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So, this was it, the end.

How and when had life taken such a dramatic turn, to lead him here, to now?

He'd made mistakes throughout his life, far too many, but right or wrong he'd always had his family's best interests at heart. Protecting them from his fate had always been his goal.

But, he'd failed.

It was true, Richard thought sadly. Your life really does flash before your eyes in your final moments. The conglomeration of memories, regrets and accomplishments blended into one. A mélange of emotions sent his heart racing, adrenaline pumping through his veins.

He was the most powerful druid on the planet, but for all his power and determination, his fate remained the same.

His mind wandered back. Back to his daughter, Debra. He'd been harsh with her, some might say even cruel, with his strictness and relentless druid education. How he'd wished he could've been like other fathers, could have allowed her to make her own choices in life, but by the mere chance of being born his daughter, choice was a non-existent prospect.

She would have been next in line to receive his family's curse, had she lived long enough.

Richard's thoughts swung to his granddaughters with another pang of guilt. The four girls whom his daughter had left behind. He'd raised them all as strictly as he had Debra, particularly Teagan who had inherited the curse's impending yoke after her mother's death.

He couldn't take any of that harshness back now.

It was far too late.

He could only hope the letter he'd posted that afternoon would reach Teagan safely. If she was lucky, the information contained in it might help her break their family's curse. That had been his singular goal in life for the past three years. Ever since he'd discovered Morganna le Fey had once again returned to Earth.

Leaving the older three girls to fend for themselves, he'd abandoned the youngest, Elise, to the care of a lycan family. It had been a huge risk and went against everything he believed in, leaving her with supernaturals. However, Oliver Harlow had proven himself a good and trustworthy man in the past, and Richard knew she would be well cared for and protected.

The arrangement was only supposed to be temporary. He hadn't expected to be gone for so long.

It had been nearly two years since he'd last seen any of his granddaughters. Yet another regret to add to his long and protracted list. He hadn't dared make contact with them though, fearing it might draw Morganna's attention to them and thereby put them in danger.

Unfortunately protecting them from Morganna had been complicated by a new problem.

Richard had put an end to the budding relationship between Teagan and Saladin, her vampire suitor, saving her from becoming mated to a supernatural. An accomplishment he was quite proud of. In his family, any such pairing was not likely to end well. However, he hadn't been there to save his second granddaughter, Kaitlyn, who was now mated to Raif, a wyvern leader in Fey.

Because of this mating, it was more critical than ever to find a way to release his family from the curse of carrying Morganna's immortality spell.

That responsibility was now to fall to Teagan, Richard thought sadly as he turned slowly to face his enemy.

Guild mercenaries surrounded him, but kept a wary distance. Their presence was merely a distraction, their automatic weapons ineffectual against him. Even if they could kill him, their leader would not permit it.

It was their leader who made Richard's mouth dry with fear.

The bright light from the florescent globes flickered as Morganna's power began to grow. Dust rained down from the overhead steel beams of the multilevel car park, as Richard too brought his power to life.

Morganna chuckled. Her cold and callous laugh sent a shiver through Richard's bones.

Victory was hers at long last.

She had waited fifteen hundred years for this day. Envisioned the glory of it. The satisfaction of killing the only one to stand in the way of obtaining her goal.

Her own immortality.

Dark energy grew between Morganna's hands, an impenetrable ball of malicious intent, straining between her fingers. She had come upon this druid once before, but regrettably things hadn't gone to plan. Conjuring a very powerful binding spell she'd wanted to kill him slowly, eager to savour her vengeful moment. That plan had gone awry when a wyvern had shielded the druid with his body, taking the blow instead. The spell wasted, she was left drained, unable to produce another as powerful that could kill the old man.

She would not make the same mistake twice.

"Prepare to meet your death, druid," Morganna snarled, her cold eyes gleaming with hatred.

She would have her prize and nothing was going to stop her this time.

The concrete pillars around Richard began to crack and groan as he silently chanted his spell.

Richard's hands began to shake as he continued to build his power. A cry bursting from his lips under the strain of his effort, he raised his outstretched hands above him. An aura of pulsing blue light enveloped him as his chant became audible.

"You're mine druid. That spell is mine." Morganna screeched out viciously as the parking building began to shake and crack beneath them from the combined force of their intensifying power.

"Only if you kill me," he smiled back, inciting her fury even more. "You're not getting your spell back today, Morganna." A bead of sweat trickled down his jaw, his whole body shaking uncontrollably from the effort of building his spell.

"I beg to differ," she taunted. "I don't see anyone here who would save you this time."

"I didn't say I expected to leave here alive. I said you wouldn't be getting your spell back," he countered.

Morganna's top lip lifted into a contemptuous snarl, her soulless eyes narrowing into slits as she let loose the ball of murderous power from her fingers.

Simultaneously, Richard released his own power.

The world went into slow motion as the pillars all about him exploded.

He watched the black ball of energy hurtling toward him. He watched too as the ceiling began to crumble, crushing the Guild's soldiers beneath tonnes of concrete and twisted metal. He wondered which would claim him first, Morganna's spell or the collapsing building. He prayed for the latter.

The consequences of the first option were too great to contemplate.