Bear Reign (Alpha Guardians Book 7) by Vivian Wood

my soul, which Papa Aguiel tarnished quite badly. You also damaged your own souls in the process. So now we’re all here, in between. This is where we will be cleansed, and then sent on our way.”
    “On our way to where, precisely?” Ephraim was quick to ask.
    “Lily, are you saying you’re coming back to the human realm with us? Or are we… are we going to the afterlife?” Sophie asked, her heart beginning to pound.
    Lily gave her a sad smile.
    “We’re going in different directions. You’re going back,” she said, pointing. When Sophie glanced to where Lily indicated, she could see the barest outline of a portal forming, glowing with a soft yellow light.
    “And you?” Sophie asked.
    Lily pointed again, in the opposite direction. “Forward,” was her only explanation for a twin portal, this one glowing pink.
    “Oh,” Sophie said, her shoulders slumping.
    “I was going to carry you forward with me,” Lily said, cocking her head. “I didn’t want you to be alone. But now… now, I couldn’t. I can see that the two of you have very big things coming.”
    Tears slipped down Sophie’s cheeks. She glanced at Ephraim, who moved to her side and took her hand again.
    “We do,” Ephraim affirmed. “Right, Sophie?”
    Sophie nodded slowly, still looking at Lily with longing.
    “Honestly? Time is so different here,” Lily said, glancing around. “It’ll be the blink of an eye for me, and then we’ll all be together again.”
    “You sound pretty certain of that,” Ephraim said, brows arching.
    “I am,” Lily said. She pursed her lips. “For now, though… you two take good care of one another. I’ll be watching to make sure.”
    Both of the portals grew brighter and brighter, and Lily sighed.
    “That’s our cue,” she said. “Do me a favor, though? Take this book with you, make sure Mere Marie gets it. She’s going to need it.”
    She picked up the heavy leather-bound text and thrust it into Sophie’s hands. Sophie was shocked at how heavy and real it was, after her experience trying to touch Lily.
    “What is it?” She asked.
    “Don’t worry about it,” Lily said, waving a hand. “Someone just asked me to pass it along.”
    Her form shimmered, growing transparent.
    “Lily, I miss you so much,” Sophie said.
    “You too, Soph. Just go live the hell out of your life, enough for the both of us. I’ll see you soon enough, I promise.”
    Lily gave her a last smile and then moved toward her portal. Sophie felt Ephraim gently pulling her in the opposite direction, and she let him guide her away. Lily vanished in a flash of pink, and soon Sophie was stepping through her own portal, the book clutched to her chest.
    A gentle wash of pure white magic brushed over her as she went, and she could feel it stripping away the layers of dark magic, the results of her single-minded campaign against Papa Aguiel.
    It was like taking a deep breath of the cleanest air possible, while plunging into crystal-cold water. Cleansing, purifying, and satisfying on a soul-deep level.
    When Sophie and Ephraim landed back in the endless hallway of his maladh, she looked at him and smiled.
    “Your aura… it’s perfectly pure,” she said.
    “Yours, too. And I have another surprise,” he said, raising a brow.
    “Yeah?”
    He took Sophie’s hand and brought it to his neck. Her fingers met nothing but smooth, warm skin.
    “Your collar’s gone!” She said, astonished.
    “You did that for me,” he said, a slow smile growing on his lips.
    “What? How?” She asked, color rising in her cheeks.
    “Your greatest desire was to take down Papa Aguiel, alone . When you let me help you, you sacrificed that wish… and freed me in the process.”
    “Why didn’t you say something before?” She asked, smacking him lightly on the arm.
    “Oh, I don’t know. Saving the world, seeing your sister’s ghost… we had a lot going on,” he joked.
    “Oh, Ephraim,” Sophie sighed. She set the book aside and threw her arms