Epilogue. Blaise #2
I glanced toward Ambrose, who was still deliberately out of frame. Lochran was absolutely going to lose his mind when he found out that Ambrose and I weren’t just best friends anymore.
“Hey, man,” I said, aiming for casual, even as excitement crept into my grin.
“Good to see you. Glad you’re happy with your mate.
” Impatience rolled off Caitlyn beside me; she clearly wanted to skip the pleasantries and get straight to the important parts.
For her benefit, I added, “I heard you got shot—”
“Forget about that,” Lochran cut in, his grin widening. “You found your mate! Congratulations, dude!” He smacked Lex playfully on the arm. “I bet that’s what Jake was rambling on about the other night after he’d bumped into Billy.”
Lex sucked in an irritated breath. “If you’re telling me that I had to sit through a two-hour-long lecture on why Jake thinks aliens might actually exist, only for him to turn into a blubbering mess the moment Billy shows up again, and then he couldn’t tell me that one of my best friends accidently hired her fated mate.
..” Lex pinched the bridge of her nose. “I’m going to kill him when he gets back. ”
Lochran looked down at his mate as if she was the most adorable when she was irritated. Then his smile faltered as he glanced back at me, concern flickering across his face as his voice dropped. “Have you told Ambrose yet?”
“Yeah, I told him,” I said, doing my best not to blurt out the rest of our news just yet.
“How’d he take it?” Lochran asked, genuine concern softening his voice. It was... kind of sweet, actually.
His eyes widened as Ambrose stepped into view behind us.
“I took the news very well,” Ambrose said calmly. His grin widened at the look of surprise on Lochran’s face as he draped an arm around both Caitlyn and me. “Seeing as I’m also Blaise and Caitlyn’s mate.”
Lochran’s mouth opened and closed without a sound.
Beside him, Lex mimed an exaggerated explosion over her head. “Two mates?” she asked Caitlyn, then added, squinting, “I don’t know if I’m jealous or genuinely concerned about how you’re going to keep up with both of them. I can barely handle one.” She bumped Lochran with her shoulder, grinning.
Lochran, having finally digested the news, broke into a grin that stretched the entire width of his face. “I always thought there might be more to you guys than just friendship. Congrats! I’m really happy for you.”
His eyes flicked to something beyond the camera before he added, excitement creeping into his voice, “You’ll never guess who we ran into. You know how Devlin was supposed to be taking a break from the summoning? Guess where he ended up vacationing!”
In that moment, Devlin slipped into view beside Lochran. He looked... different. Devlin, who was usually chronically miserable, wore a goofy grin, his features softened in a way I’d never seen before.
“Hey, guys,” he said, and even his voice carried an undercurrent of barely contained happiness as his eyes flicked to something just beyond the camera.
Before I could question what on earth had caused such a dramatic shift, Lex spoke. “Devlin wasn’t the only one we found here.”
She tilted the phone, and my brows knit together as someone slid into frame who looked exactly like Caitlyn—right down to the smile and hazel eyes—except for the dark fall of black hair.
“Jen!” Caitlyn squealed, nearly tipping herself out of her chair before Ambrose caught her.
The next hour passed in a haze of overlapping stories, disbelief, and laughter as we pieced together how all of us—against all odds—had accidentally stumbled directly into the arms of our respective mates.
Jen filled us in on how her parents had really died, the cover-up that followed, and why none of the coven could get anywhere near the prison.
Lochran told us about his trial, which had lasted all of a few minutes before he was found unanimously not guilty.
To Lex and Jen’s disbelief, Caitlyn explained how Priscilla wasn’t actually as terrible a person as they’d all believed, and—after some reluctant consideration—they agreed they might see if she wanted to hang out when she returned to the coven.
Meanwhile, Creep and BooDini sized each other up at every opportunity, launching into what quickly became a silent competition over who was the superior house.
Every time Devlin mentioned grabbing another beer, one appeared in his hand, a puffed-up BooDini floating smugly in the background.
And when Ambrose sneezed, Creep—determined to go one step further—magicked a tissue straight up his nose.
The competition ended, for us at least, when Caitlyn began to excuse herself to use the bathroom, at which point Creep magicked her pants off and deposited an ancient ceramic chamber pot in her lap.
Jen and Caitlyn exchanged identical stares, before they each assigned BooDini and Creep a super important task that conveniently kept them occupied for the rest of the call.
When the call finally ended—after an excited promise that we’d all cut our vacations short and head back to the coven the following day to catch up in person—Caitlyn let out a loud yawn.
The emotional weight of the conversation put a firm damper on any thoughts of a repeat performance of the pre-phone-call, mind-blowing sex.
She let me carry her upstairs to bed, giggling sleepily the entire way.
With our earbuds firmly in place, Ambrose and I settled in on either side of our mate, nuzzling close.
Caitlyn’s mouth moved as she drifted off, but the Hushbuds drowned out her snores completely.
Our hands met over her heart, fingers entwining.
No doubt she’d soon begin her unconscious sprawl across the bed and pull us apart—but for now, as I watched Ambrose’s gaze drift to Caitlyn before his eyes fluttered closed, I couldn’t help but marvel at the fact that I had to be the luckiest demon alive.