Freesia’s Second Coming

ZAYDA

It didn’t take long searching in the tunnels of the lab before I found the space beneath Freesia’s Rock—the seemingly barren altar where I’d found her spell book.

Thor was in my arms, crying, and I knew this was the place it would need to happen.

I wheeled Xythor in there too.

I brought Freesia’s spell book with me, along with the necessary tools for the simple, but dark, blood magic: a basin…a dagger.

That was all I needed.

And for the first time since Thor was born, I felt calm. My awful task stretched out before me like a road map that I was destined to follow.

It had been this way all along, but I was just now seeing it.

And now was the time to complete it.

I lay my cursed child on the altar, suspended in one shaft of dusty sunlight.

His skin was red and chafed… He was hurting—as he had been hurting for his whole, brief life. But for the first time, he wasn’t crying.

I turned to Xythor, the man I loved…

The man I ~had~ loved.

In his dead eyes, I saw the love he used to show me with just one look.

I took his hand and choked on tears as I said the words I wasn’t sure he could hear.

“Xythor, you were the love of my life,” I whispered. “The best time of my life I spent with you.”

I felt the tiny vibration of a heartbeat beneath his skin.

“I’m so sorry I have to do this. But it’s for the best.”

As I turned from Xythor, I took a deep breath and opened my mouth, Freesia’s Song filling the air.

~Oh, cold is the night~

~When the wind pulls the lights~

~Cold was the night you were born~

~Tell me, where is your grave?~

~Oh, little one, where is your grave?~

~Tell me, where is your grave?~

~Oh, little one, where is your grave?~

I took one moment to feel her presence with me…

The one who came before me. The one whose footsteps I would now tread.

Freesia.

And then, I opened my eyes and reached for her book.

The time was now.

I looked at Thor, his deformed face serene.

“I love you,” I whispered.

And then I began to work through Freesia’s Curse.

SUMMER

“Z?” I called into the nursery.

When I couldn’t find my friend, I entered Xythor’s room, which was also empty.

~What is she doing?~

I began to panic, running down the hall.

“Zayda!” I shouted. I needed to find her…before she did something she would regret.

I checked her office, but it was empty.

I continued through the mazelike halls; where the lights had failed altogether, I used the flashlight on my phone.

I searched for so long that I needed to walk, not run. Staggering through the halls like I was drunk, I wondered what I would find…and what I would do when I found Zayda.

After I wandered for so long that my panic subsided, I began to hear a song.

~Is Zayda singing?~

~Oh dark is the wind~

~When it blows through the cave~

~And the wolf gets the poor shepherd’s flock~

~Loud is the blood~

~As it lands in the mud~

~When it spills from the red, cursed rock~

It was Freesia’s Song. I continued on as my heart beat wildly in my chest, in time with the swelling, haunted melody…

Finally, thin shafts of daylight reflected toward me, though as far as I knew, there was no way for the sun to get down there.

I figured it must have been magic.

When I found the tiny dungeon-like room, I lingered at the entrance for a moment, watching her.

Zayda was slicked in sweat. She sang Freesia’s Song softly, beautifully, in a way I’d never known she could.

In the corner, Xythor’s chin was resting on his chest.

On the floor, a long dagger, slicked in blood, was reflecting sunlight at me. I looked up and saw, over our heads, a glass ceiling through which I could make out the bottom of a red, craggy rock.

Freesia’s Rock.

Horror clenched my heart. The blood…the dagger…the song…

Could Zayda have followed through with Freesia’s cursed task?

“Zayda,” I whispered, clutching the wall for support. “What have you done?”

But suddenly, a child began to cry.

Zayda turned around slowly.

The first thing I saw was a large gash on her forearm.

The second, Thor.

I fell to my knees, overcome with emotion. His scales were gone. His wings were gone.

His cry was no longer the wail of a tortured soul.

It was the cry of a normal, healthy human child.

When I turned to look at Xythor again, I realized what had been done.

He was slumped forward in his hospital bed. The sheets were stained red with blood that trickled from an incision similar to the one on Zayda’s arm.

Finally, after suffering for so long, Xythor had been put out of his misery.

ZAYDA

I felt drained. Exhausted.

But for the first time in ~so long~, I felt at peace.

I just had to keep looking at Thor, my perfect baby boy. My ~healthy~ baby.

Because when I thought about Xythor, across the room, I began to lose it.

~“What have you done?”~

Summer’s words rang in my head. When I turned to her, she was staring at Xythor, her mouth open in shock.

“I-I had to do it,” I managed before my voice broke into a sob. “I couldn’t bring him back. But Thor…”

Summer ran to me and wrapped her arms around me. Her warmth only made me cry more…

“Shhhh,” she comforted me, though the tears wouldn’t stop coming. “You made an impossible decision.”

I nodded, and together we looked down at Thor. He batted my dirty hair with his perfect little hand.

His skin was soft. His eyes were sky blue. He cooed, and it was a happy sound.

“~This~ is exactly what Xythor would have wanted,” Summer whispered.

My tears of sorrow became tears of gratitude.

Thor was okay. All the pain, all the loss, all the dark magic…it hadn’t been for nothing. It had been for ~him~ all along.

I met Summer’s eyes, and in them I saw the love and acceptance I needed. Somehow, she understood me when no one else could.

“I couldn’t do what Freesia did,” I said.

Summer nodded, pushing a sweat-soaked strand of hair from my eyes.

“You performed the curse out of compassion,” she whispered.

“She did too,” I whispered. Performing her curse showed me Freesia’s mind. I knew now who she really was.

I just didn’t know if I could explain it.

“We both used the curse for the same reason: to protect our children.”

Summer embraced me once more, and leaned down to kiss Thor’s cute nose.

“You were her second coming, Z,” Summer said softly. “While Freesia used the spell to curse all dragons, you used it to create a bridge between the two worlds…through Thor.”

I hadn’t thought about it like that, but she was right.

I understood Freesia, but we were not the same.

Then, Summer said the words that made my wounded heart swell to bursting.

“I am ~so proud~ of you, Zayda.”

MADDIE

“Lead the way, boys!” I called flirtatiously, trailing behind Loch and Hael over the marble floors, to the vault.

~Right~ where I needed them.

The door was already open, and they both stood at the entrance, welcoming me inside.

“Thank you,” I purred as I strutted over stray gold coins in my combat boots.

Loch and Hael closed the door, then turned to me with devious, but sweet, smiles.

Ever since the ~close call~, my mates had been unnaturally mushy. I caught both of them staring at me ~while their eyes watered~.

Just the thought of me dying made them cry.

It was almost touching… It almost made me want to reconsider the heist…

~Nah.~

“What are you going to do to me?” I whispered as I unbuttoned Loch’s shirt, and then Hael’s.

Hael grabbed my chin and kissed me urgently.

“Make you feel better than you ever have in your ~life~,” Loch whispered in my ear.

I grinned as Hael pulled my tank top over my head while Loch took off my skirt, both of them growling with delight.

It was sort of disappointing to think that this great foreplay would go nowhere, but then again…

The only thing that excited me more than sex was stealing from the rich.

Loch reached into his back pocket and pulled out a pair of golden handcuffs.

“Ready, mouse?” he asked.

“More than you know!” I replied.

Loch closed the cuff around one wrist and gestured to a throne in the corner.

I lay down on a large velvet cushion that had been placed there for me, but just before Loch closed the cuff around the leg of the throne…

I began to sing.

~Tell me, where is your grave?~

~Oh, little one, where is your grave?~

I chose the most powerful song I knew, and the one that came most easily: Freesia’s.

Immediately, Loch’s eyelids began to sink, and I saw Hael, who was standing behind him, begin to sway unsteadily.

A moment later, Loch collapsed on top of me, his even breath softly tickling my ear.

“Perfect, baby,” I whispered, kissing his neck quickly before scrambling out from underneath his sleeping body.

I ran to my denim skirt, the cuff still dangling from my wrist.

With one glance back at my sleeping, beautiful mates, I pulled my cell phone from my pocket and texted Harry and Darshan.

Maddie

Targets have been subdued.

Maddie

We have exactly one hour.