EPILOGUE
The Queen
I’ve never been a good girl…
I’ve been the brat.
The whore.
The spoiled little sister.
The waste of life.
The half-breed.
…I’m not those things anymore…
Somebody finally cared enough to ask who I really am…and now I have an answer.
When Malek and Sev finally understood that they were put on this tormented Earth for one another…they inked it into their skin. When Daddy chose the parts of his family that weren’t Byrne blood…he inked it into their skin.
I knew I was part of the family…I just never felt like one.
I was never certain of my place…my purpose.
Things are clearer now. Declan sat in the chair next to mine, staring at me with those eyes that make me catch fire, when just a few years ago…they’d make me take flight. The buzz of a tattoo gun rang in my ears, the image slowly coming to life. This is who I am now. Who we are together.
Me and this man.
My brother and my sister.
My beautiful niece.
My found family.
My castle.
My crown.
My chair.
…My House…
We stood outside the tattoo shop, hand in hand, looking down at the brand that says it all. Two chess pieces. A queen on the bend of my hand. A king to replace the pawn on his.
…My name is Bridget…
And we are the weird misfits in the mortuary business.
The solid foundation of an empire. The unbreakable Irish.
The free American. The psychos that run bloody in the woods.
The fools that still can’t sing. The girls that sit at the reject table with a smile.
The nerds that eat ketchup on their eggs.
The animals that love to fuck. The ravens that sleep in coffins, and killers that take absolutely no shit… ever.
We are The House of Byrne.