her like she’s insane.
“Long story short, I thought Karma and I raised Dice from the dead when we fused together, but in no other timeline did we raise the dead. It was Kicera—never us. There’s a five minute window where it works. You don’t want to know what happens after five minutes. Even I’ll have nightmares about that poor deer for a while.”
No idea what to even say to that. My mind is processing too slowly right now. It’s all just information, no matter the tone. I’ll decipher it all later.
“What happened to Morgana?”
“I’m sure Gavin whisked her off to try and fix her or maybe give her Stockholm’s Syndrome so they can have their happy ending. And Alton?” The question is tacked on quickly, almost as though she’s scared to ask.
I shake my head, not wanting to discuss that right now.
“Ella delivered a Trout to my brother, didn’t she?” I ask in deflection, remembering how mauled the corpse was.
“If someone as broken as Alton could find the urge to shred a man so fiercely…then there was a good chance Morgana—who’d been trapped with dormant powers festering for centuries—would react the same, given the opportunity.”
“Fucking stupid risk to rely on luck.”
“Instinct,” she argues. “Far more reliable than luck.”
She hides her smug, self-satisfied smile as she starts walking toward the house.
I dematerialize and land just inside the room, staying off the back corner where no one notices me.
“So Cole was the reason for the portal exploding all those times?” Kane is asking, cradling his newborn son to his chest.
“Every time the portal exploded, it saved your life. Ella figured that out, and pieced together that her brother was always born on the night of the Gemini,” Kimber states as she lazily lies across her dark user’s lap, a few bruises on her face that haven’t healed yet.
“I don’t understand why the hell my newborn fucking baby had to come to the battlefield!” the incubus shouts, then looks down at his baby. “Some immortals are going to die and feed you their souls if they ever do that again. Oh, yes they are,” he adds in a very annoying voice as he talks to her.
She’s able to raise the dead, but facial expressions seem to be beyond her capabilities yet. There’s no possible way could she stop from grimacing if she were able.
“Because wake-up times varied. It could be immediate or it might take longer,” Karma tells him, taking their daughter from his hands as she kisses her head. “We needed Morgana to be right in front of Hannah when she woke up. She was only alive because she’s spent so many years not actually fighting her. She was overdue.”
“Never again,” the incubus warns, holding a finger up. “But let’s remember my sperm helped create this child, so when credit is given about how this day was won, give credit where credit is due,” he adds, then makes a rather disturbing thrusting motion with his hips.
“Gavin would have never let anything happen to your baby because your baby was the key to waking Morgana from the dead. He’s Slade’s mini me without scars,” Thad states as he props up next to the wolf hybrid who’s spotted me.
Roslyn’s eyes hold mine for a brief second before she looks away, not even seeming surprised to see me lurking in the corner.
“I had a private meeting with him and we gave him a demonstration with the deer and the baby,” Kimber says, then shudders. “Never pass the five minute mark.”
“I warned you,” Kya tells her as she moves into Chaz’s side, already adjusted to the prospect of a future, since she dared to dream of one long before me.
Chaz’s eyes catch mine just as he kisses the top of Kya’s head, and he studies me for a long second before looking over at Ella. Her eyes come up, finding his, and he glances back at me like the infuriating tattling gnat he apparently wants to be.
Ella’s eyes find mine, and she gives me a small smile as she walks toward me, tugging at her sleeves.
“Ella literally mowed down line after line of people, clearing the path for us to get it all done. I can’t believe the heartbeats thing really worked,” I hear Kimber saying, and I smirk at Ella.
She didn’t really have control out there like I thought. She was backseat driving the entire time, and I had no idea. I saw the black eyes, but assumed she was still in control when she never veered from the targets.
“I spent the night clinging to a psychotic demon while magic punched metaphorical holes in me to kill said demon quite literally inside me. I win,” Leah tells them all.
“No demon bashing in front of my hashtag hell spawn,” the infuriatingly absurd incubus says from somewhere in the room as Ella finally reaches me.
“I was starting to worry you’d disappeared,” she tells me quietly.