A Shade of Vampire 77 A Fate of Time - Bella Forrest Page 0,93

back together, their family whole again. Vesta and I stayed close, laughing and crying at the same time. We felt Kailani, Hunter, and a few others hug us, but we couldn’t even look away from each other.

Kailani smiled at Vesta. “Your parents are on their way. All the fae have been released from quarantine.”

It made Vesta light up, almost glowing on the inside, as she braced herself for what was bound to be a teary reunion.

I heard the Novaks whispering sweet words to one another. Soulmates returned. Love was reaffirmed. Parents got their children back. Husbands got their wives back. The world made sense again, and the sanctuary burst into waves of laughter and tears of joy. Every inch of this place was bathed in a milky white moonlight and the relief from hundreds of creatures who’d been spared by Death.

The future was bright again. The future was there, once more, for us to reach out to and build. My fiancée had been returned to me, and I couldn’t even breathe from all the happiness.

“I worry my heart is going to explode,” I managed, running my fingers through her hair, thankful to feel its silky texture against my skin. She kissed me again, her lips as sweet and as soft as honey. I tasted her, I devoured her, and she exhaled sharply when her palm settled on my chest.

“Oh, wow, you’re actually right,” she said, giving me a worried glance. “Take a few deep breaths, honey, or you’ll hyperventilate and pass out.”

I laughed, throwing my head back in sheer delight. “Then let me pass out. It would be for the most wonderful of reasons.”

The Novaks surrounded us, laughing and cheering. The life had returned to River’s face, and I breathed a deep sigh of relief. She deserved every second of this. We were all back together again, but our emotional wounds would take a long time to heal. For a short while, we’d all lost the people we loved most in this world. It could not be deleted by Death’s resurrection order. It made it all better, yes, but it did not erase what happened.

For now, we rode the wave of joy and love. Tomorrow, we’d all have to wake up and face what we went through. The grief would take a while to fade away, and the memory of our losses would never disappear. I had a feeling we’d all remember this for as long as we lived.

When we were all sated by the sudden influx of glee and reassurance, the prospect of fallout from this entire incident began to rear its ugly head. There was no rest for us yet. Several issues needed to be addressed, including the immediate aftermath of the ritual.

“What do we do next?” Kailani asked.

Rose was glued to her brother, much like River and Sofia. She sighed deeply. “We’ll have to check every world in the GASP federation,” she said. “See if there were any victims besides the fae who might’ve gotten hurt by the ritual’s final stage. You know, before Tae canceled it.”

Derek nodded in agreement. “We’ll need to do a tally of Hermessi cult members, as well. They’re likely to still be loyal, indoctrinated into this idea of an end of days.”

“I say jail for life is definitely an option for those bastards,” Lucas grumbled, his arms locked around Avril and Marion’s necks. He stopped to drop kisses on their foreheads once in a while, as if just to make sure that they were real. That this was all real. Not that I could blame him, since I, too, occasionally squeezed Vesta in my arms for the same reason. “They did this willingly. They were well aware of what the plan was, the kind of damage it would do.”

“I agree,” Sofia replied. “We cannot show mercy to these people, not after what they helped the Hermessi do. Five million fae literally died because of them, and the fact that Death brought our people back does not lessen the cultists’ crimes.”

“Where’s Nuriya? She was here earlier,” Ben said. He wobbled a bit as he looked around curiously, still taking some time to get reacquainted with his own body. He’d been held up by his wife and daughter and granddaughters in their hugs, until now, but he’d moved back a bit to stand on his own. Technically speaking, it wasn’t even his original body. He’d gotten it from the fae during his first brush with the ghostly afterlife. I figured he’d gotten attached to