Epilogue #2
Miles laughed. “Don’t pretend like it doesn’t have its moments. And I heard the class voted for A Midsummer Night’s Dream first, so we’re not starting Romeo and Juliet until next week.”
Gabriel smiled into his shoulder.
Upstairs, footsteps pounded across the floor and kids squealed—his sisters and Bram were trying to teach his new cat how to play tag.
Balthazar had tragically vanished with the rest of the grimoire’s magic.
Bram had been inconsolable. So a few days ago, Miles and Gabriel had driven him to the nearest shelter to adopt a new cat.
Bram had taken one look at Winifred—a tabby with one ear, a missing eye, and half a tail—and declared her as ferocious as Balthazar.
She’d come home with him that afternoon.
The front door opened. Miles’s parents and Edmund filed in with a cardboard box in each of their arms. The sleeve of a black fur coat poked out of one, a rolled-up rug resting on another.
“Hey, boys.” Sarah nudged the door closed. “How was the releasing ritual?”
“Easy peasy,” Miles answered. “Need any help?”
“This is all of it.” Adam put his box down gently, then stretched with an exaggerated groan. This week, his favorite jokes were all about his weary old-man bones and upcoming hip replacements.
After nearly dying, coming out to his dad had been nothing.
The next day, Miles had found him in the ruined office and broken down, spouting a bunch of gibberish—sorry I left the hospital without telling you, sorry I let the girls get kidnapped, sorry I raised zombies in the cemetery, sorry I didn’t tell you I’m gay and dating Gabriel—between snotty, hiccupping tears.
Those last two had required further explanation once he’d calmed down, but his dad had listened intently, handed him a steady supply of tissues, and given him a spine-cracking hug once he was done.
“How’d it go?” Gabriel asked Edmund.
He set his box down by the stairs, wearing his exhaustion in the tense set of his mouth. “About what you’d expect. They’d already packed most of it up for us, so it didn’t take long.”
The morning after they escaped the tomb, news arrived that Marjorie had passed away peacefully in her sleep.
Today was the first chance Edmund had to make it over to Oakes Hollow to collect her things.
Miles’s parents had jumped on the opportunity to help—Sarah was insisting on coming over practically every day to bring the Hawthorne boys food and assist Edmund with his newfound adult tasks.
There was no way she would’ve let him go alone.
Edmund told Miles she didn’t have to hover so much, but he wasn’t doing a very good job of hiding how much he enjoyed being fretted over.
Miles gazed at what they’d brought back. It was so strange to see what was left behind when someone died compiled into so few boxes.
“This is for you.” Edmund handed Gabriel a plain white envelope from his jacket pocket. Miles still did the occasional double take when he saw Edmund’s bare hands. His and Gabriel’s gifts had gone, only the most basic of their psychic skills remaining. Neither of them seemed bothered by it.
“What is it?”
“How would I know? It was on Marjorie’s side table and your name’s on it.”
Sure enough, Gabriel’s name was written on the front in dark, looping letters. He frowned, opening it hesitantly as Edmund wandered away. A single sheet of crisp white paper was tucked inside.
Gabriel,
Since your visit, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about our family, reflecting on my own part within it.
My mother, Florence, often told me that the most important thing I could do was put my family first in a world that would turn their backs on us, given the chance.
In her eyes, the greatest of sins was to settle for mediocrity when we had the means to rise so far above.
I’ve found myself wondering what is mediocre about a life well lived, and braving uncertainties to build the future you desire. I’ve found myself wondering what power I might have found within myself had I been given the choice that you came to me to ask for.
Perhaps leaving the family manor has given me some distance and clarity. Or perhaps these are the common ponderings of an old woman who knows her end is near.
If you’re given the chance to find out, take it. Do not fear the unknown, for I suspect that is where true adventure lies. Be braver than all the Hawthornes before you, as I know you are.
Your Great Grandmother,
Marjorie Hawthorne
Gabriel traced her signature, blinking rapidly.
“Are you okay?” Miles checked softly.
“Yes.” He seemed surprised by his answer. “I’m… glad that she came back to herself in the end, at least a little. I only wish I’d had the chance to get to know the true her.”
Miles suspected that had been on his mind a lot lately. Gabriel had been asking his parents for more stories of Felicity in her youth.
As he’d done already too many times in the past weeks— Miles figured he was allowed to overstep a little after what they’d been through—he lifted his mental shields to check Gabriel’s emotions.
He’d initially been worried when he’d realized that with the dark cloud gone he could do this, but Gabriel had just shrugged and said it was only fair after he’d been able to read Miles’s mind.
Content warmth washed over him, like sinking into a bubble bath with a soft, familiar song playing in the other room. Gabriel’s happiness felt like comfort. It felt like home.
And tied up in it all was a golden thread that pulsed with a feeling Miles wasn’t brave enough to put a name to yet, but knew was for him. He sensed it grow hot when Gabriel looked at him, thrum with joy when he laughed, glow like the sun when they held hands.
He turned just far enough to capture Gabriel’s lips in a gentle kiss. The thread burned bright, a shooting star streaking across his mind as Gabriel pressed closer with a pleased noise.
It was a great kiss—Miles would make a joke about it being the death of him, if he hadn’t just had a near-death experience and knew Gabriel would kick him for making light of it.
“Let’s go for a drive,” Miles said when he pulled away, wanting suddenly to get out of here. To have Gabriel to himself. “Anywhere you wanna go.”
Gabriel hummed against him. “You promised you’d take me to that decrepit burger place you can’t stop talking about.”
“Done. Prepare to have your life changed by a bucket of greasy fries.”
Miles lowered his shield back down, not worried about the undercurrent of sorrow he could taste, a salty burn in the back of his throat.
It had been there since the night Felicity died and wouldn’t leave anytime soon.
She’d left behind a lot of questions and emotions, and her boys were all working through them in their own ways.
“Gabriel and I are going for lunch,” he hollered into the depths of the house. “Be back later.”
“Dinner at six,” his mom called back. “Love you!”
They took Gabriel’s car—Edmund had let him claim one of the many stockpiled in the garage. He’d picked the most practical one and only used it to let Miles chauffeur him around. Eventually, Miles was going to teach him to drive, but riding a bike would come first.
Spending time alone together had been keeping Miles sane these last few weeks.
Slipping away to Gabriel’s room, running errands just to get away from everyone, late nights at Miles’s house to decompress with movies and pizza…
Charlee had made a habit of butting in on that last one, swapping movies so she could “educate Gabriel on the healing power of rom-coms.”
“I have a meeting with my guidance counselor after school tomorrow,” Gabriel commented as they headed out of town. The restaurant was a bit of a drive, a small roadside diner on the way to several hiking destinations and beaches that served the most heavenly burger Miles had ever eaten.
“For missing so much school? I thought Edmund took care of that.”
“He did. This is for something else.” He hesitated, piquing Miles’s interest. “I asked her to meet with me to discuss my potential options for college.”
Surprise flared in Miles. He’d mentioned a few times that he was gathering information on local colleges, but Gabriel had never shown personal interest. “What brought this on?”
“Edmund. He’s being his usual dramatic self, demanding I give him some idea of my plan for the next few years.
Apparently, having a ‘wild card’ for a brother is going to push him over the edge.
” Amusement colored Gabriel’s tone as he turned to watch a car with a paddleboard strapped to its roof pass them.
“I’ve never had to consider what I want my future to look like before.
It was always expected that I’d follow in my mother’s footsteps. ”
This was good. Gabriel was long overdue a dream beyond survival.
“And you’re thinking college?” Miles prompted. “Let me guess—English major?”
“It’s certainly enticing, though I’ll admit, I do enjoy the thought of exploring my options.”
“Living life on the edge,” Miles teased, turning onto a tree-lined road. Leaving the city behind, everything out here grew green and tall. A lake gleamed between the trunks, kayakers drifting through a swarm of unconcerned ducks. “Seriously though, I think that sounds great.”
He deserved to explore what brought him joy, what he wanted to spend the rest of his life doing. The thought of getting to share that with him made Miles giddy.
“I haven’t committed to anything yet. I feel… apprehensive about potentially leaving my brothers. Especially with Edmund taking on so much.”
“You have options—online classes, somewhere close to Thistle, coming back for the weekends…” All things Miles had been considering for himself. “But Edmund and Bram would never be upset if you left. They’d know you’d always come back.”
It was way too early to say it out loud, but Miles had already adjusted his dream apartment in Seattle to a place big enough for two, just in case.
Gabriel fit there well— his knit cashmere blanket folded on the couch, expensive French yogurts stacked in the fridge beside Miles’s juice, half the closet filled with white button-ups and woolly sweater vests.
He hid his smile in the collar of his jacket.
“I’m not accustomed to having so many choices,” Gabriel admitted. The sun came out from behind the clouds, turning the lake from a dreary gray to a deep blue that matched his sweater. “It’s overwhelming. And I have so much to do already.”
Miles reached across the center console to take Gabriel’s hand.
There were always going to be things to do.
When the time was right, he needed to have tough conversations with his parents about his place in the family business.
He needed to start shopping around for a new car within his meager budget.
There was a text sitting in his drafts inviting Robin to family dinner, a bike to dig out of the shed for Gabriel, and a bingo sheet for the new season of Specter Seekers on his bedside table.
There were always going to be things to do, but they could wait. All that mattered right now was Gabriel’s hand in his, the beautiful scenery outside the car window, and that there was no rush.
“We’ll figure it out,” he told Gabriel, knowing it was true. “We have plenty of time.”