Epilogue, but for real this time #2
“Uh, no, we won’t be doing that,” I informed Vale, yanking free of his grasp and jabbing Wraith in the chest with my index finger.
“I’m staying until this guy tells me how he fucked up my trap.
No one fucks up my traps but me, and I know it was perfect.
How did you do it?” I jabbed Wraith’s chest harder, throwing some of my new strength into it, trying to intimidate him into answering me.
I felt a sharp poke in my own chest and frowned down at it.
“Don’t do that, sweetheart,” Vale said. “Any damage we do to each other in anger hurts us as well.”
I yanked my poking hand back in alarm. “Did I hurt you? I poked him really hard. Are you okay?”
Wraith watched us, and his eyes softened from his cold, distant expression.
“I barely felt it, Echo. I’m fine,” Vale soothed.
“If we hurt each other, we hurt all three of us?” My face burned when I remembered a few of our more intense sexcapades. “Does that mean Wraith got hurt when we…?” I trailed off, unable to finish the question.
Wraith cocked his head questioningly, and his gaze became unfocused and wandered away. He’d stopped paying attention to us between one breath and the next.
“Everything we’ve done has been consensual, so Wraith was unaffected. Any damage to any of us done with malice will translate through the bond, no matter who does it. I’d hoped you’d be unaffected, but unfortunately, that appears not to be the case.”
I waved my hand in front of Wraith’s face and got no response. “Um… is he still with us?”
“Some part of him is aware of the external world when he gets like this, but I’ve never been able to figure out how much.”
“Do you know when he’s gonna come back?” I gave Wraith’s cheek a poke and got no response.
Vale gathered both of my hands in his. “Stop that. And I don’t know when he’ll come out of it. It could be seconds or weeks.”
“How does he survive like that? We should protect him, Vale. What if someone hurts him when he’s like this?”
Vale snorted. “You don’t need to worry about him.”
“But he’s defenseless!”
“He’s really not. Let me show you.” Vale picked up a snow-covered rock and took a few steps back.
“What are you doing?”
“Just watch.” Vale wound up and threw the rock at full strength, and I cringed in anticipation of experiencing what it felt like to have a rock fly through my brain.
There was a flash, and the rock snuffed out of existence. A full meter in diameter around Wraith had become snow-free, blackened earth, and my trap lay exposed and in ruins.
“Oops,” Vale said, shrugging sheepishly.
“My trap!” I got on my knees and sifted through the remains of the trap Vix and I had spent hours bonding over. “All that work…”
“I’m sorry, my love. I wasn’t thinking.”
“You have to help us remake it,” I sniffed.
“It’s not my field of expertise, but I promise I’ll do my best,” Vale said solemnly.
“You’re adorable with our new husband, Vale," Wraith commented.
“Don’t call him that,” Vale snapped.
“You’re back!” I said happily, all upset forgotten. “You have to help with the next trap too, okay? I want to figure out how to make my traps minmaxer-proof, and you’re going to be my ticket to success next year.”
“I’m starting to like our new husband, Vale.”
“I told you to stop calling him that.”
“Um… are we both really married to Wraith now?” I asked, not entirely certain I wanted to hear the answer. The Cody hadn’t mentioned the possibility, and it hadn’t occurred to me. If so, I wasn’t sure how I felt about it.
Wraith shrugged enigmatically.
“No, we’re not. Not even a little. Wraith is just fucking with you,” Vale said.
“You’re a lot calmer about this than I thought you’d be,” I mused. “You’ve been pretty possessive since we met.”
Like, really possessive. He’d thrown Baz in a perfect, rainbow-style arch across the yard the other day for suggesting a three-way.
“Wraith isn’t interested in you, Echo. He lost his heart over a decade ago, literally. He gave it away to some little nobody—”
Wraith gave a snarl like a feral wolf, and his eyes burned with green flames. “You take that back right now, Vale.”
I was nearly startled out of my socks, but Vale rolled his eyes and said, “The green is a new look for you, Wraith. I’m curious to see what else you got from Echo.
” Without skipping a beat, Vale switched smoothly to me, saying, “A few years ago, he gave his heart away to a tiny human who some people don’t appreciate as much as Wraith thinks they should. ”
“So, he’s only teasing you?” I asked cautiously.
“After giving his heart away, Wraith will never be able to fuck or fall in love with anyone but the owner of his heart.”
“So, fae bullshit?” I asked.
Vale nodded. “Fae bullshit.”
“I have a lot to learn, don’t I?”
Vale took my hand and kissed it. “There’s no rush. You have all the time in the world.”
“That’s still really weird for me,” I said. “How long does it take to get used to being immortal?”
Vale laughed darkly. “I’ll let you know when I find out.”
I stroked the space between Vale’s forehead to smooth out the frown lines. “We’ll find out together.” Then I glanced over to Wraith, who was examining us closely. “I’m part of together now, so you need to get used to me, got it?”
“I definitely like our husband, Vale.” Wraith flashed a smile that showed off more fangs than any humanoid had a right to.
“I never planned on having one husband, let alone two,” I teased back. “Maybe I should buy a book to find out how to take care of two husbands.”
“NO.” Vale dragged me away from Wraith. “It’s enough that I have to hear him say it, and that I have to deal with you being able to talk to him like it’s nothing, but if you start calling him your husband, I swear I’ll go on an indiscriminate killing spree.”
I was stunned. “I’ve been talking to Wraith?”
Holy shit. I hadn’t just been echoing back to him.
Vale sighed, and I heard him mutter something about stupid geniuses. “Yes, and I hate it.”
“Aw, you really love me a lot, don’t you?” I crooned. “I’m sorry, I’ll do my best not to tease you about it.”
Wraith said, “I promise to do my best to tease you about it every chance I get.”
Vale’s eyes burned with fury. “Don’t you dare—”
It was too late. Wraith had vanished, and Vale’s threats died before they had a chance to land.
“So… ” I said. “That’s who we're tied to for life?”
Vale rubbed his forehead. “Unfortunately, yes.”
“I kind of like him.”
“He has that effect on people. Either that or they despise him.” Vale seemed uneasy with his statement, and I picked up on why immediately.
“I’ll help you take care of him, Vale. I see why you care about him. He’s special.”
“He’s annoying,” Vale said without heat.
“You’re going to tell me more about that whole literally gave his heart away thing. You can’t just drop that on someone and not follow up.”
“Later, my love. We still have at least one more surprise for you.”
That was when I was overcome with the need to kiss the stuffing out of Vale. He’s pretty tough, so it took a lot of kisses before I was satisfied I’d reached his stuffing.
Ok, ew, that metaphor didn’t work at all, but you know what I mean.
When we finally got to Vale’s big surprise, I saw that everyone in the collective was there, plus a few random crows, squirrels, deer, and a raccoon.
Paris has the best friends.
There was a huge bonfire, and everyone seemed to be roasting something on the fire. Baz ran up to me and said, “Damn, you’re glowing brighter than ever, Echo. Vale must have given it to you really good.” Then he handed me a wooden skewer with little marshmallow angels on it.
I took it tentatively, once again, a little worried things were about to get festive.
“We’re roasting angels, come join us!” Baz grabbed my arm and dragged me closer to the fire. “I like watching their little eyes melt.”
“What is up with you and eyes, Baz?” Vale asked.
“They’re windows to the soul,” Baz answered ambiguously.
“Once we’re done with the angels, we’re gonna burn these guys over here,” Vix said, gesturing to a pile of plastic reindeer, smiling Santas, and a ton of other brightly lit Christmas decorations. “We stole them from the surrounding houses so you didn’t have to look at them anymore!”
“I call dibs on the six-foot elf,” Gareth said.
“I want the sleigh,” Adam called from an Apple-approved safe distance from the flames. Adam was so utterly whipped by his husband, but upon seeing a few horrifying incidents after he’d gotten too far from Apple, I understood why Apple was such a tyrant about Adam’s safety.
“We’ll put it on the fire together,” Apple told Adam with a smile.
I still didn’t trust Apple further than I could throw him, but after I bonded with Vale, Apple’s adore me field had no effect on me, so I didn’t despise him.
He was a spoiled little shit, but he obsessively worshipped Adam, who was just a solid fucking guy who didn’t deserve his epically shitty luck. I was glad he had someone like Apple.
Gareth’s fear field still had an effect on me, but it was lessening as time went by. Hopefully, one day I’d be able to look at him without nearly wetting myself.
I went over to the pile of decorations to see if anything appealed to me.
It was a huge pile and must have taken a ton of work to acquire.
I gave everyone a lopsided smile, cleared my stinging throat, and said, “I love your family, Vale.”
Vix and Baz hugged the ever-loving shit out of me, knocking me to the snow, and shouting, “We love you too, Echo!”
Vale reached in and plucked me out, snarling to the twins, “Keep your hands to yourselves.”
“Help me pick something to burn,” I said to Vale to distract him from his irritation. He got twitchy when other people touched me. It was sweet.
Ultimately, we decided on a plastic Santa sticking halfway out of a chimney. I didn’t know what it was that twigged me off, but he looked shady to me, so he had to go.
Vale and I chucked him into the fire together, and I enjoyed the surge of heat that flared when the plastic began to melt. Then I started coughing and backed away from the godawful smell of burning plastic.
“This was a terrible idea,” I choked out, eyes streaming with tears.
Soon, everyone was running away from the smoking EPA violation from hell, coughing and hacking up a storm, all of us suffering from our horrible mistake together.
Just like a good family should.
The End