Mason wrapped his arm around her shoulders. Cara and Danielle were standing behind them.
Justin stood next to Sebastian’s body.
We stood like that, in silence, for a few minutes, enjoying the peace and appreciating those who stood around us.
Layla burrowed her face into my chest.
We walked down from the pile of broken boards. Everyone gathered on the ground.
“How did you do it?” Anna asked and looked at Layla with admiration.
She shrugged a shoulder. “I had help.” Layla threw her smile.
Danielle jumped on one leg, Cara’s arm still wrapped around her waist to steady her.
“Now what?” Cara asked.
I looked around at everyone’s tired faces. We were done with the fights, the ones that occupied our lives for far too long. Fragments of hope and joy started surfacing back in me. I couldn’t speak for the others, but they probably felt the same.
Some feelings had their time and place, and some you needed to make sure you always held on to. Hope, for example, should never leave your soul. It left mine, but anger remained. When Layla came back, I dared to accept hope back in, and then Celine was kidnapped, Tracey was killed, and Layla almost got blown into pieces. Hope was a bitch, but it was a bitch I needed to embrace.
“Now we go home,” I said and pressed a kiss to Layla’s temple.
A breeze swept in, rustling the trees’ leaves.
Cara smiled when her eyes swept over Celine, who was sleeping in Layla’s arms. Mason patted Justin’s shoulder. They didn’t share any words, but a silent acceptance sprouted between them.
Justin lost the girl, but he would’ve given his life to save her.
Layla chose me, and for that, I would be forever grateful. She kept our family together when all I did was drive it apart. I held her close the whole way home. In the car, I put my hand on her leg, needing to feel her.
We drove through the night. Anna fell asleep. She had been watching the baby for the past thirty minutes. Cara put her head back and released a heavy breath. Her eyes closed, and soon, she’d be sleeping too.
The boys and Danielle were in the other car behind us.
“What’s on your mind?” I asked.
Layla’s head snapped back from the window. She looked lost in thought, staring out onto the road.
“The worst isn’t over yet,” she whispered.
The funeral. She would have to say goodbye to her sister. We left so soon, and not a word was spoken aloud of her death. I still see Tracey’s face and can only imagine the things going through Layla’s head.
Her sister was dead. She died protecting our daughter.
When we went after Sebastian, it was a distraction from having to deal with the reality of what we had left behind. We couldn’t close our eyes to it anymore.
I squeezed her thigh, showing her I was there for her. My words wouldn’t ease any of her pain. They did nothing to ease my own.
“I’m sorry,” was all I could say.
“Me too,” Layla cried.
We reached the pack and saw the lights in the house were lit.
My mom met us on the stairs. She immediately took my daughter in her arms and shed a tear for her granddaughter’s return.
“Welcome home.” She pulled Layla in for a hug. My mother’s hand cupped my cheek.
The other car drove up, and the boys got out. Justin went around the back and woke up Danielle. She jumped out on her legs. The wound was almost healed.
Her pants were covered in blood. The dark dent where her flesh was still open was visible when she stood under the light from the lamp.
“Oh, sweetheart,” mom gushed and held out her hand for Danielle.
She limped up the stairs, supporting herself on Mason.
“Why are you up?” Mason asked, pressing his palm on Danielle’s waist to steady her.
“We’ve been waiting for you,” my mother said with a tear falling down her cheek. Her eyes circled over our faces and locked on Layla’s. “Everything has been prepared. It’s time to say goodbye.”
I heard her gasp lowly, breathing in through her teeth.
Layla clenched her teeth and nodded. I grabbed Layla’s hand and gave it a light squeeze.
We walked through the house and out the back, where the doors were wide open. The light strings were hung in the trees. Candles, big and small, stood around on the ground, burning in big flames. Black roses in vases stood around on the pedestals.
I watched the violet petals with black linings in bloom. I reached out my fingers to feel the silky touch. I hadn’t seen roses like these before.
“They were Tracey’s favorites. She said that roses were given in love, where happiness was born and in death, where happiness laid to rest,” Layla said, her voice hitched, and the tears pooled in her eyes.
The sound of sobs and heart-wrenching cries echoed down the aisle illuminated by candles.
Tracey’s mate was hunched over her coffin. I listened in.
His heart was beating out of his chest.
I kept walking. My mother handed Celine to Safira, Layla’s mom. She cried, holding Celine to her chest.
I stopped on the aisle when I noticed that Layla wasn’t beside me. She stood back in the middle of the aisle, crying as the fire lit her eyes.
“I can’t,” she sobbed. “I can’t say goodbye.”
I returned and grabbed her hand. “So don’t. Say until you meet again.”
We walked to the others. Everyone was gathered around the coffin. Tracey’s father had his hand tightly wrapped around his wife. The comfort was probably more for himself than for her.
My father gently put his hand on my shoulder before walking over to hug Layla. “I’m very sorry for your loss. Her death is the reason why that princess is with us today, and we will all be forever grateful and forever indebted to your sister even beyond death.”
Layla cried. She put her head against me. We slowly lowered the coffin. Mason, Justin, me, and Tracey’s mate helped lower her.
We wanted Tracey buried here on the grounds of our home, her home.
Layla’s father pulled Layla against his body. He wrapped his arms around her, and she fell against him, feeling safe and broken. He held her broken pieces together.
Soft music played in the background.
Layla looked up. We shuffled soil over the coffin; everyone did at least one pour, and then, we stepped back. Layla placed a bouquet of black roses down and cried into her hands as she squatted beside her sister’s grave.
~Layla~
Pain surged through my body where power had once been. There was a time not long ago when I felt undefeatable. My pain consisted of being away from Kade. This pain was different because I couldn’t fight someone to save my sister.
Nathaniel felt like a lifetime ago. Sebastian was no more than a few hours in the past, but it felt as far away as my life in my old pack. The only thing that felt present was Tracey’s body being sunk into the ground.
“Layla.” Kade sat down on the ground next to me.
I heard sniffles and painful tears being shed.
“I need to be alone,” I said and looked up.
The pain in Kade’s eyes after hearing my request was gutting.
“Just a moment. One last moment alone with her.” I cupped his cheek and watched as he reluctantly rose with a nod.
Our fingers parted, and Kade turned his back toward me.
The other nodded. One by one, they went into the house. Nobody would sleep tonight, nobody except for Tracey. Everyone would be awake tomorrow, everyone except my sister—the one person I grew up with and had known my entire life. The one for which love had a whole different meaning.
Someone laid a hand on my back. I cried out, “Please go. I need to be alone.”
“You’ll never be alone, Layla.”
I pushed off and flew up on my feet. I spun around and stared at my sister.
“Tracey.” I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and buried my face in her neck.
“I am so proud of everything you’ve become. You are remarkable, undeniably the strongest person I know.”
I sobbed, hearing her speak and feeling her touch. “The witches helped me today. Analise helped me. There are many people who have seen your struggles and your bravery. But it’s time now.” No. “I can’t say goodbye to you… I just… I can’t.”
“Shh.” Tracey cupped my face. “So don’t. Say until we meet again.”
I gasped and giggled sadly.
“He’s a wise man, that mate of yours. He’s grown too; he will never repeat past mistakes. Allow yourself to be happy, Layla. It’s over now. Fill those gaps in your heart with love. We’ll see each other again, but your life is there with them. A little girl is depending on you to see her through life. That man is depending on you to love him fully. You will live a full life surrounded by love and adoration. Perfectly imperfect and messy, as life is.” I nodded and tried to see through the tears, but she was a blurry vision.
The only thing telling me that this was real was her touch, which I relished.
“Oh, and tell Landon that I love him, truly and deeply and with every fiber of my soul. Tell him he’s the best sex I ever had.”
I laughed.
“Tell him I want him to be happy. If ever he’s given a second chance at being just that, happy, tell him to take it. He’ll need to be encouraged.”
“I will.”
She graced my cheek with her thumb. “I love you, little sister. Until we meet again.” She winked. She turned halfway, walking toward a light that grew with her steps.
“Until we meet again.” I smiled through the tears.
She was leaving but would never be gone.
