Visions of Skyfire

Chapter 63

An hour later, Teresa and Rune reentered the main chamber. Teresa wore the traditional toga, baring her tattooed breast in a show of respect and pride. The light of purest magic filled her, making her dark hair shine white and her eyes glow.

Rune watched her near-regal procession across the firelit main chamber. Shadows swam and the light danced across the silver-studded walls as Teresa, holding the black silver in her cupped palms, approached the far wall. There, three cages made of living flame snapped and hissed in the silence. The first cage held the Artifact returned to Haven by Shea and Torin.

Teresa walked to the center cage, deposited the black silver inside and then watched as the flames surrounded it. The living flame would hold it safely until the other pieces could be brought back and the Artifact reassembled. Then the coven would ritually destroy it for all time. Only then would the world be safe.

Teresa took a step back, bowed her head and crossed her arms over her chest. She chanted softly, as if the words were drawn from a memory as ancient as the room in which she stood.

The past is gone

Yet still lives

My test is won

This Artifact I give

I am home where I was meant to be

My debt is paid through eternity.



The light left her, returning her hair and eyes to the rich chocolate color that Rune knew and loved. Teresa turned to bow her head toward Mairi, the once and future high priestess of her coven. She exchanged a smile with Shea, then looked deliberately and solely at Rune.

Mairi, Shea and their Eternals slipped out of the chamber, leaving them alone for a moment, to celebrate their accomplishment. To share only with each other the moment when their world had, at last, righted itself.

He held her and felt the heat of her bare breast against his chest as the greatest gift he had ever known. They were one, as they had always been meant to be. “You were magnificent.”

“We were great,” she whispered, linking her arms around his waist.

As he held her, the mating brand burned brightly through each of them in one last fiery jolt of heat, completing the tattoo on their bodies that would join them for eternity.

Teresa sighed at the magic of the moment, then laid her head on his chest and smiled. “Your heart is beating.”

Rune laughed shortly. “It feels … strange.”

She reached up for a kiss. “You’ll get used to it.”

“As you will to being an immortal.”

Teresa kissed him again then, as her love for him erupted. Her life had become rich. Full. She had lost a lot, but in finding who she was meant to be she had gained everything.

“An eternity in your arms? Sounds just about right.”

As he kissed her, Teresa gave herself up to the real magic. The wonder and splendor of a love finally found and cherished as it should be.