When it’s all over, I sit back, chest heaving and eyes watering, too scared to look for fear it didn’t work. I keep my eyes on my trembling fingers, listening for a breath, a groan—anything to let me know I was successful, and my mates are back with me.

But when I finally raise my head, that’s not the case. Abbadon’s pieces are still spread out on the ice, just as cold and lifeless as before I completed the soul bond.

A frustrated scream claws its way up my throat, but before it can escape, an explosion of energy thunders from the severed body, sending me flying backward across the clearing and filling the air with a blinding golden light—one I don’t get to witness for long.

My body collides with a welwig trunk at the far edge of the space, sending wood splintering into the air as the back of my head smashes through the bark, the force of the impact carving a deep crater into the wood and causing my vision to fracture.

I slump to the ground in a limp heap, blinking slowly and attempting to breathe past the iron fist squeezing the air from my lungs. There’s a powerful ringing in my ears, deafening my surroundings and causing my head to pound as pain splinters from the base of my skull.

I reach back, prodding the wound with a wince, coming away with my fingers coated in a slick dark red substance. Fuck… not good…

Dagny!

I rub my fingertips together, staring hard and trying to drown out that voice calling my name. It sounds so much like Kaebl—too much like my mate. I know it’s not real, and that I’m hallucinating my mate's voice, but each time I hear it, it causes that dreaded hope to bloom in my chest, always followed by a bolt of pain to the heart when I remember he’s dead.

Dagny!

“Stop it,” I whisper, shutting my eyes tight. “Please, I can’t bear it. It hurts too much.”

And here I thought you’d be happy to see us.

My lips part in a shuddering gasp as I raise my head, unable to believe the sight in front of me. “K-Kaebl… Malice… Cyprien… you’re⁠—”

“We are,” Lir whispers, stepping out from behind Kaebl’s spread wings. “All of us.”

My gaze flicks to the left, tears streaming hot and fast down my face as I see Fenryr and Roark approaching, their bodies bruised and scraped, but whole. Living.

Despite the world tilting around me, despite my shattered and broken bones, I find the strength to lunge across the distance, a joy-filled cry piercing the air as I jump headfirst into the waiting arms of my mates.