THE EVER AFTER
KIT
Two years ago, I never would have dreamed that my life could be this full.
Gone were the quiet months I spent alone in an empty house, the days of going all afternoon without being approached in the forge, and the endless ache of loneliness that I’d convinced myself I deserved. In its place was a happiness I could never have imagined.
Here on the Oliver farm, surrounded by family and friends and with a backdrop of towering sunflowers, one adventure ended and another began. The scent of change rode the edge of the wind and carried with it the promise of a future well-deserved. A life together.
Warren and his brothers had spent all of yesterday setting up rows of tables and chairs between the house and the barn.
Now, every seat was full. Penny and I sat together at the head table looking out over familiar faces from Ashpoint, Forstford, and Eastcliff—even my cousin, Willem, and his wife were here—all gathered for us.
This was the community we’d been seeking, finally made manifest without the shadow of the cult looming on the horizon.
And when I saw Thoma tucked close to one of Warren’s older brothers, and Rosie shyly sneaking glances at Ben’s nephew while she and Isla whispered together, and Warren fussing over Cinna dozing in my new sister’s arms, I had to admit that Eeus hadn’t lied.
For all the bad I’d done, Penny and I still managed to bring all of these people together.
We patched the cracks in each other’s lives and tended each other’s wounds until new things could grow.
It didn’t erase the pain or make up for the losses we suffered, but it made the load lighter.
It made the rebuilding easier. We shared the sorrow and the joy, and neither of us would have to face anything alone again.
“You’re quiet,” Penny said, sliding his fingers between mine beneath the table and propping his chin on my shoulder.
I gave his hand a squeeze. “Just thinking.”
“About?”
I drew in a breath of the crisp autumn air and let it out slowly.
“About how, without the Bone Men, I wouldn’t have any of this.
” I tipped my head toward the gathering.
“I never would have met you. Or Thoma and Rosie and Isla… or Levitt. I would have had no reason to leave Willowvale and settle in Forstford. I wouldn’t have learned how to farm from Delmer. ”
Penny hummed and pressed closer, reaching up with his free hand to cup my cheek and turn me to face him. He rested his forehead against mine.
“You might have,” he said softly. “I like to think we were always meant to be together.”
I chuckled and leaned more heavily against him. Even with everything we’d been through, he’d never lost his unfailing optimism. I loved that about him.
“So do I,” I murmured. “But if I had to go through everything I’ve been through just to get the chance to be here with you right now, to have this family and this life, I would gladly do it all over again. You are worth every hardship, every struggle, every—”
He surged forward and pressed his lips to mine in a kiss as earnest as it was fierce. Because he knew. And he felt the same.
He pulled back a moment later, pushed out his chair, and stood while tugging me to my feet.
“Let’s get some air.”
We snuck away unnoticed and walked the edge of the nearest field hand in hand. I brushed my thumb over the leather cord wound around his wrist, then gave the knotted end a tug.
“I’ve been waiting two years to make you my husband, you know,” he said, looking out over the stubble of recently harvested wheat that stretched across the land beside us.
A smile curled my lips. “That long, huh?”
“Obviously.” He flicked a glance at me, fighting a smirk of his own, before returning his focus to the field. “I knew I was going to marry you the moment you threatened me with a kitchen knife.”
I snickered and squeezed his hand. “When you know, you know.”
At his amused look, I drew us to a stop so I could wind my arms around his waist and pull him close. He slid his arms over my shoulders and laced his fingers together at the back of my head as I rubbed my nose against his.
“You’ve changed my whole life, Pen. Every facet of it. And I couldn’t be more grateful for that.”
“You changed mine, too, in case you didn’t notice.” His smile was watery, but sure. “Thank you.”
For a long time after that day in the cave, I hadn’t felt like I was owed any kind of thanks.
We wiped out the Bone Men, but it had felt like solving a problem I’d helped create in the first place.
Over the months that followed, Penny helped me realize that they would have grown to those heights even without my involvement.
I couldn’t shoulder the blame for my father or the Right Hands who came before him.
I wasn’t responsible for the horrors they’d wrought on the province.
And though we’d both suffered to bring about the end of those horrors, I could accept his gratitude now. Because every one of those moments led us here.
We soaked in the peace for a long time before we broke apart.
Penny tucked himself under my arm with his looped around my waist, and we watched the sun dip toward the western horizon.
The gauzy clouds gathering there shifted from cream to gold to orange and pink as if they were putting on a show for us.
After a while, Thoma came up on my free side and bumped his shoulder against mine.
“Congratulations, Mister Mosel,” he said through a grin.
“Oliver,” I corrected, and both he and Penny swiveled to face me.
“But your mom,” Penny said quietly. “I thought…”
So had I, for months now. I’d hardly stopped thinking about it.
I’d taken her name as a way to honor her memory, and as a way to distance myself from my father’s.
It had felt like coming home at the time, like building a bridge to the family I lost when she died.
But it didn’t feel like me anymore. I outgrew it, and I knew she would want me to move on.
To embrace the future I’d fought so hard for.
“I’ve hid behind her long enough,” I said. “I’m not the same man I was when I gave myself that name, so it’s time to let it go. You’re my family now. And I’m proud to share your name.”
Penny’s lip wobbled, and Thoma clapped me on the back.
“Well, then congratulations to both of you, Misters Oliver.”
While Penny crowded in close to my chest and buried his face in my shoulder, I grinned over at our friend.
“So, when is it your turn?” I asked.
Thoma’s cheeks darkened, and he brought his left hand up to adjust the collar of his shirt. The cuff of his sleeve rode up, and a hint of silver peeked out from underneath it.
“Probably in the spring,” he replied.
Penny jerked back to look at him and gasped when he caught sight of the partially-hidden chain around his wrist. He seized Thoma’s hand and pulled it closer so he could push his sleeve further up to get an unobstructed view.
“When did this happen?!” he demanded.
“A couple of days ago.” Thoma’s smile was sheepish, but he looked about ready to burst with excitement. “I wasn’t going to say anything until tomorrow; I didn’t want to take away from your day.”
I slung my arm around his shoulders and tugged him in. “There’s nothing to take away, just more joy to add. Congratulations.”
He made a small noise of surprise when Penny threw his arms around both of us and squeezed.
“Name the day, and we’ll be here,” Penny promised. “Wouldn’t miss it.”
Thoma assured us that they were planning for just after planting so that we wouldn’t need to make a separate trip, then offered one last congratulations before returning to the crowd of revelers and his intended.
Alone again, Penny and I took another few minutes to watch the sunset, and then we rejoined the celebration.
Someone had pushed back all the tables, and a bonfire had been lit to chase away the impending evening chill.
One of Warren’s brothers was perched on a chair next to the fire plucking out a tune on his lute while our guests whirled around him in a dance that a few years ago would have overwhelmed me.
Now, when Penny grabbed my hands and pulled me along as he backed toward the riotous crowd, all I saw was him. Everything else faded away, and it was just the two of us, spinning and dipping and laughing until I was out of breath and Penny was coughing through his ever-present grin.
The music slowed, and we stepped in until we were chest to chest, arms wound around each other and heads leaned together.
“I love you, Kit,” he murmured against my lips.
“I love you too, sweetheart,” I whispered back. “More than anything.”
The celebration carried on well after dark before the crowd began to disperse. Some time after midnight, Penny and I said our goodnights and caught a ride back to town with Thoma and his intended, where they dropped us at the inn.
Penny was half asleep by the time we made it to our room. I had to prop him up on the wall while I helped strip him out of his wedding finery. He refused to get under the covers until I did, so he could drape himself across my chest before I lost him to sleep entirely.
In a few days, we’d be back home. As much as I loved spending time with our family, I was ready to get back to our own bed and to our little menagerie.
I missed the weight of the animals at our feet, and Ember’s purr, and the way the moon slanted through our bedroom window and lit Penny’s hair like spun silver.
I missed the life we built there, too.
We were local celebrities in Forstford now, and though the novelty had worn off for the townsfolk months ago, there were still many people coming and going who wanted to hear the story of how we destroyed the Bone Men.
Ben tried to keep them away at first, but it got easier to talk about the more we did, so I told him to send them our way instead.
We passed the assurance on to all of them that there were no curses left behind in the cult’s wake, and explained as often as we could that Eeus was not who he’d been painted to be. He was, in fact, the thread that bound communities and knit the broken back together.
We were living proof of that.
And if those who sought us out told everyone else about the two men in Forstford with a house full of animals and a story so unbelievable it had to be true, so be it.
Let them come. Let people find some closure now that a generation of fear was finally over.
We would offer that as long as it was needed, to anyone who came to our door.
After all, we weren’t hard men to find.
THE END