She hadn’t heard him enter. Didn’t know when he’d arrived. But he was there now, his hand on her shoulder, his ancient power a wall between her desperate attempt and Margaret’s fading life.
"Stop," he said again, more gently. "You can’t heal this. The cancer is too advanced. Her body is too tired. All you’ll do is trap her in pain."
"I can try," Eve sobbed. "I have to try...."
"She’s ready to go," Raphael said quietly, and there was profound sorrow in his voice. "Look at her, Evangeline. Really look."
Eve did.
Margaret’s face had relaxed completely, the pain lines smoothed away. Her breathing was barely perceptible now, each breath coming further apart than the last. But her expression was peaceful....more peaceful than Eve had seen in months.
"She’s not suffering," Raphael said. "She’s letting go. And the most loving thing you can do is let her go with dignity."
The monitors flatlined with a long, steady tone that seed to stretch into eternity.
"Ti of death, 3:47 PM," one of the nurses said softly.
Margaret was gone.
Eve stood frozen, her hand still hovering over Margaret’s now-still chest, her power still gathered uselessly beneath her skin, her entire world cracking apart.
Then Maya’s arms were around her, pulling her close, and Eve collapsed into her friend’s embrace and sobbed.
****
The next hour passed in a blur of institutional procedures and sympathetic voices that all blurred together into aningless noise.
Paperwork to sign. Decisions to make about....about remains, about services, about practical matters that Eve’s fractured mind couldn’t quite process.
Raphael handled most of it, his centuries of experience navigating mortal death making him devastatingly efficient at the administrative aftermath.
The brothers had arrived at so point...Eve felt them through the bond but couldn’t quite focus on their presence, couldn’t quite reach for the comfort they were offering.
Maya stayed. Through all of it. Held Eve’s hand, signed as witness where needed, provided the practical presence of soone who could function when Eve couldn’t.
Finally, they were done. Margaret’s body had been taken to the hospital morgue. The room had been cleaned and prepped for its next occupant. All the evidence of Margaret Chen’s existence in that space had been efficiently erased.
They stood in the hallway....Eve, Maya, Raphael, and the three brothers who had given Eve space during the imdiate aftermath but now hovered with barely contained protective concern.
Eve stared at the closed door of what had been Margaret’s room and felt...nothing. A vast, echoing nothing where the panic and grief had been. Shock, so distant part of her mind recognized. She was in shock.
"We should get you ho," Silas said gently, his hand on her arm.
Eve nodded chanically.
They moved toward the elevators, a strange procession....grief-stricken Luna, protective mates, ancient uncle, and one human best friend who had just witnessed sothing that shattered every assumption she’d made about reality.
It wasn’t until they reached the parking lot that Maya finally spoke.
"Eve," she said, her voice shaking but determined. "Your hands. In the hospital room. They were glowing. Actually, literally glowing with green light." She looked at Raphael, then at the brothers. "And you..." She pointed at Raphael. "....you talked about healing like it was sothing that could actually be done. Like magic was real."
She took a shaky breath. "I need soone to tell what’s going on. Right now. Because I just watched my best friend try to use impossible powers to save her mother, and I need to know..." Her voice cracked. ".....I need to know what the hell is happening."
The silence that followed was profound.
Eve looked at Maya....her best friend, who had stayed through everything, who had just witnessed the supernatural world bleeding through into her previously normal reality....and felt the weight of a decision that couldn’t be avoided anymore.
"Maya....." she started.
"The truth," Maya interrupted. "No more vague explanations. No more ’advanced training’ or ’family business’ or any of the other deflections I’ve been getting. The truth. All of it."
Eve looked at Raphael, at her mates. The brothers’ expressions were carefully neutral....they would support whatever decision she made but wouldn’t make it for her.
Raphael’s expression was thoughtful. "The usual rules about revealing our world to humans don’t apply cleanly here," he said quietly. "She’s already seen too much. And she’s proven her loyalty beyond question."
Maya looked between them with growing certainty. "There’s a whole world I don’t know about. Isn’t there? A whole reality underneath the normal one. And you’re all part of it. Including Eve."
Eve took a breath. Made a decision.
"Yes," she said simply. "And I’ll tell you everything. But not here. Not in a hospital parking lot an hour after my mother died. Co back to the estate. Let ...." Her voice cracked. "...let get through the next few hours. And then I’ll tell you everything. I promise."
Maya studied her face for a long mont. Then nodded. "Okay. But Eve....that’s a real promise. Not a deflection. Everything."
"Everything," Eve confird. "You deserve that. You’ve earned that."
They drove back to the estate in separate vehicles....Maya in her car, Eve in the SUV with her mates, Raphael following in another estate vehicle.
Eve sat in the back between Silas and Damon, Damian driving with the practiced efficiency of soone managing his own grief by focusing on practical tasks.
She stared out the window and felt the absence where Margaret had been....a hollow space in her heart that would never be filled, never heal completely.
Her mother was gone.
And Maya now knew enough to ask the questions that would change her life forever.
The day that had started with Malachai’s shadow construct and threats of violence had ended with death and revelation and the unraveling of every careful secret Eve had maintained.
Tomorrow she was supposed to et Lady Seraphine.
Tomorrow she was supposed to continue preparing for Court politics and factional negotiations.
Tomorrow.
But tonight....tonight she would grieve.
And then she would tell Maya the truth.
All of it.
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