Lisa laughed. “Are you sure it’s saving the world that is wearing you out?”

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” she groaned. “Okay, so you know how in the movies people always have revelations at the most inopportune times?”

Lisa nodded as she sat down on the bed opposite her daughter.

“Well that actually happens,” Elora continued. “I mean there we were in the middle of a war zone with Cush and Rin shooting out elf magic and flames all around and BAM!” she hollered. “It just hits me, Cush likes what he does, Lisa. He likes being a warrior. He enjoys hunting bad guys and taking them out and I will get in the way of that. That is why he didn’t want a Chosen. That is why at first he didn’t want me.” The words are only a little painful as she says them, though she knew they would hurt worse if she thought that he truly didn’t want her.

“Okay,” Lisa prompted her to continue.

“Well, I realized that I can’t take that from him. I mean, seriously, how long until he rolls over one night and looks at me and thinks this is what I gave up fighting for? I don’t want him to resent me, Lisa,” she said as she sat up and slammed a hand against her chest in emphasis. “It would kill me if one day he realized that he was unhappy and would have been happier had he not taken me as his Chosen, or whatever, but continued to be a warrior.”

“Elora, Honey,” Lisa started but Elora held up her hand to stop her mom.

“No, I know what you’re going to say and I get it. I do. I know that because I’m his Chosen that there is some mystical, soul mate crap, and you’re going to say there is no way he could ever resent me, but I don’t believe that.”

“Okay, that’s not what I was going to say,” Lisa chuckled. “But good guess. What I was going to say is that don’t you think that Cush is old enough to decide for himself what he wants?”

Elora looked taken aback. “No,” she said matter-of-fact like which drew another laugh from her mom.

“And why not?” Lisa asked.

“Because he’s a guy and more than likely he’s simply thinking about what happens in the bedroom if we are together or whatever.”

“Elora,” Lisa shook her head, “Cush is not a sixteen-year-old boy. He’s a grown man, an ancient warrior, who has known all his life that he might one day meet his Chosen. You need to give him more credit than that.”

Elora thought about that for a few moments before she finally shrugged. “Maybe. But is it really a chance I should take?”

“Is this about Cush? Or is this about you being afraid of getting hurt?” Lisa asked.

Elora felt as if a ton of bricks had been dropped on her chest. Part of it was definitely about Cush, but now that her mom had asked the question she had so studiously been avoiding in her own mind, the simple truth of it was staring her in the face and she couldn’t turn away. She loved him. Plain and simple—she loved the elf warrior who was overbearing, bossy, pushy, and yet surprisingly, funny and sweet. She loved him and she was terrified that he wouldn’t—couldn’t love her.

“You suck,” she told her mom with a half-smile.

Lisa patted her leg. “Talk to him.”

“Yeah, okay, I’ll get right on that,” she paused, “after we save the world.”

Lisa shook her head and then stood and walked to their motel door. She pulled it open and looked back at her daughter. “Nope, you’ll do it now.”

Elora’s eyes widened as Cush stepped in. “Thank you, Lisa,” he said to her mom, his eyes never leaving hers.

“Crap,” Elora breathed out as the object of her conversation shut the door behind her mom and locked it.

Tony watched as Lisa came into the motel room he was sharing with Oakley and the two other light-elfin warriors. She looked incredibly young to have a grown son and nearly grown daughter, but then if she had been mated to an elf, she had, at least at one time, had near immortality.

“So what’s your story,” he asked her as she sat down at the small table and chairs that were shoved into the far corner of the room. Lisa’s head snapped up to look at him; her eyes widened slightly at his question.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

Tony walked over and took a seat across from her. “I mean, how did a human end up the Chosen of a dark elf, have his children, and then end up a widow?”

She smiled but it didn’t reach her eyes. “You do realize that you asked me how I ended up the widow of a dark elf right? It makes much more sense that if I am a widow it would be of a dark elf and not a light elf, doesn’t it?”

“You’re dodging the question,” he pointed out.

She shrugged. “It’s not something I like to talk about. We all,” she looked at him pointedly, “have skeletons in our closets, some more than others.”

Tony held up his hands in surrender. “Touché.”

“All you really need to know, Tony, is that my mate was a good man and he died doing the right thing.”

“Did Trik kill him?”

The words hung in the air between them like a contagious disease neither of them wanted to catch. Lisa met his eyes and gave a small nod. Tony watched her for a few seconds longer before he spoke again. “So what now? Did Cush have a plan for after he destroyed the production of Rapture?”

“We need to get the portals back open,” she told him. “We figured out the only way to do that is to have one of Lorsan’s subjects willingly give a sacrifice of blood.”