Midnight Truth (Shifter Island #4) - Leia Stone Page 0,94

it became too much. This was the first time I’d seen him since he died, and I dropped my head. So much sacrifice … for me. It was a lot to take in—a lot to accept.

“Hello, granddaughter of mine,” Gramps said, standing before me, looking healthier than he ever had before.

I had to say it. I didn’t have a lot of time, and I had to make sure he knew before the Keeper sent me back. I raised my chin and met his gaze. “I never got to tell you … how much … I love you.” I choked on a sob, and my eyes burned with fresh tears. “Thank you—for everything. All the things I know and probably a million more I don’t. I’m so, so happy you sent that letter early. That you cared enough to come into my life.”

He smiled and opened his arms with a wink. I ran into them, crashing into his soul form, and for one long moment, I just allowed myself to be here, in this beautiful place with the people I loved. Death wasn’t the end, and that was great, but I’d miss seeing him and Reyna every day.

The Keeper’s voice suddenly called over my shoulder: “I need to send you back now, or it will be too late.”

Too late? Yeah, I didn’t want to get trapped here, so I nodded, wiping at my face. Gramps gave me one more hug and then leaned closer and whispered into my ear.

“Julian’s body is fresh,” he said. “If you’re quick, you can heal him and transfer Honor’s soul and wolf into it.”

Then he pulled back and winked.

My jaw dropped. What the what did he just say?

But before I could ask any questions, the Keeper snapped his fingers, and then I was flying into the air, through a portal he’d created to the mortal realm, my head spinning.

My feet slammed onto solid ground, and I glanced around the clearing, taking stock of my surroundings. Kaja and her sisters wept silently over Reyna’s shredded body. They’d closed her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. There was a small measure of relief that I hadn’t been the one to cause her death by pulling her over the cliff with me. I needed to thank Rage and Carson for that small miracle … but first…

There!

Julian’s body lay slumped to the side, at the base of a tree, his ankle bent at an odd angle but otherwise intact except for the knife in his abdomen.

Was Gramps for real? That I should put Honor’s soul and wolf into Julian? And how to heal the wound that’d killed him before I put the soul in—was that even possible?

My mind raced with what to do first, and I was frozen in thought when a blur of motion caught my attention a heartbeat before Rage slammed into me.

“Nai!” Rage pulled me close and pressed his lips to my temple, burying his face in my hair. “Woman, you disappeared through a portal into the Realm of the Dead! Don’t ever do that again.”

“Yeah.” I nuzzled his neck, taking in his scent, the way his pulse in his neck beat against my lips. “I promise.”

I looked over his shoulder at the bodies. Several lines of beheaded blood mages lay on the ground, and I closed my eyes and asked, “Are they all dead?”

“Yes, we got them all and either beheaded them, or you had them sucked into that portal. We did it, Nai.” Rage cupped my chin but pulled back to look me in the eyes. “We won.”

Relief flooded me and I sagged into him. And then Honor in his wolf form, Justice, and Noble rushed toward us. Kaja looked up from her silent weeping, her eyes filled with unshed tears, and I looked at my mate. “I’ll be right back. Will you … get Honor and meet me at Julian’s body?”

He raised one eyebrow.

‘Trust me,’ I said and then ran to Kaja. My bestie and her sisters, Fiona, Rue, and Nell, all stood clustered together, clinging to one another as they wept over Reyna’s body. I fell to my knees, bowing my head over Reyna’s shriveled form. Somehow, she’d taken all of the blood mage queen’s wrath. Like what had happened to Honor at the midyear games, she was the last to pledge—and she’d taken the final result.

“Kaja, Nell, Rue, Fiona … I’m so sorry,” I croaked. “I just saw Reyna, in the Realm of the Dead … I promise, she said