Epilogue
Jade
I locked the library doors behind me and slid the key into my pocket, savoring the sound of the click the lock made.
It was lunch hour, and nowadays, that was my favorite hour.
I glanced at the glass store windows of the General Store down the sidewalk and felt my cheeks crease with the beginnings of a wide smile.
The last few weeks had been quiet, too quiet, if I was being honest. After the confrontation in the woods, the town had settled into an uneasy calm.
The book hadn’t yielded any more answers, not really.
The second half had been encoded, and I was still teasing apart symbols and substitutions late into the night.
Thorne came by sometimes to “help,” which mostly meant pacing, scowling, and pointing out things I already knew.
I’d watched with avid interest as he tried one spell after another to get to the answers, but none of them yielded any results.
I was pretty sure he was bothering Luther right now for the next batch of ingredients.
Watching Thorne’s spells explode in his face had been the most exciting thing in town.
Still, quiet wasn’t nothing—it was actually rather welcome—and I knew we were all savoring it and the changing weather.
Spring had melted fully into summer, the sun warm on my shoulders as I cut past the alley toward the general store.
The sky was a soft, endless blue, the kind that made it impossible to believe there was anything dangerous left in the world.
You’d never think there was something lurking in the woods beyond the town limits, something that had made Mr. Peters keep his goats locked in the barn for three straight weeks.
Gwen stepped out of her B the Galamut threat; even the coded book.
All of it dimmed beside the simple, impossible fact of him.
I’d come to town looking for a job and a little peace.
I’d found a home, a library that felt like mine, and a vampire who loved his quiet almost as much as I did, and who loved me more than either of us had expected.
The danger was still real—I knew that—but the days and nights with Luther outshone it: warm, steady, and grounding.
I slipped behind the counter, ignoring Thorne’s sharp look, and rose onto my toes to kiss Luther.
He turned fully toward me, jars clattering onto the counter, as his hand settled at my waist like it belonged there, which it did.
His attention narrowed instantly, the rest of the world falling away in a way that still made my pulse skip.
Oh, honestly, Belfry chimed, hanging upside down from his perch behind the counter. His silk vest gleamed, the gold chain catching the light, and his one ear had a dashing little nick in it now. You’d think no one else existed. It’s disgusting. I love it.
I laughed against Luther’s mouth because Belfry was sweet and silly, and I loved him almost as much as my vampire, but definitely not in the same way. “Missed you too,” I said to Luther with what had to be a sappy smile, and I didn’t care one bit.
“Every hour,” Luther murmured, his forehead resting against mine.
For an immortal to be that aware of the passage of time, I knew that meant I was special, really special.
His hand brushed against my ribs, over the silver mark that glowed like moonlight on my skin.
A reminder of what we were to each other: two pieces of a whole, better together.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, warning me of an incoming call.
I pulled back with a groan and glanced at the screen, then nearly dropped it.
“Maggie,” I breathed, already answering.
“Hey!” She and I had been living in different cities, on different timetables, and in different worlds for so long that it seemed almost improbable she had called me now.
Her voice, bright and cheerful as always, landed in my ear with her usual enthusiasm. “Jade! Guess what?” Maggie sang, bright as sunshine through the speaker. “I’m coming to visit—next week.” My brain stalled as I tried to parse words I was certain I couldn’t have heard right.
“You… what?” Coming to visit? I gripped Luther’s shirt with one hand and cast him a slightly panicked look. I knew he’d overheard what she said, Belfry certainly had, from the way his eyes were avidly peering at me.
“I booked a room at the cutest B&B, Sweet Dreams Guaranteed, I think? Everything’s taken care of.
I’ll only be there a few days. Oh! I can’t wait to see the library.
That’s so you! And I’m dying to find out who this mysterious boyfriend is…
” The waterfall of words was so familiar, so…
her that it made me smile. So she was coming here, that was going to be something special.
I hoped the town would behave while she was here, but a few days? Surely that would be fine.
“Maggie, wait!” I tried to stop her from doing her usual dash and hanging up the phone.
She said next week, when next week? What time?
That was so Maggie: to not explain anything but the bare minimum.
She probably thought she’d said it all and would be confused and apologetic when she found out otherwise.
She was the most scatterbrained person I knew.
“I have to run! Love you!” Click. Yup, she’d dashed, just like I knew she would. I stared at my phone, heart racing, mouth hanging open—torn between being extremely happy to have my friend drop by for a visit and worried because, with the town in crisis, now might be the worst time ever.
“Well,” Luther said mildly, amusement tugging at his lips.
“That was decisive.” He took the phone from my numb fingers and placed it on the counter beside Thorne’s purchases.
Then he slipped his arms back around me and hugged me, letting me know that he was there, supporting whatever I wanted when it came to Maggie and her free spirit.
Thorne did not look amused the way Belfry and Luther did. No, he looked furious. “We can’t have more humans underfoot,” he snapped. “It’s dangerous. This could be another threat. Have you already forgotten what happened last winter? The human who came for Gwen?”
My temper flared, sharp and instant. How could he say that? I knew he was a bit of a bastard, but to act like my friend would harm anyone? “Maggie is not a threat. She’s my best friend,” I said hotly, and my weight shifted forward onto one leg, as if I was ready to kick him where it mattered.
“That’s not the point,” Thorne said, but he didn’t sound apologetic. He didn’t appear to have the slightest clue that I was ready to knock him senseless for the insulting words. He just continued in that same arrogant, hostile tone: “She’s vulnerable, and she’d make the town vulnerable!”
Luther’s gaze flicked to him, cool and steady, his arms turning to steel around my middle as if he knew exactly what kind of thoughts had been running through my brain.
“Perhaps we need a few humans,” he said.
“Look around, Thorne. Five soulmated pairs now. This town is healing. Isn’t that worth a little risk?
” Oh, that was sweet—what a lovely way to think about it—and it set the gears spinning in my mind. Could the two be related?
Silence stretched, and Thorne’s jaw tightened, his eyes flicking briefly, unwillingly, to my phone.
He was thinking about Maggie, about her cheerfulness, the brightness of her, which contrasted as sharply with the darkness that clung to him as anything could.
“I don’t like it,” he muttered. I had a feeling he was going to like it even less once Maggie arrived.
Luther turned back to me then, cupping my cheek. His expression softened, all sharp edges gentled. He shut out Thorne as if he had never been there, and I heard the warlock snatch his purchases and stalk off in a huff.
“I love you,” Luther said simply. The words settled into me, warm and sure. Outside, the sun shone. Inside, the store hummed quietly, full of impossible things. For the first time in a long while, I truly believed that everything was going to be all right.
THE END