Chapter 2274

Grace lifted her tear-streaked face to Maeve and stared at her impassively. Slowly she rose to her feet and drew her dagger. She panted with the effort but pointed her dagger at Maeve.

"You are done on this world. Leave it. You willfind no other purchase here. The Realm is protected against you."

Maeve glared at her."I'm not done yet."

"Yes," panted Grace."You abso-fucking-lutelyare, you bitch."

Maeve moved and so did Grace. There was a grunt and a gurgle, and Bitty looked to see Grace standing tall, with Maeve's severed head gripped by her hair in her hand. Maeve's body, standing on one leg behind Grace, fountained blood from the exposed neck, and dropped wetly to the grass.

Grace screamed into the sky and drop kicked the head into the grassland. They all heard her foot break with the effort. Grace collapsed to her knees holding her head in her hands.

"DANIEL!!!!"

Bitty sobbed at the despair in Grace's voice. She

felt her pain through the bond as clear as if it were her own, which wasn't far from the truth. She held her hand up before her eyes to look at the ritual. It still burned like a sun inside the sphere. But she could feel no heat from it. A screech high in the air came from the phoenix and it flew quickly away to the west and disappeared.

Bitty looked around at all her companions. They all openly wept in their grief. Jennifer laid hands on Glenda, tears streaming down her face. Roger rolled to his side, saw Glenda was hurt and crawled across the grass toward her. Jason helped him to position himself beside her and watched them clasp hands, their faces toward the ritual sphere.

Bitty looked over at Grace and across the bond she felt nothing but complete despair.

THE FIRE WITHIN the ritual sphere didn't appear to be waning. Grace and Bitty refused to leave it and sat and watched it. The Circle set up camp and joined them. Glenda and Roger made full recoveries and stayed with The Circle in their mourning.

Grace had gone to speak to the Night and Light

fae queens and returned saying only that the fae would withdraw to their lands and that the cycle was forever ended. Maeve's influence was no longer felt. The queens were confused after centuries of living under Maeve's malevolent control. They parted only saying that peace perhaps was a better option for the future.

Jennifer spoke to King Arbuckle as a paladin of Syn. Sylvan had dropped dead when Maeve had died which gave hope to finding the Wilds childs and monsters dead. Just in case, a contingent of humans, selected by Arbuckle, departed for the Wilds to see what effect Maeve's death would have on the monsters there. They were hopeful her death meant their death too.

King Arbuckle was as confused as the fae queens about what had happened. Jennifer confirmed that Sylvan had influenced Arbuckle for far too long. She said Syn felt he was just as much a victim as everyone else. He turned his army around and headed back to Whitehaven, his spirit crushed.

And still the ritual sphere burned as bright as the sun.

Two weeks later the fire within the sphere sputtered. Bitty shot to her feet.

"It flickered,"she said and booted Grace whoslept next to her.

Grace was awake in an instant."It did?"

"Yes, I'm sure of it."

The stared hard at the sphere. When nothing happened, Bitty sat down hard."I was sure..."

It flickered again.

"I saw that!"exclaimed Grace."Everyone!Wakeup. Something is happening!"

Jason, Brian, Jennifer, Glenda, and Roger sat up from their bedrolls and wiped at their tired eyes.

"What's happening?" muttered Jason.

"The fire is sputtering!" answered Bitty, her eyesglued to the sphere.

The sphere sputtered again, and they all cried out in hope.

Only Bitty heard Grace praying under her breath. Through the bond she could feel all of the gathered Circle. Emotions especially.

Through the bond... thought Bitty and her eyes widened."Hey! How come we can all still feel the bond of The Circle?"

Grace spared her a glance."Because we established it.”

"No, Daniel did."

"So?"

"So? Daniel established it. Shouldn't it be gone ifhe is?"

Glenda shook her head."This is new to all of us, but we can't feel them, can we? Just ourselves. I feel they left the bond for us."

Bitty felt her massive surge of hope collapse and she sobbed.

The sphere sputtered again and then unexpectedly the roiling flames within it vanished. The sphere popped with a sizzle and disappeared. They all moved forward and looked inside the area of the ritual. The ground looked like melted glass, and it was barren with the exception of a glowing red e gg sitting in the middle on its side, a visible crack running across the middle.

"Is that…?" asked Grace.

"The male phoenix egg," answered Glenda."Andburning hot."

"What should we do?" asked Jennifer.

Glenda sat back down."We wait till it cools."Everyone could feel her disappointment.

Grace sat and sobbed quietly."I had hoped..."

Bitty stroked her back."The bond, remember? We can all feel the bond."

Grace raised her snot covered face. Anger flashed across it."But we can't feel THEM, can we?"

Bitty said nothing and lowered her own head, tears streaking down her face. She thought she wouldn't be able to cry anymore, but she had never truly been able to stop.

* * *

It took the e gg three weeks to cool down enough to be able to handle it. They all agreed that Grace should be the one to gather it up. She stood above it looking down, hating it with all her being. The only thing keeping her going was

her desire to seek revenge on the phoenixes.

Why couldn't they have waited? Why emerge right then? Surely, they had to know it would kill Daniel and his witches. It was beyond belief and beyond acceptable. So selfish. I will revenge the death of Daniel, thought Grace.

As the egg had cooled, its colour had changed from fiery red to a glossy black, streaked with other colours. Grace hated the thing. At one point during their vigil, she had gone looking for Maeve's head and couldn't find it. She blamed that on the phoenixes, too. Then she remembered Jennifer's miracle of escaping from Maeve's clutches and knew with certainty that Syn had made a deal with Maeve. She added Syn to her list.

Grace couldn't care less at that point. The Realm was protected against Maeve now. The bond Daniel and his witches had formed across the Realm still existed. Bitty said the gnome network was maintaining it. Adventurers would likely return to fighting Maeve's monsters if she brought them back. But Grace knew they would have a much easier time in the Wilds now that they were safe from being pulled into her realm.

Grace knew with certainty that she had nothing

left inside of her of value. Daniel dying had made her realise one horrible truth about herself. She had loved the idiotic man with all her heart. Now she had nothing. Just a hollow emptiness that nothing would ever be able to fill again.

She was ashamed of her weakness. She couldn't stop crying and hated it. She wanted to move past it but was unable to. She clung to some stupid hope that there was hope. To lose that would be to lose herself, forever. She knew what lay beyond death. For once, she welcomed it, instead of fighting for life.

She squatted by the e gg and glared at it.

"Hey, you, fuck-nuts phoenix bird. Aiden?Right? You killed my friends . First, I'm going to find your bitch Aurelia and then I'm going to crush this fucking egg with you in it. You killed my Daniel. You have no idea what that has done to me. I want you to feel my pain and you will when I kill your bitch. Got it?"

The egg rocked in place and Grace cried out and fell back on her ass staring at it.

"It moved!" she screeched.

"We saw!" said the others watching her.

"Why would it move?" asked Grace.

"I dunno,"said Glenda."Maybe because you justthreatened to kill both of the phoenixes?"

"Are they supposed to move?"

"Don't think so."

"What do we do?"

"Pick it up? We need to take it to the Wildsanyway. Get it out of the Realm. Jennifer promised Arbuckle after all."

The egg rocked again, this time more forcibly.

"You don't think it's gonna crack wide open?That would kill us all!"declared Grace and then she growled."That's it, isn't it!You're not happy with just taking the love of my life away, now you want us too? F*CK YOU!"