Wild and Free (The Three #3)(194)

Fuck, but Lucien couldn’t argue that.

“They saw,” Avery continued. “All around the globe, they saw you fight. They saw you bleed. They saw you sacrifice. They saw you face an undefeatable foe. And they saw you beat it. They saw the power of hope. They saw the might of love. And now, what do we have?”

Lucien didn’t answer.

“Harmony,” Avery whispered. “Immortals and mortals, after millennia, living together in harmony.”

He wasn’t wrong.

In the five days since the battle, there had been incidents.

But immortals were outing themselves around the world and none of the incidents had been violent. None of them alarming.

What Avery said was true.

The acceptance was astonishing.

Lucien let that go and asked, “Did you know we would lose Gregor?”

Avery shook his head. “I am millennia old, I have skills and strengths, but I’m no seer. Neither are the others. We knew what the enemy had planned because we had the skills to find out. But we had no idea of the outcome. Only hope.”

Lucien held his gaze and said, “Lilah’s light.”

“She’s the best of you.”

It was then that Lucien stared. “Pardon?”

“She was the key all along, Lucien. Her light. Lilah’s light made her the most powerful of all of The Three.”

“Love,” Lucien guessed, and Avery nodded. “But we all had that,” he pointed out.

“Acceptance is a word not in Delilah Johnson’s vocabulary,” Avery announced. “I’m sure you’ve noted why.”

It was dawning on him. “Because she sees no difference. She doesn’t have to accept, because she doesn’t even begin to judge.”

Avery nodded again. “She takes everyone just as they are. Even under frightening circumstances and even more frightening explanations, she took Abel’s side almost immediately. The power of that, Lucien, coupled with her capacity for love, loyalty, hope…There is nothing more powerful than that on the planet. Delilah is not all that we are. Delilah represents all that we can be.”

Lucien knew down to his bones that Avery was right.

There was no more to be said.

Therefore, he rose from his seat, murmuring, “I wish to get back to my bride.”

“Give her my love.”

Standing, looking down at Avery sitting in Gregor’s chair at Gregor’s desk, he felt his throat constrict.

He liked Avery. Respected him. As angry as he was, that would never change how he felt about him.

But he detested seeing him in Gregor’s chair.

“We often do not know what we have until it’s lost,” Avery said gently. “You’ve been on this earth a long time, but that’s a lesson we all seem consistently to forget.” Avery regarded him warmly. “I hope that this time, you won’t forget, Lucien.”

Lucien lifted his chin.

He wouldn’t forget.

None of them would.

Then he walked out of the room to find his bride.

*

Yuri

“Douse,” Yuri called.

When he did, the witches lounging on blankets and in lawn chairs on the grass around him, sipping wine, popping cashews or grapes or crackers slathered with brie in their mouths, lifted lazy hands and the fire consuming the vampire chained to the stake went out.

It was the vampire who’d killed his father.

His screams of agony faded to whimpers.

Yuri, with his back against a tree, legs out in front of him, laptop on his thighs, continued to catch up on email.

It had taken some time, but when he hit send, he saw he was finally done.

“Fire,” he said, and Barb, Ruby, Jezza, and Flo lifted their hands again.

The fire blazed and the screams returned.

Yuri snapped his laptop shut and rolled to his feet.

“You know,” Ruby stated casually over the shrieks, staring at the roaring fire like it was a campfire and not a vampire burning at the stake, “this is doing wonders helping me work out my feelings for vampires.”

Yuri felt one side of his lips hitch up.

“He’s at your mercy,” he announced, and the witches looked to him. “However, when you’re finished, so is he.”

Barb nodded.

“I go to Aurora,” he said to Barb. “We’re dining at a seafood restaurant in town tonight. You’ll join us for dinner?”

“Of course,” she replied.

“Be there with bells on,” Ruby called, shoving another cheese-smeared cracker in her mouth.

She wasn’t exactly invited.

Then again, she would be amusing company.

He dipped his chin Ruby’s way.

Then he walked away to find his little witch.

*

Callum

“We don’t do things that way in the United States,” the president, on the large screen in front of him, snapped.

“We’ve had our governments alongside yours for centuries, Darren,” Callum replied. “We dispense justice our way and you do not interfere. You do it your way and we return the favor.”

“That was before. Now the immortals are out—”

“We’ve already spoken of this,” Callum cut him off, allowing his impatience to show. “The nation of wolves will continue to be governed by me, the vampires by The Dominion,” he went on, gesturing to Rudolf and Cristiano who were sitting at his side. “And the wraiths and phantoms by Serena and Gastineau,” he finished, gesturing to the pair who floated at his other side. “This is as it was and as it always will be.”