Chapter 426 He is back

Chapter 426: Chapter 426 He is back

Talia’s POV

The Alphas and my friends stood around us, and they did not speak.

But I could hear them.

I could hear Jax let out a breath he had been holding, and I could hear Silas whisper a prayer, and I could hear Cain’s silence, heavy and relieved.

Then Jax spoke. "He is alive. He is alive!"

He let out a whoop, and the sound echoed across the Ashen Lands.

It was a sound of pure, unfiltered joy. It was the sound of a man who had just watched his best friend come back from the dead.

It was the sound of relief, and it was the sound of joy, and it was the sound of a man who had been holding his breath for hours and had finally let it go.

And it was contagious.

Silas laughed, and it was a sound I had never heard from him before. It was a sound of pure joy.

Silas was always calm, and he was always composed. But now, he was laughing. He was laughing like a child.

It was a sound I had never heard before, and it was a sound I would never forget. It was the sound of a man who had been given back something he thought he had lost forever.

And it was beautiful.

Cain did not laugh. But his shoulders relaxed, and his jaw loosened. He looked at Kaelen and nodded once.

"You did well, Kaelen," Cain said, his voice quiet but sincere. "You fought well. You deserve to be here."

That nod said everything. It said, "I am glad you are alive." It said, "I am proud of you." It said, "I will follow you anywhere."

Alpha Stone stepped forward. "Alpha Frost, you are the luckiest wolf I have ever met."

Alpha Thornwood laughed. "You are the luckiest wolf any of us have ever met."

Alpha Frost shook his head. "It was not luck. It was her."

He looked at me, and they all looked at me.

The sky began to brighten.

It was strange. The sun was setting, but the sky was getting brighter. The gray clouds were breaking apart, and golden light was pouring through. The dead earth was glowing, and the air was warm.

I could feel the warmth on my skin, and I could feel the light on my face, and I could feel something shifting in the world around me.

I looked up. The sky was not gray anymore. It was blue. It was the first blue I had seen since we entered the Ashen Lands.

It was the blue of a summer sky, the blue of a world that was still alive, the blue of hope.

And it was beautiful.

"It is breaking," Alpha Stone whispered. "The curse. It is breaking."

I looked around. The dead earth was cracking open, and green was pushing through. Tiny shoots, fragile and new. Grass. After years of nothing, the Ashen Lands were beginning to live again.

The green was fragile and new, and it was pushing through the cracks in the dead earth like it had been waiting for this moment for a hundred years.

I could not believe it, and I could not believe what I was seeing.

The land was healing, and the curse was breaking. And it was because of us.

Jax laughed. "Look at it. Look at all of it."

Silas spoke, and his voice was quiet. "Malachai is gone. The curse is broken. The land is healing."

Cain did not speak. He just watched. But there was something in his eyes that looked like wonder.

He did not speak, and he did not smile, but his eyes said everything. They said that he had seen something impossible, and that he would never forget it.

Kaelen squeezed my hand. "You did this," he whispered.

"We did this," I said. "Together."

He smiled. It was still weak, but it was real.

I leaned down and kissed him. It was soft, and it was gentle, and it was a kiss that said everything we could not put into words.

It said that I loved him, and it said that I was grateful, and it said that I would never let him go.

He kissed me back. It was weak, and it was gentle. But it was real.

And it was everything.

The Alphas and my friends watched, and they did not look away. They did not leave.

The sun set, and the stars came out. The sky was full of them, and they were bright, and they were beautiful, and they were watching over us.

The stars were bright and cold, and they were beautiful, and they were the same stars that had watched over us in Blackmoor Valley, and in the Ashen Lands, and in every place we had ever been.

I did not let go of Kaelen’s hand, and I did not move.

I stayed with him, and he stayed with me.

The war was over, and we were alive.