Epilogue
The sports bar was noisy and crowded, packed with bodies — humans mostly, but enough trolls and goblins that they didn’t stand out when they entered.
The bar was tucked into a strip mall, between a bank advertising free checking and a nail salon.
On the other side of the parking lot, a large grocery store was teeming with shoppers.
The parking lot was packed and well lit, just a few doors down from their destination was a chain restaurant and music spilled out of the door every time it was pulled open, easily heard as they crossed the parking lot, hand in hand.
Once upon a time, Silva would have found it inconceivable to think that a place like this was a good choice for a clandestine meeting, but now she knew better.
The cost of her key was knowledge she could never unlearn.
The knowledge that she was better off stepping around a large puddle with an iridescent surface, taking up space in a parking lot on a day that had suffered no rain.
The knowledge that there were some locked doors that were merely waiting.
Waiting to be found, waiting to be reunited with their keys.
The knowledge that a small shop on a busy street corner may have been trafficking in highly valuable, dangerous, and illegal ephemera.
And when they’d pulled into this crowded, well-lit parking lot, full of businesses and bodies, seeing their destination just ahead, Silva didn’t think anything of it. Of course, it was right here, out in the open.
The best way to stay hidden.
He had received a text from his friend Astrid, the wisp — the same fae who’d brought her to the gate in Winter.
What did you do?
And then—
Tate.
You’ve made a fucking mess of things.
CALL ME!
He had ignored it.
They’d received the keys, by then, to the house in Oldetowne.
Silva had her phone out, finger poised over the camera shutter, the first time Tate stepped over the threshold, with Aelin on his shoulders.
They were careful. The house had been empty for so long and had fallen into such a deep state of disrepair that the floors were likely unstable.
He’d not wanted to risk taking her in very far, just a few steps, letting her see.
See what he saw, maybe. He’d turned when Silva called his name, capturing the moment.
A curved doorway was visible just over his shoulder on the other side of the foyer.
The grand, curving staircase behind them was missing steps and half the balusters on the handrail, and the chandelier hanging over them was covered in several decades’ worth of dust and cobwebs.
Even so, Aelin’s expression had been one of wonder, Tate’s smile genuine and unguarded, so rare.
It was her favorite picture. She’d saved it in black and white, making it the background of her phone, pulling it out and tapping the screen every time her temples began to throb, sitting behind her desk at work each day.
He had his hands full and ignored the text for several weeks.
When the phone rang one night, shortly after Aelin had been tucked into bed, his hand hesitated over it, fingers curling into a fist of indecision, before swiping it up and tapping the screen, bringing the phone to his ear.
He hadn’t said much. Silva wasn’t able to glean anything useful from his side of the conversation, but his face had been grim. She heard him making plans to meet with someone, supplying a pen and one of her many little notebooks, before he could cast around for something to write it down.
And then — she simply waited.
Once, she would’ve twisted in agony, inventing scenarios in her head of who could be on the other end of the line, what plans he was making, who he was seeing, the affair he was having. She was sad for the elf she had been. She’d spent so much time making herself miserable for no reason.
When he disconnected the call, Tate didn’t say anything to her right away.
Silva knew it was bad when he disappeared through the sliding door, pacing around the black yard until he trawled too close to the neighbor’s property, igniting their floodlights.
She heard him curse through the glass door, deciding she was better off going to bed herself.
She managed to complete her entire skincare routine and put her hair up, just slipping beneath the sheets when she heard him let himself in.
When he climbed into bed to join her, a while later, she remained silent, waiting for him.
His head found its way between her breasts, his eyes closed.
Silva pushed her fingers into his silky hair, scratching his scalp, still waiting.
“I have to go see someone,” he murmured at last. “I don’t want to, but . . . I don’t think I can avoid it. I need to find out what’s going on there.”
He didn’t need to elaborate where there was.
“Where do you have to go?”
“Somewhere neutral, on this side,” he clarified. “A few states away, at least.”
“Okay. I’m coming with you.”
“Silva—”
“I’m. Coming. With. You. I’m letting you know, Tate. Not asking permission. You’re not doing this alone. You don’t have to anymore.”
“You’re not even concerned if it might be dangerous?” He demanded, head lifting to find her eyes.
“Who is it? Is it someone dangerous?”
He let out a hard breath against her. Outside, it had begun to rain, the steady patter of it like a percussive accompaniment to the conversation.
“They’re all dangerous, dove. . . this is a friend, at least. Astrid. She’s from the Court of Winter.”
“She’s the wisp? The one with the blue eyes?
His head whipped up, eyes narrowing to golden slits. He pushed off the mattress, turning and looming over her, arms caging her in. “Silva, I swear to Mab—”
“No!” she insisted, pushing back on his shoulders, sitting up so she could look him in the eye.
“You already know I was there, so stop acting shocked that I’m not completely clueless now.
You don’t get to do this alone anymore, Tate.
We’re a family. Aren’t we?” She held up the hand on which she wore her ring, the ring he had put there just a month earlier.
“What’s going to happen in two hundred years?
What’s going to happen when I’m in my jubilee, and you still look like this?
Are you going to leave me alone to run off on adventures on the other side?
He pushed her down slightly, falling forward with her, silencing her in a long kiss.
“I already told you. I’m going to find a pocket, and that’s where we’ll vacation every year.
Keep you as fresh as a rose. Otherwise, dove, I’m going to lie down and die beside you.
You’re not leaving me alone in this world. ”
His head found its way back to her breast, her hands sliding back into his hair.
“And you’re not leaving me alone now. Whatever has to be done, we do it together, or not at all.” When he didn’t immediately argue, Silva decided to consider it a win. “Why so far from home?”
“Silva, I’ve only just gotten back. Are you that eager for me to be gone again?”
She gasped in offense, pinching the back of his thigh from where he lay atop her. “I’m only asking a question!”
“We don’t want them close to us. For any reason.”
She considered the answer. The closer to danger, the farther from harm, she thought, sometimes.
“There’s a shop in the city that sells keys,” she volunteered.
“I mean, not like right there on the shelf, obviously, but the same kind of place where I bought mine. So I don’t know if there’s anywhere that’s completely safe. And I thought she was your friend?”
“Be that as it may.” His breath was hot, his nose rubbing against her skin.
“I’ll feel better not having anyone from the other side in our backyard, even for an evening.
And she is my friend. As much as you can have friends there, which is not at all.
I don’t want any of them close to where our daughter sleeps.
Don’t trust anyone from the other side, Silva. For any reason.”
Now they were here, sliding into a booth near the back of the establishment, sitting on the same side. Silva clutched his hand beneath the table. When the human server came around with a bright smile, Tate met it with his professional barman voice, musical and light, ordering for them both.
She was already there. Silva could see her.
She was throwing darts, laughing and drinking, pocketing money, her eyes darting around, her smile slick.She took her time making her way back to them, and Silva realized she had likely clocked them the instant they stepped through the door.
When the wisp slid into the booth, her ebony skin lustrous beneath the hanging pendant light, she gave them both a sharp-edged grin.
“Silva of Starlight. We meet again.”
They engaged in small talk, light and effervescent, touching on nothing of importance, until their drinks were delivered. As soon as the human server walked away, the wisp’s face changed, her smile flattening out, her eyes darkening.
“What did you do?”
Tate shrugged defiantly. “I got out, Astrid. Just as I said I would.”
The blue-eyed fae dropped her head back, exhaling. “I understand that, and I’m glad for you. But did you think about what would happen after? Did you consider the mess you were leaving behind?”
He shrugged again. “It’s not my mess.”
“It is, Tate. I know he was a bastard. He was a fucking monster, but he was the monster who held things together. It’s chaos. In every realm, utter chaos.”
Tate remained unmoved as she glanced around quickly, scanning the room, seemingly for her own peace of mind.
“Your Lady. She wants your head.”
He leaned in, giving Astrid a sharp-toothed grin. “She’d have to find my head first, wouldn’t she? And I don’t intend on returning.”