Cherish (crave, #6)

The sixth and final installment in Tracy Wolff's Crave series, Cherish follows Grace Foster, a gargoyle queen and demigod, and her vampire mate, Hudson Vega, as they race to save a dying friend, confront ancient wrongs, and reshape the paranormal world's political order.

Grace has just recovered her lost memories of the years she and Hudson spent trapped in the Shadow Realm, a prison dimension where they first fell in love. At a diner in San Diego, she and Hudson gather their friends, including Hudson's brother Jaxon, Jaxon's boyfriend Flint (a dragon prince), and Grace's human best friend Heather, to plan a rescue for Mekhi, a vampire dying from shadow poison. The sleeping elixir keeping Mekhi alive is failing, and he has only weeks left. The Dragon Court faces civil war, the Vampire Court is leaderless since Hudson's abdication, and Grace's cousin Macy, a powerful young witch, is absent, expelled from multiple schools. Hudson proposes bargaining with the Shadow Queen: offer to help free her imprisoned realm in exchange for Mekhi's cure.

At the Gargoyle Court in Ireland, Grace apologizes to Hudson and to Jaxon, her ex-mate, for the pain her memory loss caused, and the three move past the hurt. Artelya, Grace's general, has captured a hunter spying for the Crone, who leads a growing anti-paranormal army. Grace interrogates the prisoner, then orders a staged escape so Artelya can track the spy. The group seeks out Jikan, the God of Time, who reveals the Shadow Realm's origin. The Shadow Queen had her daughters' father cast a forbidden spell binding the half-mortal twins' souls to make them immortal, but the spell went wrong, allowing one twin, Liana, to drain the other, Lorelei. The queen traded shadow poison to the Crone for information about severing the bond, and the Crone weaponized it against the Gargoyle Army. Jikan, enraged on behalf of his close friend the Bloodletter, Grace's vampire grandmother, imprisoned the Shadow Queen in the Shadow Realm and directs Grace to the entrance: a fountain outside the Witch Court in Turin.

The Bloodletter tells Grace that Celestial Dew, found near the Bittersweet Tree, can sever the twins' bond. Only the Curator, the God of History, knows the tree's ever-changing location. The plan is to offer this cure to the Shadow Queen in exchange for Mekhi's antidote. Artelya reports the Crone has amassed thousands of hunters preparing to attack. Grace still carries an arrow of time magic in her chest from a previous battle. She temporarily transfers the Crown, the emblem of gargoyle power, to her grandfather Alistair, unwilling to risk losing it if she dies. Alistair also reveals that the Vampire Court is pressuring Hudson to take the throne, a fact Hudson has hidden from Grace. She confronts him, and though they reconcile, his secrecy troubles her.

At the Vampire Court in London, the group finds Mekhi gaunt and barely breathing. Grace discovers Hudson has secretly renovated the Court and demolished his father Cyrus's office, signs of unprocessed trauma he refuses to discuss. At the Witch Court in Turin, a sympathetic witch named Viola leads Grace and Hudson to Lorelei, the Shadow Queen's weaker twin, who lives in a hidden tower under the witches' protection. A piece of Lorelei's soul remains trapped with Liana in the Shadow Realm, leaving her frail. Lorelei feeds Mekhi her blood, which carries partial immunity to shadow poison, buying the group roughly two weeks.

Macy activates the fountain portal, and the group enters the Shadow Realm, with Heather defying instructions to stay behind. At the farm where Grace and Hudson once lived, locals remember Hudson as a hero but have no memory of Grace, whose timeline was erased. Hudson reunites with Baby Smokey, a reborn version of his beloved umbra, a small shadow creature he once loved like a daughter. To lure the Shadow Queen from hiding, Grace stages a concert featuring Hudson and Jaxon as "the Vega Brothers." After the performance, Shadow Guards seize the group and transport them to the queen's fortress.

Grace negotiates with the Shadow Queen and proposes the deal: Celestial Dew to sever the twins' bond in exchange for Mekhi's cure. The desperate queen agrees, and a magical bargain brands a tattoo on Grace's wrist, binding her to complete the quest within one week. A smuggler guides them through a harrowing crossing out of the Shadow Realm. They emerge in Kansas, portal through Athens, and continue to Alexandria, Egypt, where the Curator lives hidden at the Serapeum, an ancient library complex. Grace trades twenty-four hours of history-recording labor for the tree's location: near a waterfall in Ecuador.

The Bittersweet Tree is a massive elm guarded by giant Celestial bees and a golden bear. The bees' venom and the bear's attacks bring everyone down. Grace, battered but conscious, senses her friends' life strings, magical cords she can perceive that reveal whether someone is still alive, and finds them all intact. Watching the bear rinse honey from its claws in a nearby lake, she realizes the Celestial Dew is the lake water, which washes away soul-essence. She fills one vial with lake water and keeps a second of honey.

Remy, a time wizard friend, portals them to the Aethereum, a god-built prison. The Crone appears and invokes a pre-existing magical obligation, forcing Grace to surrender the lake water. Drinking it severs the Crone's soul bond with the Bloodletter, granting her full independent power, and she locks them in the prison. Grace channels her chaos magic into Remy while Heather contributes a stabilizing force of human determination. Together they shatter the prison, though Remy burns out his powers.

Returning to the Shadow Realm with Mekhi, Grace admits the Dew is lost. She realizes the Bloodletter, not Jikan, built the Shadow Realm as revenge for events that led to her mortal daughter's death. Grace resolves to tear the realm down. Drawing on her chaos magic and the arrow of time magic in her chest, she shatters the time magic stabilizing the prison. The realm implodes into sunlight and green grass, though Grace grows a forest around Adarie to preserve the community without imprisoning anyone.

Lorelei crosses into the former realm and touches Liana, reclaiming her stolen soul fragment. She discovers the dying Mekhi is her mate and, as a wraith immune to shadow poison, uses their bond to absorb the poison from his body. Mekhi revives with new shadow powers and brings Baby Smokey permanently out of the realm, placing her in Hudson's arms.

At the investiture ceremony at Katmere Academy, the Crone attacks with her hunter army. The Bloodletter battles her across the sky and drinks the Celestial honey, severing her own soul bond with the Crone and rebalancing chaos and order. The Crone escapes but is diminished. Alistair crowns Grace and Hudson queen and king. In their first act, they dissolve the Circle, the paranormal world's monarchical governing system, and announce an elected body to represent all paranormal groups. The Bloodletter assumes leadership of the Vampire Court.

In an epilogue, Hudson reveals his secret: Vega Academy, a school for all paranormal children regardless of wealth, housed in the renovated Vampire Court. He explains he needed to process his trauma before sharing this part of himself. Grace tells him she will wait as long as he needs, and the story closes with Hudson beginning to open up.