Naomi’s chest shook, her red eyes streaming tears. “Don’t do this, Sera. Fight.”

Sera couldn’t see anything anymore. “I’ve been fighting my whole life.”

Sera thought of Alex, Riley, Kai, and everyone else she would never see again—but she’d made them safe by defeating Alden. Her sacrifice would mean something. The thump of her pulse slowed and she drifted off, enveloped by darkness. Death didn’t come hard or violently. It came softly and sweetly, embracing her with the harmony of everyone she had ever loved.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

After Death

A SOFT, WARM breeze tickled Sera’s nose, smelling of roses and apple blossoms. She tried to open her eyes, but a white light blinded her. She blinked, but still her vision didn’t clear. Was she still in hell? It didn’t feel like hell. Hell felt like bathing in acid. This place felt like bathing in fluffy clouds. But she was dead, so where else could she be if not in the underworld?

Slowly, her eyes began to focus. She was lying in a room swathed in diffused sunlight. A background of voices hummed. She heard her name.

“…burns across half of her body.”

“…transfusions…too much blood lost…”

“…problem is magic. That takes time to replenish.”

Sera tried to sit up, but a hand held her down. She looked up into Alex’s face.

“How did you die?” Sera asked her sister in despair. Her lips were cracked and her tongue dry. Her voice croaked, coming out like the creaking wheeze of an old staircase.

The background voices quieted. Riley, Makani, and Dal moved into sight.

“You’re dead too?”

Panic entered her voice. She didn’t feel content or warm or fluffy anymore. All the people she’d died to protect were dead too. It had all been for nothing.

“Alden’s followers. They killed you,” Sera said.

Alex held her back as she tried to get up again. “Hold still or you’ll rip your stitches.”

Pain burned in Sera’s sides. “I thought death wasn’t supposed to hurt.”

“You’re not dead, Sera,” Alex told her.

“I’m pretty sure I am.”

“You’re not,” her stubborn sister argued.

“I felt myself die.”

“You did die, at least for a short while. But your dragon side was still alive and fighting in this realm, and as soon as Naomi carried you back from hell, your dragon merged into with you, reviving you. Then Dal and Kai healed you.”

“Mostly,” Dal said. “Your injuries were too extensive for us to heal you completely. We did the best we could to make you stable. It will take some time for you to recover fully.”

“How is this even possible?” Sera asked. “I shouldn’t even be alive.”

“I’m curious as well,” Makani said. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

“We’re connected, my dragon and I. Through love. It transcends realms,” she realized.

Makani nodded. “Interesting. So that is your power.”

Sera wanted to ask him what he knew about Dragon Born powers, but she had too many other questions, ones that were far more pressing right now.

“What happened after Alden and I went to hell?” she asked Alex.

“As soon as Alden was cut off from his followers, they slowly came to their senses and stopped fighting us. Most of them, anyway. A few kept fighting. They really did believe in Alden’s vision.” Alex shook her head, as though she couldn’t understand how anyone could believe in such a thing.

Sera was with her on that one. “His crazy vision,” she said. “So where are these people?”

“In Atlantis behind bars,” Dal said. Where they will remain until a trial can be held. If the Magic Council can pull itself together.”

“The Council is back?”

He nodded. “Yes, after a week of meetings, they have reformed a temporary Council led by Margery Kensington.”

“A week? How long have I been out?”

“We brought you here after the battle in Death Valley. Two weeks ago,” Riley told her.

Two whole weeks? How could she have missed so much?

“The world didn’t end without you to keep an eye on it,” her brother said.

“Yeah, it had me.” Alex winked at her.

A gust of wind blew through the open window, carrying in a magic that warmed her to her toes. Kai’s magic. Magic that belonged to the man she loved, the one she never thought she’d see again. She had to see him. To talk to him. Impatience flooded her. She couldn’t wait. She’d been waiting their entire relationship. No more.

She tried to get up, but Alex’s hand held her down. Sera glared at her.

“You died, Sera. Try to take it easy for a bit.”

“Alex, you are my sister, and I love you dearly, but if you don’t let me up, I will kick your ass.”

Alex snickered. “Death couldn’t cure you of that impudent mouth.”

Sera grinned back. “Takes one to know one.”

“Riley, bring Sera to Kai,” Alex said, laughing.

* * *

Riley pushed Sera down a stone path in a wheelchair, taking her past rose gardens and lush green lawns. Birds chirped from the treetops that lined the path, and the perfume of blooming flowers danced on the breeze that rustled through the leaves, mixing with the scent of freshly-cut grass.