The Heir She Loved (Shadows of Sin #4)

Epilogue

Olivia

December 19th, 2022

Congratulations,”

I told her, inspecting my new nails. Sharp, black and pink, not too long, but long enough to gouge out any eyes that needed gouged out. “Give Grey and the others our best.”

“Thank you so much! Good luck on your first real assignment! Let me know how it goes!”

“I will,”

I replied, lowering my hand, my eyes lifting to find Everett who was sitting just across from me, watching me carefully. “Talk later, have fun tonight.”

“See you soon,”

she replied.

I hung up and relaxed back into my seat, blue skies and a few white clouds drifting by through the airplane window. “How is Lucy?”

“Still sleeping soundly, it’ll take her time to wake up once we land,”

he confirmed easily, light shimmering in his eyes. “I called the sitter. Merlin is doing well, a little distracted, but he’s finally eating again.”

Thank God. He hadn’t eaten for some time after we left a few days ago, and I was worried for Lucy, but Everett assured me that animals did just fine on flights, so long as they were treated with care.

Lucy was currently sleeping in our bed, knocked out from the drugs we had given her to help ease the pain.

“We’ll be landing in a little over an hour, are you ready?”

We had been training nonstop since that day in his apartment. It was the breakthrough I needed to move forward. Not just the sex, but everything he had said.

He started training both Lucy and I, Evelyn joining in every chance she had when she wasn’t out on assignment. Something she was doing alone more often now that Everett had me.

Although when Azrael got wind that I was training, that Malachi had split Everett and Evelyn up, he called me, telling me it was a bad choice. That if I were as similar to him as we both knew I was, that we still needed Evelyn to hold us down, especially when I got my first taste of ‘controlled blood’ as he put it.

He said al of this in more hums and riddles than that, but it was clear to me.

Even so, we took his advice to heart.

“Hey, we’re landing soon,”

Evelyn chimed in, walking down the aisle and falling into the seat next to mine.

“Everett told me,”

I informed her.

Her brown eyes flicked to her brother’s. “That’s pretty rude of you.”

His eyes narrowed. “How?”

“Because I was already planning on telling her, but I had to use the bathroom.”

I couldn’t help but laugh, pulling Everett’s eyes straight towards my mouth.

It was like clockwork. He had a sixth sense about my smile now, and every time I even smirked, his eyes were there, watching it, trained on it, memorizing the sound, the way it looked, as if he would never see it again.

The motion only made my heart thrum.

A lot happened in this last month. A lot of change.

Stella, Baily, and, surprisingly, Jeremy, were all happy and excited that I was going traveling with Everett. That I was getting away from it all for a while. Baily graciously took Rover back, which was just in time for Jeremy to go stay with Grey for the wedding.

Their relationship was beautiful, but still too new to attend a wedding together.

Baily couldn’t wait for us all to return so she could throw a party, hosted by her mama, and show us all of her magical stuffed animals.

We were all excited for that day, whenever it came.

It was all about balance, Everett had told me a few weeks ago, just after we started. Balance in everything and anything we do. If the scales tipped in this world, they needed to tip in our favor, and the only way to assure that would happen was if we kept everything balanced on our end. From the murders to the hunts, to our roles in the bedroom.

Which had been growing more and more healthy as the days went on.

We kept the house on my street, and I reconnected with my neighbors, specifically Ms. Berry, before telling them I was going on vacation for a while.

Everett dropped the leases on all of his places in The Springs, and the two of them ‘moved in’ with me, although we all knew that we would only be visiting when we had to take the role of Kingsmen’s again.

We got married, which we were keeping to ourselves for now. The papers were signed the day after I tied him to that bed. I didn’t have it in me to wait, but the funny thing was, he had already bought a ring. It was tucked away in my suitcase, safe and sound, to be put on when we decided to tell everyone that we had officially signed the papers, both of us taking the name Kingsmen to commemorate our lives together.

I wanted to live, to breathe, to experience life. I wanted to take what had happened to me and bring it down on the world. My twisted version of justice.

But there was so much we had to figure out.

Mr. Alascer for one.

That’s where we were heading, actually, to meet with Jack, Rae, and Zo. We all knew Azrael would do everything he could to prevent us from following his trail, but that didn’t mean we were going to stop. Mr. Alascer deserved what was coming to him. For fucking with Rae and me. Azrael could try the best he could, but there were six of us against one of him, I suppose two depending on who Poppy sided with. We could win—

My phone started ringing again, and I lifted it, Unknown flashing across my screen.

I rolled my eyes and answered. “Why do you do that? I already know it’s you.”

“Then it works just as well as me having a single number,”

Azrael hummed. “I see where you’re going, you’re making a mistake.”

My first thought was that he had hacked into the tracking device Everett had implanted in my neck when I had come back from that compound, but then I realized that Azrael didn’t need it. He had the GPS of the plane, of our phones, despite Jack making sure they were untraceable. He had his ways no matter what we did.

“Then tell us why you’re protecting him,”

I replied evenly, finding Everett’s eyes.

“Protecting is such a strong word, isn’t it?”

he sang, that smile clear. “Am I protecting the ant that’s leading me to the colony? Or am I using him as bait?”

“It’s been three years,”

I argued rationally. Despite my tone, I actually liked Azrael. I considered him a friend. I could talk to him in a way I couldn’t with anyone else, and I felt like I understood him more than his own family did. Which, I suppose, just gave me another reason to be irreplaceable on this little team of ours.

“And nothing has changed. You and I may be the same, wild rose, but you need to understand that if you or any of your precious friends get in my way, there is nothing in this world that can stop me.”

“I am you,”

I dared, my heart picking up at the threat. “I know he’s leading somewhere bigger; I can feel it. I know that he’s a pawn, just as I was, once upon a time, but in case you haven’t heard, I’ve been promoted, and there is nothing on the board more powerful than the Queen.”

“You’ll quickly find that I am,”

he said, his voice chilling. “Chess pieces won’t win in a game of cards, rose. Tick tock, the clock will stop, but only for the spades,”

he sang, sending chills down my spine. “Tick tock, seconds go by, the ace is ready to play.”

Click.

My brows furrowed, warning bells sounding in my head.

“What is it?”

Everett asked, pulling my eyes up.

The warning bells only chimed louder, his words echoing through me. I searched his eyes, that rhyme twisting something inside of me that made me pause. Shit, I knew he wouldn’t like this. None of them would. “I think we should wait.”

Poison in the Water - Von Grey