Claimed And Marked By Her Stepbrother Mates

Helanie:

It got so bad we could no longer hear each other. The wind whooshed and thunder cracked so loud I thought, if this wasn't the Grey Woman, it would be Doomsday.

I held my breath and started to douse her with the alcohol, but it was too little. She was soaked, we needed more.

Maximus sprinted for Emmet's room and I followed. We saw how much damage the storm had done.

Even the passage Emmet used to wander was torn apart. We had to fight our way to his room. As expected, there were plenty of bottles.

"Try to grab as many as you can," I told him, and he knew why.

"He can buy more if he wants, you know that, right?" Maximus said, and I grunted.

"I know he can, but he doesn't have to. He has to learn to change his habits now," I said.

We grabbed bottles and ran back to the garden. It didn't look good. Monsters were pouring toward the yard. Emmet and Norman had to drop the door and join the fight, and Maximus ran to help them.

Jenny and Lucy held the door while I started pouring alcohol over the grey woman.

She grimaced and stared at me like she expected me to open her mouth and speak to her one last time.

I wasn't a fool. If I let her speak, she'd do her voodoo and we'd never be able to kill her.

Gavin came out of the house, running and holding his phone toward me.

"It's Kaye, he's calling," he said, and my heart slammed against my ribs. I took the phone and kept pouring, emptying the last bottle. Gavin steadied my hands.

"Is everything okay?" I asked Kaye.

"No, Helanie. How long till you burn her? It's getting really hard. I might not be able to hold them back much longer," Kaye said, his voice tight with panic. I got goosebumps.

"We're doing everything as fast as we can," I mumbled, holding the phone between my shoulder and cheek while I tried to get a flame going.

"Okay, you need to hurry, Helanie. It's getting difficult," Kaye urged.

"I'm doing everything I can," I said, panicking. Gavin joined in to help with the fire.

Finally the sheet on top of her caught fire. It was a dry sheet, and it flared first. We watched it burn, waiting for it to go out.

Kaye was unraveling on the other end, yelling that he couldn't hold them anymore. I was terrified for him, for my mom, and for Lord McQuoid.

"Helanie!" Kaye called again, his voice full of panic. Then I heard heavy footsteps and a bang.

"Kaye!" I screamed, and at the same time the flames hit the grey woman. The fire exploded around her.

"Kaye, please talk to me," I begged, tears springing to my eyes. I screamed his name until I dropped to my knees.

Maximus grabbed me from behind, hauling me away from the flames. The others pulled back from the door too.

"Kaye!" I screamed one last time as they pulled me back into the mansion, watching the Grey Woman burn completely.

"They're all gone," Lucy announced, pointing toward the main entrance. She was right.

The monsters burst into bubbles of dust one by one, loud thuds shaking the ground with each collapse. Then the rain stopped.

I clutched the phone, staring at Emmet, Norman, and Maximus. Their eyes were full of tears.

"Did you guys do it?" came the voice on the other side.

"Kaye, what the fuck—you scared me," I screamed.

"What the fuck happened?" I asked.

"Nothing. Those things just turned into dust bunnies," Kaye explained, and I realized that was the loud sound from earlier.

"Yeah, we did it. They're gone, the weather's clearing," I told him, laughing. Norman and the others sighed in relief, grinning with pure joy now that the curse was broken.

"Listen, I'm coming home. I can't wait to see you and meet my brothers," Kaye said happily. I nodded, but before I could respond Norman snatched the phone from my hand. Kaye had already hung up.

"Damn it, I wanted to talk to him," Norman muttered, annoyed. The brothers moved aside, trying to call him back, while me and my friends shared a huge hug.

"Finally, it's over," Lucy whispered. She was shaking so badly, but she had done an incredible job through it all.

I hugged her, then Jenny. Sage, Lamar, and Penn came around from the back of the mansion.

Lamar rushed forward, shoving everyone aside to hug me.

"And my sister is really a hero," he said, pinching my nose before smiling at Jenny.

"And now we can have our perfect wedding," he added, cupping her face and kissing her forehead.

I felt like my lips were falling off from smiling so hard. I wanted to cry. It was finally over. Everything was.

But not everything.

As we celebrated and the brothers came back one by one to hug me, eager to ask about everything I had faced and everything they'd endured, a sound cut through it all. Someone crying hysterically.

We turned toward the entrance. The door was gone, the garden was destroyed, the sky was suddenly bright and calm, which only made the cries more chilling.

Lady Darcy stepped on the property, crossing the ruined parking lot. In her arms she carried the lifeless body of her little daughter.

Behind her, her royal beta staggered in, holding another body. I knew instantly.

It was Demi and Davon.

They were gone.

Lady Darcy collapsed, dropping to her knees, wailing so loud it gave me goosebumps.

I felt my body go numb. We all rushed toward her, taking Davon and Demi from her arms.

"You guys broke the curses, then why didn't they survive?" she cried, looking at our faces.

I held Demi close, sobbing as I hugged her. Emmet took Davon, and I could only imagine what he felt.

"I never gave them love because of my curse, and now they're consumed by it. How evil can someone be to do this?" he shouted at his mother, thrusting Davon's lifeless body into Norman's arms.

Then he lunged at her, hands wrapping around her neck.