“Uh …” I faltered.
“Do not worry. You will grow accustomed to your new role. You will do well in it.”
Her confidence in me did not transfer. “I don’t know the first thing about … this … any of this. This is a mistake.” A role like this was more suited to Sofie.
Sofie!
Caden!
I immediately dropped to scan the surface of the bowl. How did I make that screen appear? Were they okay? Would I see them again?
“So many questions,” the faery laughed, obviously able to read my mind. As if choreographed, the faeries lifted off in unison, the one speaking joining them.
They were leaving.
“Wait!” I cried out. “But … I’m alone!” I frantically searched the white nothingness around me.
She drifted back down again, this time landing directly on top of Earth, a sympathetic smile filling her entire face. “You will never be alone if you do not want to be.” Her bare toe rolled over the smooth surface beneath her. “This is your origin. While you are limited to influencing the other worlds within your supervision, here …,” With a flutter of her wings, she lifted off to hover above the pedestal. “Anything you want is yours. It is our gift to you for your future service. May you thrive.”
She vanished into the hazy white nothingness.
“Anything I want is mine,” I repeated, reaching out to touch the smooth sphere.
It held everything I wanted.
Epilogue
“Dude! I never realized how much I missed this place.” Bishop slid down into the hot water, wrapping one arm around Fiona and another one around Amelie. A swift knuckle to his bicep from Julian and Bishop pulled his arm away from the pretty blond.
“I can see why you guys liked hanging out in here.” Julian’s eyes roved over the cavernous oasis with admiration.
I slipped into the water next to Caden, feeling his jade eyes inch over my scantily clad body, sending a thrill through me. “Does it look exactly like the real one?”
“With a few embellishments, of course,” I said, gesturing to the hundred-foot-high cliff. Amelie had insisted that the original wasn’t tall enough for her swan dives into the water below.
“I keep asking Evie to add gators to up the excitement but she refuses. I don’t know why.” Bishop leaned his head back to relax.
Because she’ll be fishing your heart out of their stomachs at least once a day for being the idiot who tries to turn them into pets, Max’s gravelly voice retorted as he meandered past, his brothers in tow.
Chuckles erupted around the spring.
“We all really don’t need to have Max in our heads, Evie. You can switch that up anytime.”
“If I have to suffer, then you all do too. It’s only fair.” Resting my head against Caden’s strong, sculpted chest, I sighed softly. I’d gladly stay like this for the day.
The little faery hadn’t been kidding when she said I could have anything I wanted. I had everything I wanted at my fingertips. I may not have any clue what being a “warden” meant, but I figured out how to get what I needed very quickly.
In seconds, the empty white nothingness held everyone I loved. And they hadn’t left me since.
“Evangeline, I’d like to go see Veronique,” a soothing French voice said.
Caden’s arm tightened around my waist as if to hold me in place, but after a light pinch against his ribs and a quick kiss on his cheek, I squirmed away. I hopped out of the hot springs and walked over to the vessel. It didn’t matter what world I conjured—the Oasis, the ocean, a beach, the Siberian mountains—my responsibility in the form of a giant bowl of worlds was always there.
It would take some getting used to.
“You know I still have no clue what I’m doing, right?” I waved my hand to pull the image pool across. An image appeared of Veronique kneeling in front of a garden at the French countryside home she and Mortimer shared, planting spring bulbs.
“You seem to be figuring things out quite well.” Sofie smiled, reaching out to clasp hands with the tall, dark-haired man next to her. “Ready to go see your brother-in-law?”
Nathan rolled his eyes and I laughed. I found most of his facial expressions amusing because he was so different from his doppelgänger, Wraith. Those idiot Fates and their sick imaginations. If they’d had a circle of friends as I did, would they have abused their powers in such a manner?
“Maybe you can convince them to join us next time,” I suggested.
It was Sofie’s turn to roll her eyes. “You know Mortimer. He’ll come for a visit but he prefers the real world. And now that everything is under control, they’re enjoying themselves. They were even going to visit Manhattan. He wanted to show Veronique the atrium, seeing as it was built for her.” Sofie paused, her smile sliding only slightly. “I’ll talk to Mage and see what she thinks about the situation there.”
Though the city stood as pristinely as before, the bombing itself had not yet been erased. I wasn’t sure how it could be done without ramifications to the human world. Would I fix one issue only to have it snowball into another? It seemed I would be learning what a warden of magic did through trial and error, for I hadn’t seen so much as a butterfly wing since being “appointed” to my new role.
As it was now, the miraculous rebuild of Manhattan had the entire world on pause. Some believed it to be the work of angels, while others—those who had not witnessed it firsthand—convinced themselves that it was a disgusting political hoax. Regardless, citizens united in recovery efforts and a time of peace—though temporary—held more trouble at bay. The Sentinel had gone underground with Galen tagging along to keep tabs. Mage monitored the sorceresses closely. Regardless, they wouldn’t be granted any “causal enchantments” anytime soon because I hadn’t the first clue how to receive them. Right now, the only requests that ever reached my ears were Sofie’s. I supposed that granting the Witches Order requests wouldn’t be a problem. It would simply be a matter of what I wanted to grant.
And all the other worlds in my realm? The thousands of tiny globes waiting for my attention? They’d definitely be waiting a while.
Still, Mage’s concerns were valid. Peace was only ever temporary. And when the flipside reared its ugly head again, would I interfere? Would the faeries deem that a misuse of my power? With no limitations set out for me, what would earn my expulsion?
“How is Mage? Will she come with you?” I asked.
Sofie smiled as Nathan pulled her to his chest. She hadn’t stopped smiling since I’d brought him back to her. “Maybe once she finds that special someone, I can convince her. We’ll see.”
“Okay, well … say hello to everyone. Let me know when you want to come back.”
Placing a kiss on my forehead, Sofie beamed. “I will.” Her eyes searched the pool. “I assume you will all behave while we’re gone?”
My flat look made her chuckle.
“And where will we be living next?” Nathan asked in his deep Parisian accent, his eyes roaming the cave.
Given I could change our entire surroundings with the twitch of a finger, everyone was getting their choice of location. “Well, it’s Julian’s pick, so…”
“Rivendell!” Julian hollered.
Nathan’s blank look—he’d only recently learned what a television was—cracked me up.
“Well, I hope it will be brighter. This cave dwelling is a bit tiresome,” Nathan said with a teasing smile.
“Aren’t you leaving?” Bishop yelled. The Oasis had been his pick.
“Okay, see you when you’re ready.” With just a thought from me, I watched Veronique’s excitement in the image pool as they appeared before her crouched form.
Now that I was up, I decided to check in on someone. The pool shimmered and shifted to Ratheus. I shuddered as Viggo’s cold blue eyes appeared, that vicious twinkle extinguished, replaced by a void. When I’d first shown the others what I had decided to do with Viggo—relegate him to a world without humans, a world he almost created with his own selfishness—they applauded me for my ingenuity. Looking at him now, though, his face marred with four gruesome gouges, sitting in a decrepit house with a hole-riddled ceiling and rainfall soaking through his tattered clothes, the only creature for miles, I felt only pity.
Though he undoubtedly deserved it, the human side of me—a side I hoped I would never lose—wondered if he felt a shred of remorse.
“He hasn’t moved in weeks.” Lilly called, reappearing after an afternoon of wandering around the jungle.
I couldn’t help but stare at her new, more womanly physical form, clad in a fitted tank top and tiny shorts. She had asked me to age her. She wanted to experience life from an adult perspective, to share her existence. I could tell by the way she watched Caden and me that she desperately wanted to understand what having that felt like.
How could I not oblige and give her the chance to feel the excitement, the thrill, the love that overwhelmed me every time I looked at Caden?
A round of whistles from the guys and the sound of skin being slapped immediately after had both of us chuckling.
Lilly shook her head. “Are they ever going to stop doing that?”
“When you get a boyfriend to beat the crap out of them, yeah.”
She tucked a strand of her jet-black hair behind her ear as she smiled, those giant blue eyes still as beautiful. “I may head back there for a while.” She nodded toward the pedestal where Earth sat.
“You getting bored of us already?” I teased. “Because Max would love a game of chess, you know.”
A growl sounded from the corner. We laughed.
“No …” Leaning over the bowl, Lilly gently picked up a world, holding it in the air. Placing it down, she picked up another one, inspecting it the same. Her eyes roamed over the divided quadrants. “You know, this could make one very interesting game board. You’d just have to make up the rules.”
The End