Faith (Soul Savers Book 7) (44 page)

The
shock of everything being over and the evil ones gone hung in the
air, as tangible as a suspended curtain waiting to fall. As if time
stood still and the world had stopped spinning, waiting for our
minds, hearts, and souls to catch up with reality. I didn’t
know if anyone actually breathed. I knew I didn’t. Every cell
of my body seemed frozen as I knelt on the ground with Char’s
dead body in my arms. The only movement came from the fat snowflakes
that continued to fall.

Then someone in the
distance let out a cheer.

Many others followed.
Mages, vampires, and Normans whooped and hollered, and Weres let out
resounding roars and howls. Even the Angels shook their fists and
weapons in the air. The sounds of everyone congratulating each other
reached my ears, but so did the cries of those who’d lost loved
ones.

Owen, who’d been
on the far side of the pit, suddenly appeared next to me.

“As I said,
Alexis, good always wins,” he declared.

I slowly lifted my head
to stare at him as though he’d lost his mind.

“Do we?” I
choked out as a tear ran down my cheek and fell onto Char’s.

His gaze dropped to the
body in my arms, evidence to the contrary. His breath hitched as he
drank the sight in, and the light in his eyes dimmed as his face
fell. Then he crashed to his knees next to me and scooped her out of
my arms, pressing his mother into his chest. His wails carried the
forlorn song of the souls in Hell, breaking my heart more than it had
been already. Mom dropped next to him and wrapped her arms and wings
around Owen and her best friend.

I gathered the other
body into my arms and held Heather, tears streaming down my cheeks as
her eyes stared without seeing. Such innocence. Such loss.

“Heather?”
Sonya’s voice screamed from the distance, quickly approaching.
“Heather, where are—No! Oh, no!”

The vampire eyed us,
and I didn’t want to look her in the eye, to be the bearer of
such horrific news—again—but I had to. And my look was
all she needed. Her jaw slackened. Her eyes widened. She streaked
toward us and collapsed in front of me.

“No, Heather, oh
God, no,” she cried as she took her sister from me and into her
own arms. She curled around the girl, her whole body trembling with
sobs. I folded myself over her, covered us with my wings as Mom had
done with Owen and Char, and held them both as my tears mixed with
hers.

When the worst had
passed, I hid my wings to find Blossom and Sheree hovering over us,
their faces streaked with tears. They tried to comfort Sonya and Owen
both as I stood up, swept my eyes over the corpse-littered valley,
and shook my head.

“
Nobody
wins in war,” I whispered.

Tristan slipped his
arms around me. I leaned my head against his chest, drawing on the
calming effect he had on me because my nerves were so taut, so raw.
My heart so irrevocably broken. Rina and Cassandra appeared by our
sides.

“No truer words
have been spoken,” Rina said.

Cassandra nodded. “Yes.
However, on this day, good has defeated evil. We will mourn, but we
may also rejoice.”

Voices in the distance
cheered, but everyone around me grieved.

The sounds of victory
eventually succumbed to a quiet steadfastness as the Amadis began
taking care of our dead, giving supernaturals and Normans alike an
Amadis send-off. My heart grew heavier with each one until I thought
my body couldn’t possibly hold it any longer. And then came
Heather. Then Charlotte … and I could barely form coherent
thoughts let alone speak the words she deserved. She’d become
my surrogate mother. My mentor. A courageous and strong warrior. I
loved her so much, and she was gone.

The realization that
Dorian wasn’t coming back, either, sank me.

A song that sounded
both mournful and uplifting at the same time came from the heavens,
from the Angels. And then all but Mom and Rina disappeared, and the
veil between Earth and the Otherworld was restored.

“You’re
staying?” I asked with the first trace of hope since killing
Lucas. “For good?”

Mom frowned. “No,
honey. We don’t belong here.”

“But we will stay
for a bit longer,” Rina said.

Nobody else was quite
ready to leave, either, partly out of a special bond they’d all
formed from fighting side-by-side, and partly because the air here
was temporarily safe for them, and they wanted to make the most of
being outside. Our mages transformed the Daemoni camps into more
homey and comfortable accommodations for the night as the snow fell
harder. A quiet celebration became louder as the night passed and
hard liquor was discovered.

I, however, could not
possibly join in. Neither could my team. We gathered in a large tent
together and mourned our losses. Every time I looked around at the
faces that meant so much to me, I couldn’t believe Charlotte’s
was no longer there. Would never be there again. And neither was
Dorian’s.

Owen left first, and
Vanessa followed him. Then Jax and Blossom said their good-nights,
followed by Sheree.

“You don’t
have to leave,” I told her, knowing how much she adored Char
and that she had no one to mourn with.

“I’m going
to find Sonya,” she said from the doorway to the tent. “She’s
probably all alone.”

I nodded my
appreciation. I spent the rest of the night wrapped in Tristan’s
arms, my own returning his embrace. Mom and Rina took turns holding
and comforting us.

“I can’t
believe he left,” I sobbed, my chest heaving as I remembered
the look in my son’s eyes.

“
That
is
his purpose,” Rina said.

“To lead the
Daemoni
?” I cried.

“He is doing what
he is meant to do,” Mom said. “Something only he can.”

I pressed the heels of
my palms to my eyes, trying to stop the unending tears. “But
his soul will be lost. The evil energy is too strong for him. I saw
it in his eyes. He’s just a little boy! He hasn’t matured
enough to handle such power.”

Mom stroked a hand down
my back. “The power was new, honey. New to him. It will settle,
and he will control it. After all of this, you must have faith that
there is a reason he received that power and nobody else. Because he
is
strong enough to handle it.”

Tristan swept his arms
around me again and pulled me in tightly. “He is alive, Lex. He
is brave, and he
is
strong. You know he is. He has too much of
you in him to give in so easily. Embrace that faith you’ve
rediscovered and let go of what you can’t control.”

I swallowed the painful
lump in my throat and stared at the magical ball of yellow light
while pulling on divine strength within me. My son
was
alive.
Thank God for that! When I’d thought the world had ended, I
would have killed for that to be true. And he wasn’t trapped in
Hell for eternity, which he very nearly had been. He wasn’t
living under Lucas’s control or as a servant to Satan. His
soul, at least for now, was still his own. My gratitude for that fact
outweighed everything else. All I could do now was pray that he held
on to it and trust God to protect him. Hopefully, one day after
everything settled, we would be reunited as a family. I could see
that vision clearly, as though a premonition of what would come.

That would be my rope
of hope I would hold on to for as long as necessary.

“Everything is as
it should be,” Rina said, before she and Mom eventually left
us, too, to search for Noah.

Their reunion gave my
heart a small but much-needed lift. When Cassandra had said we should
rejoice that good had defeated evil, Rina and Mom must have been
thinking about Noah and the rest of the Summoned and their
descendants. I still hadn’t fully grasped that they’d
come to our side. Another victory to be celebrated. Some day.

With the evil gone, the
sun finally dawned the next morning, sparkling on the freshly fallen
snow that covered the spilled blood from last night. Owen began
creating portals for everyone to return to their underground
communities until we could decide how to fix Earth. We said our
goodbyes with promises to officially celebrate when the time was
right.

“Trevor?” I
said in surprise when I turned to find a familiar werewolf in front
of me. Tristan and I had just sent a couple, Rissa and Gray, whom I’d
only met now, through a portal to Georgia. They must have been part
of Trevor’s or Sundae’s packs. The tall, thin female
stood by his side. “Sundae!”

“Couldn’t
leave without saying so long,” Trevor said.

“Thank you for
coming,” I breathed. “Did you … any family …?”

Sundae smiled slightly
and shook her head. “Gray’s my brother, and you see he is
fine. So are our packs. We were lucky. We’re returning whole.”

I blinked several
times, pressing down the grief of
not
being whole, and nodded.
“Where do you stay?”

“We have a safe
place under the bar and shop,” Sundae replied.

Trevor dropped a thick
arm over her shoulders. “Why do you think I teamed up with her?
This is one smart lady.”

Sundae rolled her eyes.
“When you live the life we do, I couldn’t help but fall
in with those crazy preppers, knowing doomsday would come sometime.
It’s big enough for both of our packs and some local Normans,
too.”

“We’ll come
check it out sometime,” Tristan said.

Trevor nodded. “We’ll
have to celebrate with a few.”

“You have beer?”
Tristan asked, sounding even more intrigued.

Sundae laughed. “That
was gone months ago. But we got shine.”

Just the thought of
moonshine made me want to gag.

We finished our
farewells with Trevor and Sundae, and they stepped through their
portal and disappeared. The next familiar face we ran into caught me
off guard, although I shouldn’t have been so surprised to see
him. Noah dropped his head in a bow.

“Please,” I
said, “you really don’t have to do that.”

He lifted his face and
eyes to me and grinned. The first time I’d ever seen him do so.
“Only showing my respect. And my allegiance.”

“You and the
others have more than proved that,” I said. “You fought
with us.”

“And we will do
so again,” said another man who stood behind Noah, his head
down.

“Let’s hope
we don’t have to,” I murmured.
Especially when my son
is with our enemy.

Noah’s hand
squeezed my shoulder. “Know that we are here for you.”

“And where is
here
, exactly?” Tristan asked.

Noah didn’t look
at him, but instead gave me another bow of his head. “At our
leader’s beck and call.”

At once, all of the
Summoned spread their chestnut-colored wings and sprang into the air.

When everyone but my
immediate team had left, we stood with Mom and Rina by the portal to
The Loft.

“You’re not
coming with us.” I didn’t state it as a question. My chin
trembled with the answer in Mom’s and Rina’s eyes.

“It is time,”
Rina confirmed.

They gave each of my
council members a farewell hug. Mom and Owen held each other for a
long time.

“Tell her I love
her,” Owen whispered, although most of us could hear him
anyway. “I never said it enough.”

Mom squeezed him
tighter. “She knows, Owen. And I know she loves you more than
she could ever say.”

He pulled back and gave
a small nod before averting his head and pressing his fingers to his
eyes.

One by one, my team
stepped through the portal until only Tristan and I remained with Mom
and Rina. Since we would be flying back to The Loft, Owen closed the
portal, leaving the four of us in a long-awaited peace in the valley.
When I turned to Mom and Rina, I couldn’t stop the tears.

“I don’t
want to say goodbye,” I cried as my grandmother held me. “I’ve
said it too much already.”

“We will visit
when allowed,” Rina promised, which made me feel a tiny bit
better.

Mom turned from
Tristan, and I turned to her, and I threw myself at her.

“I wish you could
stay.” The tears flowed harder. Regardless of how infuriating
she’d been, she was still my mom. “I miss you so much.
And you’re going to be a Mimi again.”

She stroked her hand
over my hair as she held me tightly. “One way or another, I
will be here.” She pulled back and placed her hand over my
heart as her mahogany eyes met mine. “Even if it’s only
in here, know that I am always close, Alexis. We all are.”

“It’s not
the same, Mom.”

“I know, honey.
But until we know more, that’s the best I can offer.”

I pulled her back
against me, holding on because I knew when I let go, she’d be
gone for good. In a different world, a different realm. Eventually,
however, I had to release her. Well, she let go of me and stepped out
of my arms, forcing me to. She placed a hand against my cheek and
gave me a small smile. “Trust in God’s plan, Alexis. For
you. For those babies. For Dorian.”