A Red-Rose Chain

He shook his head. “Hell, no. I have classes to teach, and kids who depend on me. And I meant it about the tenure.”


“Good.” I leaned to the side, resting my head against Tybalt’s shoulder. There was so much left to be done. I had a promise to keep to the local King of Cats. I had a lot of changelings to talk to. I needed to eat my own body weight in sandwiches. And none of that really mattered, because we’d done it. We’d prevented the war. We’d saved the people of Silences.

We’d survived.

“Have you seen enough?” asked Tybalt quietly.

“I have,” I said. “Let’s get going. I want to go back to bed.”

Together, the four of us turned and walked out of the room, leaving the past to sleep behind us. It was time to head into the future.

It had been waiting long enough.