oath, Eva. And I intend to follow through.”
Eva gave me a conspiring wink. “He’ll come around.”
“I will do no such thing.”
“He’s really more fun than this stick-in-the-mud he pretends to be.”
“Yes,” Damiel agreed, his eyes on Jiro. “He is.”
“Those years spent being your friend were some of the best in my life,” Jiro told him.
“I think that around each other we both got to be ourselves, free of duties and expectations.”
Jiro nodded. “We truly did.”
Eva braided her fingers together and said serenely, “We really should tell them, Jiro.”
“It’s not relevant. It would change nothing.”
“But they should know.” Eva unlinked her hands and set one on my shoulder. “We knew your mother, Cadence.”
“She was a Keeper?”
Eva shook her head. “No. She was an Immortal but not a Keeper. She took a different path than her sister.” She met my eyes, her expression almost timid.
“You are my mother’s sister?”
“Yes.”
“So that makes you my aunt.”
“Yes,” she said. “I have to admit that after she was killed, well, that motivated me to become part of your life. To protect you when she could not.”
Well, I’d once thought of Eva as family. It seemed like my initial gut feeling had been right.
“A lot has happened between us, Eva,” I said. “What you said to Holyfire in the prison, calling Damiel a traitor. I know you wanted me and Damiel to leave the Legion, but because of you, I spent two hundred years trapped in the Guardians’ Sanctuary. Away from my family.”
“You were exactly where you needed to be,” she replied serenely.
I was really getting fed up with the totally serene way she completely manipulated my life. Eva might have been my aunt, but she wasn’t really family. Not like Damiel, Nero, and my father. She had her own agenda, and my feelings were pretty inconsequential to her plans.
“I do care for you, Cadence,” she insisted. “We became such good friends. I want to be a part of your life again.”
Why did it feel like she was trying to sell me an overpriced set of steak knives?
“I’ll think about it.” If she annoyed me, I supposed I could just stab her with one of those steak knives. “And you,” I said, sliding my gaze to Jiro. “I guess that makes you my ‘Uncle’ Jiro?”
He chuckled, a vestige of his former life as Damiel’s friend. “It’s more complicated than that, Princess.”
“Jiro is Damiel’s cousin,” Eva told me brightly.
“Distant cousin,” Jiro added.
So that made him my…what exactly? I felt like I was living in a supernatural soap opera.
“Things might have been simpler if we’d all stayed dead.” My gaze dropped to Illias’s body, then snapped up to Eva and Jiro. “He is really dead, isn’t he?”
“Completely,” Jiro confirmed, but he threw Illias’s body into the lava pool just for the fun of it. “Without his magic, he cannot revive. It was fortunate he did not get all sixteen daggers. They would have reignited not only his Immortal magic, but his Keeper powers too.”
“Fortune had nothing to do with it,” Eva said, a slow, saucy smile twisting her lips. “Our success was due purely to my very careful planning.”
Jiro favored her with a scowl. “You’re not going to convince me that interfering is ok, Eva. That’s the kind of thinking that got Illias into trouble, which then led to the destruction of the Immortals and our way of life as we knew it.”
“Illias was unhinged. He never should have been made a Keeper,” replied Eva. “And now he’s dead. It’s up to us to make the best of what’s left. The Immortals have been reborn, through Cadence and Damiel. It’s a good start.”
“They still know so little. We must bring them with us.”
“Bring us where?” I spoke up.
I couldn’t say I was thrilled about their deciding on our future without involving us. Then again, I wasn’t surprised. They’d interfered in our whole lives.
“We must bring you to the Keep, of course,” said Jiro.
“The Keepers live in a Keep?” Damiel didn’t laugh, but I could tell he really wanted to.
Jiro pressed on with his speech, “You are Keepers now. You have responsibilities.”
“We are Immortals first,” I argued. “And those responsibilities are greater. If our destiny truly is to bring back the Immortals, then we won’t do that locked away in your Keep. There must be more of us out there, Immortal descendants the hunters didn’t kill. We need to find them.”
“It is a noble calling.” Eva’s smile was wider than I’d ever seen it.
Jiro sighed. “Adequate.” His gaze snapped to Eva. “But the two of us do have duties as Keepers. We swore an oath.”
Eva linked her arm in his and walked off with him, their battle beasts trailing them. “You really are such an insufferable spoilsport, Jiro.”
“And you always have a little too much fun.”
“Say, before we hit the Keep, want to have a little fun with me in your cozy hideout?”
He stared blankly at her for a moment, then said, “Sure. Why not?”
They both vanished.
“Cozy hideout?” I said to Damiel, laughing. “It’s all roots, rocks, and dirt.”
“I’d put up with roots, rocks, and dirt if it meant a few more moments alone with you.”
The man was a through-and-through romantic. I stared at him. He stared at me.
“You look especially beautiful right now,” he said smoothly.
“Covered in ash and blood?”
“You always look beautiful, Cadence.”
“But not now.” I glanced down at the sorry state of my clothes; they were brand new, yet already covered in ash. “Are you sure you’re not blinded by my Fever?”
“Blinded by my eternal love for you perhaps.” He wrapped his arms around my body and squeezed me tightly to him. “Fever or no Fever, I just love you.
“That’s very sweet.” I stopped. “But we’re still going to enjoy the rest of my Fever, aren’t we?”
“Of course. Only a fool would miss an opportunity that comes up only once every couple of decades. Or every couple of centuries. I attend for both of us to enjoy this thoroughly.”
I gave my father a wave. “Ok, see you back on Earth.”
I knew that my father would want to bask for a bit in the locals’ appreciation for ending the curse. And now that this world was at peace, when he was done being revered as a hero, he could fly back to the magic mirror and return to Earth at his leisure. Later, we’d all meet back on Earth: my father, Damiel, Nero, and I. We’d finally be a family again.
I waved my hand to open an interworld passage. I didn’t need to use the Diamond Tear anymore. It was a part of me. All sixteen daggers were a part of me now, and their powers too.
Two hundred years ago, I’d lost my elemental connection to the Earth. And I’d spent every day since then mourning that loss. But Damiel and I were now connected to something bigger, something greater: the natural magic of all the universe.
We stepped through the interworld passage and returned to the castle Damiel had made for us on Sundry. We still had years of catching up to do—and a future to build together for us, our family, and the Immortals.
Author’s Note
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For additional reading in the same magical universe, check out my Legion of Angels series.