We’d taken Dezrael’s body to the crematorium and burned her. Kiran placed her ashes in a tin box and threw it into Resurrection Bay. We watched it sink and sighed in relief as the bubbles broke on the surface. We didn’t want to taint the forest by burying her there.Two weeks went by, and Jessica got over her anger. We didn’t talk about Dezrael again, and we didn’t tell anyone else. I told Falcon and Kari that night when I got home, and I knew Malachi would tell Levi, which meant that William and Saga would know. Saga was super pissed off that we’d taken her mother on again, but she was more pissed that the woman had dared to come into our lives again.Things went back to normal, and we all resumed our daily lives. A new bond had been created between Kiran and me. We were closer than ever before, and that first day after our fight in the forest, he’d hugged me tightly in his office, and wiped his eyes afterward.I walked down to the hotel’s storage area and checked my watch. It was ne
Kiran burned brighter and it almost seemed like his eyes were ablaze with the blue fire. I focused my gaze on Raven, and I drew more magic from the earth. I concentrated on flooding her mind with images of her own death as I imagined it. It was just a diversion tactic to give Kiran the edge over her because she was strong, the strongest witch I’d ever encountered. I didn’t know if Kiran had restored his own energies after purifying me.I felt her give a little, as she tried to block me out, and I saw her in her own mind, screaming, as she went down to her knees holding her head. I saw Kiran’s feet leave the ground, he lifted himself with his own fire, and he burned impossibly bright. He raised both his hands, and I looked at him in horror.“Dad, no! Don’t do it!” I yelled at him, and ran toward him as the fire exploded out of his body and the ground beneath us shuddered and he landed in a hole as the magic swept the plants from the forest floor.Dezrael had countered him with her own
I was sitting in my Jeep, at the Point, looking out at the crashing waves. It seemed to be the place I went to when I wanted to be alone with my thoughts. The ocean breeze and the sound of the waves calmed my thoughts. My phone rang and I clenched my fist as I answered it.“Hi.”“Finally, it’s been days and days. You haven’t called me or even stopped by to see me. I hope you have good news for me in the form of divorcing your wife and moving back to California with me,” Raven said.“I’ve been busy,” I said.“You sound different,” she said, her earlier flirty tone gone now. “Is everything okay?”“Did you enchant me before that night in the bathroom or afterward?” I asked her.“I … I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said.“Yes, you do!” I yelled at her.“Kai, it’s not what you think,” she said.“It’s exactly what I think. I want to know why!” I said, and she began to laugh softly.“Because I could,” she said, sounding different, too. “It was so easy.”“It’s over, I’ve been pur
We sat around the kitchen table and finished our coffee. Falcon cleared his throat and looked at Kari as he gripped his cup tightly. “I’m sorry about everything that’s happened to you, Kari.”“Thank you, Falcon. I really appreciate that,” she said.“I’ve actually been meaning to talk to you about something,” Falcon said, as he looked at me.“Yeah?” I’d been absent so much, I hadn’t spent the time with him like I should have. So far, I’d been a really lousy future Alpha.“I’m thinking of opening a small business, something to keep me busy,” he said.“What kind of business?” I asked him. Falcon was like Levi, he wasn’t the type to work for someone.“Construction, sort of. I want to buy a house, fix it up, then sell it,” he said, and I smiled.“That’s actually a really good idea,” I said.“Can you start with our house?” Kari asked him, and smiled.“What’s wrong with your house?” Falcon asked her.“The kitchen’s green,” she deadpanned, and I laughed. My alarm went off on my phone, and I
I’d taken a shower in my old bedroom and washed the blood away that had dried on my throat and chest. It felt surreal to look at it in the mirror, but as I wiped the fog from the glass surface, my mind was clear, and I knew exactly what I wanted to do.Kari and I had gone home and spent most of the night talking. It was like we were back in Fresno, those four months we’d spent together. We talked about Raven, and I told her everything that had happened. It was hard to confess how I’d cheated on her, but she had a right to know what I’d done.We talked about Paul, our baby, and our marriage. Everything spilled out into the open and after we’d cleared the air, we’d gone to bed, holding each other for the first time since we got married. The one thing we both agreed on was that we loved each other. We decided to turn a new page, to leave the past in the past, and focus on our future. We both wanted the same thing, and that was to be together.“Morning,” Kari said with a smile, as I start
I could hear Jessica clearly as she cast another protection spell. I was choking and coughing on my own blood. Kiran looked at me again and my eyes closed involuntarily. ‘I’m dead,’ I thought to myself as I opened my eyes, and I turned onto my side to vomit. It looked like black blood, and I vomited again.I took deep breaths, and my hands went to my chest, and then to my throat, but there was nothing there. If I hadn’t been lying in the clearing, I would’ve thought that it was all a bad dream, but it wasn’t. Kiran had slit my throat.“How are you feeling, Kai?” Kiran asked me, as I sat upright.“Like you ripped my chest open and slit my throat,” I said, and Kiran chuckled.“You’ll be okay,” he said, and extended his hand and pulled me to my feet.“Why did you do that?” I asked him, still confused as to what exactly had happened.“You were enchanted,” Kiran said, and I looked at him.“What?” Now I was really shocked. Enchanted.“I realized it too late, so the spell was a bit extreme,