My heart ached for him. For what he must’ve gone through. For how much I loved him.
“You need to look after yourself, baby,” I told him, falling into his gaze. He shook his head, but I pushed. “I’m okay now. I feel a lot better. You need to shower and get some sleep, and then we’ll get up together, okay? Look after yourself, and before long we can continue our lives.”
Tears caught in my lashes. The thought of continuing our lives reminding me of Nathanial, of his last emotions through the bond—pride and honor.
“Okay,” Austin said, leaning forward to kiss me softly. “After you fall asleep, I’ll go shower, okay?”
“Yes, the miss doesn’t want to wake up to a stinky mate,” Mr. Tom said, still acting as a candleholder. “I am perfectly capable of sitting beside her, as I’ve told you multiple times.”
I laughed through my tears, hardly feeling the pain at all now, my healing magic up to speed. I squeezed Austin’s hand, waited while Mr. Tom literally ran to get me water, spilling candle wax on himself, and then allowed sleep to take me once more. Next time, I’d get up, and we’d do what Nathanial had made possible.
We’d continue living.
EPILOGUE
Jessie
IT HAD TAKEN two weeks for me to get back to one hundred percent, a helluva long time for a creature who heals quickly and has magical healing abilities. But I’d grown up as a Jane, so I couldn’t stop marveling over the fact that I was up and moving. Nor could I forget that one of us was not.
Nathanial’s body had been sent home to his family so they could bury him in their family plot in their cairn. Today Kingsley would host his memorial, a tribute to the hero who had saved all our lives. Kingsley had tried to put me in the tribute as well, but I’d respectfully declined his offer. I was only alive because of Nathanial. I wouldn’t have made it if he hadn’t shielded me and protected my wings. While the fall had broken my limbs, a full-on plummet would’ve broken my head.
“Are you kidding me?” Nessa yelled from the kitchen.
When I poked my head in, I saw her fuming down at a note. She shook it at me with a furrowed brow.
“Do you see what he does?” She kept shaking it. “He preys on my confidence by giving me notes on my cooking. Just because he won that cookoff last week, he thinks he’s Mr. Almighty Chef. Well, screw him, you know? I’ll get him next time.”
Austin came up behind me, curling his arm around my waist and pulling me back into him. He didn’t like to be far apart from me right now. I’d given him a scare that would probably haunt him for a long time. Given how close I’d come, and the reality that he was the one who’d tugged me back from the brink—with an extra push from everyone else—I was happy for the constant PDA.
“You won’t,” he said, laughing, his hand splayed across my tummy. “You’ll try again and you’ll get spanked again.”
She slammed the note onto the counter. “A score of five to three isn’t getting spanked, and anyway, Jessie shouldn’t have been allowed to vote. She’s biased.”
“No, it was just—”
“No, no.” She stopped me. “You’re biased. I want a redo.”
“Anytime.” He stepped back and turned, waiting for me to fall in at his side. “C’mon, let’s go. We don’t want to be late.”
I stalled after opening the door, my jaw dropping open. This was the first time I’d gone out—the first time I’d even looked out the front door. Bouquets of flowers covered the porch, piled up next to the door and rested on the steps. Only a small area had been left uncovered to allow people in and out
of the house. More flowers had been arranged beside the walkway, and petals littered the concrete.
“What’s all this?” I asked, picking my way through.
“The pack’s way of saying thank you,” Austin said, following me. “You might not feel entitled to a tribute, but they think you are. They’re showing you their gratitude for what you did.”
I shook my head, my heart swelling. “I just killed a couple of mages. Nathanial did the rest.”
“You have to stop deflecting,” he told me softly, walking to the car. “Nathanial played an integral part in taking down that spell, but he didn’t do it alone. You nearly died to save this pack. You need to let them honor that.”
My hands shook as I sat into the car. “That was my duty,” I said when he got in. The mages got into the back. We’d meet everyone else there.
“You were willing to give your life for your duty.” Austin started the car. “Glory Days” started playing its continual loop. “It’s one thing to do it in the heat of battle, but it’s another to make a calculated decision you knew would likely kill you. Not many people would.”
“You would.”
“But I didn’t have to prove it. You did.”
I leaned against the headrest and took his hand when he offered it. We’d lost quite a few people across our various factions. Our numbers had been somewhat evenly matched, but they’d brought plenty of us down with guns and magic before their line broke. Gerard’s gargoyles had fared the worst. They’d gone in hot and heavy, too stubborn to think the magic or guns could kill them. Still, they’d also bagged the most enemies. Our people had done the best, having learned their limit the hard way. In the end, though, it had been a victory. The children had been saved, one and all, and the enemy would be in no position for Round Two for some time. Even if they wanted to come back for a reprisal, we’d seriously slashed their numbers.
We arrived at the square, the mood in the car somber. My crew was waiting to the side for us.
Each of them touched me as we reached them. That was a new thing they did. I guess they just wanted to assure themselves that I had actually made it back from the brink and wasn’t a ghost.
“I never got a chance to thank you,” I told Indigo, who hadn’t stopped by the house. She’d been busy wandering the town, talking to the grieving. Her healing abilities went beyond piecing together flesh, it turned out. I hugged her, holding on tightly for a moment. “You saved my life.”
“Well…” She shrugged. “Not really. I just kept you from drifting farther away. You saved your own life. And my life. All of our lives.”
“Do women just not allow themselves to be thanked for saving lives?” Austin asked, looking between us. “Is that some sort of default you’re programmed with?”
“I’m sorry about Nathanial,” Indigo said, ignoring him. “When he got to me, it was already too late. There was nothing I could do.”
“I know. And I heard about you leaving me so you could help the others who needed it. That was the right choice. Thank you for allowing Ulric and Jasper to force you to do it.”
“They told you that, did they?” Her eyes narrowed, and she shot the guys a look. “I guess they’ll find out the hard way what it means when I say, ‘Snitches get stitches…’”
Ulric put his hands up. “She was going to find out.”
“It’s not her I’m worried about.” She glanced at Austin.