Page 149 of An Oath at Midnight

Roots again flew at Emmaline, dragging her back, whipping around Marcel as well. Willow kept coming, wrapping vines and roots and branches around and around them both. I dragged myself up, blood pouring from the scratches and bites all over me.

I pulled a handful of vials from my bag. “Get back,” I yelled at my sisters and closed in on the struggling, snapping undead monsters Maria had created.

Willow stumbled back and Rose grabbed her, pulling her down beside her. With a cry of rage, I threw the vials with force, and they smashed against the trunk Emmaline and Marcel were bound to.

Their skin instantly started smoking, sizzling and bubbling, their flesh melting from their bones, the bones corroding and disintegrating, their bodies quickly turning to nothing but pulp at the base of the tree.

I turned back to my sisters. Iris was still unmoving, Rose and Willow clinging to her as they watched Emmaline and Marcel dissolve before their eyes. Until all that remained were two souls, confused and angry and afraid.

Power surged through me, not magic but the power Death gave me. A staff appeared in my hand, a smaller version of Death’s. Somehow, I knew what I needed to do. “Come with me now,” I said to them. “It’s time to go.”

“We don’t want to,” Emmaline said. “We’re scared.”

They’d resisted and missed their chance to go to Heaven. They didn’t belong in Hell. But they couldn’t stay here, which meant the only place left for them was Limbo. “It’s going to be okay,” I said.

“Will we be together?”

I held out my hand. “Yes. You’ll be together forever.”

Emmaline took it, and Marcel took hers. I lifted my staff and banged it on the forest floor, then I was flying through the trees, not just my soul this time but my physical self, all of me, and taking them both with me.

We flew up to the pile of rocks, and I banged my staff again. The rocks reformed into Limbo’s gates. We flew through the gateway, along the path of skulls, but instead of traveling to Death’s fortress, I took a worn path to a cottage that appeared in the distance.

Emmaline smiled.

“You know this place?” I asked.

“My grandmother’s cottage,” she said. “It’s our favorite place.”

I led them to the door, and my skeletal face was reflected back at me in the glass panes. I don’t think I’d ever get used to that. Emmaline let go of my hand, then she and Marcel walked in, shutting the door behind them.

Then I was flying back the way I’d come, back through the gates and the forest, back to my sisters. They hadn’t moved. What felt like fifteen minutes to me had been no time for them. I looked down at the staff and willed it away. It vanished.

“It’s done. They’re in Limbo,” I said, rushing over to them.

“Thank fuck,” Willow said.

I helped her up. “We need to move. Our wounds need treating.”

We were immortal, yes. But I wasn’t willing to risk it. I had no idea what would happen to one of us if we were close to death. What if we ended up like Chase Golden, stuck in a coma for eternity? Anything was possible.

Rose stayed in her shifted form, she was stronger that way, and half carried, half dragged Iris back the way we had come. I wrapped my arm around Willow and took her weight as she limped along.

The way back took a hell of a lot longer, and it didn’t help that we were weak from blood loss. Several demons came at us, and I took them down, killing each and every one before they could attack. Adrenaline pumped through me, and that was the only thing keeping me standing.

“We’re almost there,” I said when I spotted the forest opening ahead.

That’s when I saw our mates. They were headed toward us, and they were moving fast. With snarls and glowing eyes, they crashed through the forest like the monsters they were to get to us.

Then they were there, snatching us off our feet—and getting us the fuck out of there.

EPILOGUE

Bram

Three months later

The entire coven was here, my brothers, Maeve and Uma as well. Daisy had insisted on a proper mating ceremony, and I wasn’t going to argue. Not that I wanted to. I’d take any excuse to show everyone that Magnolia was mine.