“James!” Marcy shrieked.
James emerged from the trees and made his way along the edge of the channel at top speed. Marcy’s face was bright with happiness, and I knew the feeling. She rushed toward him and he growled his greeting. It must have killed him to stay out here, but my father had been smart.
I sat down in the front seat of the boat, Rourke next to me. My father was in the row behind with two of his wolves.
“We’re not waiting for the lovebirds,” Tyler said as he took the driver’s seat. “They can wait for Naomi and Danny.” Tyler shouted a command to another wolf to wait for the two couples and we took off.
As we sped away, I glanced back. The dead trees, which were revealed once the wards came down, stood in stark contrast to the green ones around us. “Did anyone see what happened to the old cabin?”
My father grunted. “The swamp has already taken it. I’m not worried that humans will venture in here to investigate any time soon. The pall of evil and malice will linger for a while. It will only clear up once new growth and animals start to inhabit the space again.”
“Speaking of evil and animals,” I said. “What about her snakes and gators? I hope they all disappeared.”
“They’re all gone,” Tyler called over the fan. “When you blew the place up, I watched one wither away instantly. It was cool as hell, like a slo-mo video, nothing but old, rotted bones left over. There are, however, lots of gators lingering on the outside of her boundary, attracted by the noise and action. But they were real, not possessed.”
It was funny to me that we’d be happy to see live gators after all this. But it was the truth.
I woke, gasping.
The dream had been so real. Marinette stood on another rocky crag, her face full of anger and rage, and as I watched, she turned to face me, morphing slowly into Lili, her hair changing, growing longer, her gold dress becoming the one Lili had worn in the Underworld. The one with demon glyphs that shimmered when she moved. On top of her head a crown, covered in serpents, appeared. Lili’s eyes were alight with pain. She said four words to me: “It will be you.”
“What is it?” Rourke was up next to me instantly, his arms pulling me tightly against his chest. His heart was beating fast, no doubt wondering if I was going to disappear on him again.
We’d all been up late, talking into the night. We’d gone over the implications of everything that had happened to me—both in the Underworld and with Marinette. I told them the loa had been our maker, the patron goddess of werewolves, who had been killed, but her spirit had endured, holding on with half a soul. It’d been a shock for everyone to hear, but once I explained what she’d told me about her connection to my wolf, and how she’d made her, it had been easier for everyone to digest.
What was done was done. There was no going back now.
We were leaving this place at first light and I couldn’t wait.
“I’m okay.” I rubbed my fingers over his beautiful tattoos. “I just had a very realistic dream about the evil ladies in my life. I guess when you become a killer, you have to deal with the fallout. No getting around it.” I snuggled deeper into his body for warmth. “Having blood on my hands is not easy for me. It still feels very strange. I know ending Lili’s life was necessary, and my job moving forward with the Coalition will require me to do things like that, but it’s going to take me some time to adjust. Marinette didn’t even have a body, but knowing I ended her existence makes it tough.”
He kissed my temple. “It gets easier,” he murmured, sliding his lips down my neck. “You have to look at it as a necessary evil or it plays with your mind. What you did when you killed Lili saved thousands of lives, possibly hundreds of thousands. Lili was a threat to the human race, as well as the supernatural. It had to be done. But you spared Selene, so I believe you’re already finding a balance. I think with you, there will always be balance and we’re luckier for it.”
“I can only hope,” I said. “As the Enforcer, my job criteria will only get more intense, but I’m glad I have you by my side. There is no one better to help me through it than you.”
He turned me in his arms so I faced him. “Jessica”—he leaned in for a lingering kiss—“I will happily take whatever burdens I can from you. That’s my primary focus from now on—that and protecting you, which has been hard to do when you keep disappearing,” he growled. “But you don’t have to do all the enforcing on your own. You have a team behind you, one that will stay by your side every step of this journey. No one is going anywhere.”