Epilogue #2
His body settles down as Remus takes control, his too-wild eyes and lips grinning at his wife. “We decided it’s best if I take the wheel for awhile, since I love your pie better.”
Lauren looks at him with amused affection and serves him first.
As we start eating, the conversation flows easily.
Hannah tells a story about Raven learning to write her name—mostly by carving it into furniture with her claws.
Kharon shares an update about Luna’s latest achievement, which apparently involved teleporting a spoon from the kitchen to the bathroom.
Ksenia and Abaddon argue about which knife is best to kill and skin a bear.
It’s chaos. Beautiful, warm, completely normal chaos.
Phoenix’s hand finds mine under the table. I lace our fingers together, and she squeezes.
“You okay?” I murmur.
“Yeah,” she says softly. “This is nice.”
It is nice. More than nice. A year ago, neither of us would have believed we could have this.
Family.
Especially a family dinner like this. Where the biggest concern is keeping Raven from flying off with the silverware. Where Luna tries to share her half-chewed bread with everyone. Where my brothers argue about wine and food and absolutely nothing of consequence.
We defeated my father.
We closed the crack in the spiritual barrier.
We saved the world. Again.
And now we get to have this.
“Uncle Layden,” Raven says, pulling me from my thoughts. “Auntie Phoenix. Are you going to have a baby?”
The entire table goes silent.
Phoenix chokes on her wine. I pat her back while she recovers.
“Raven,” Hannah says, her voice strained. “That’s a very personal question.”
“But I want more cousins!” Raven protests. “Luna can’t even fly yet, and she’s boring.”
“Hey,” Kharon objects.
“She is! All she does is drool and knock things over!”
“She’s one year old, what do you expect?”
“I expect her to be more interesting! Like opening a portal to the dragons again!”
Luna, as if responding to being called boring, chooses this moment to grab a handful of pasta from her father’s plate and launch it across the table. It lands directly in Romulus’s hair.
“See?” Raven says triumphantly. “Boring!”
While Romulus sputters and Remus laughs, Phoenix leans close to me.
“We are never having children,” she whispers.
“Agreed,” I whisper back.
“I mean it. Never.”
“I believe you.”
“Good.”
But she’s smiling when she says it, and her hand is still in mine.
Abaddon clears his throat, drawing everyone’s attention. “Before we get too deep into the meal, I think we should take a moment to acknowledge why we’re all here.”
“Because Hannah threatened to stop cooking for you if you didn’t invite everyone?” Remus suggests.
Hannah throws a roll at his head. He catches it with a grin.
“We’re here,” Abaddon continues, ignoring his brother, “because Layden and Phoenix did something none of us thought possible. They ended the threat of our Creator-Father permanently.”
The mood at the table shifts. Even Raven goes quiet.
“I know we’ve celebrated before,” Abaddon continues.
“We had that initial gathering right after it happened. But I wanted to do this properly. To really mark the occasion.” He stands, raising his wine glass.
“For over two thousand years, we lived in fear of our father returning. Every time we thought he was gone, he came back. Stronger. Angrier. More determined to control us.”
Kharon nods grimly. “We tried everything. Burning his body to ash. Scattering the ashes across oceans. Burying them in consecrated earth. Sending him back to the angelic realm. Nothing worked.”
“But you two,” Abaddon looks at us, and there’s something in his eyes I’ve never seen before. Pride. “You found a way.”
Phoenix shifts uncomfortably in her seat.
She’s never been good with praise. Suddenly it’s a little difficult swallowing.
Because neither have I. But finally having my big brother’s approval?
I didn’t think I could be happier, but, well.
There life goes, healing things I didn’t even know were left a little sore.
The conversation gradually shifts to lighter topics.
Remus and Romulus start arguing again, this time about whether Rome or Venice is the better Italian city.
Lauren tells stories about her latest baking experiments, including a disastrous attempt at croissants that apparently ended with her kitchen covered in butter.
Raven, who has been relatively well-behaved for at least ten minutes, decides that’s enough sitting still for one day. She launches into the air and starts doing aerial acrobatics over the table.
“Raven, careful!” Hannah warns.
“I’m being careful!” Raven insists, right before executing a flip that brings her dangerously close to the tiramisu.
“That’s it,” Abaddon says. “You’re grounded.”
“You can’t ground me, I have wings!”
“Watch me.”
But he’s smiling when he says it, and Raven knows it. She lands on his shoulder and wraps her little arms around his neck.
“Daddy, I love you,” she says sweetly.
“You’re still in trouble,” Abaddon tells her, but his voice has gone soft.
Phoenix leans against me, her head on my shoulder. “This is nice,” she murmurs.
“It is,” I agree.
“I never thought I’d have this. A family. People who actually want me around.”
I kiss the top of her head. “They don’t just want you around. They love you.”
“I love them too,” she admits quietly. “Don’t tell them that, though. I have a reputation to maintain.”
“Your secret is safe with me.”
Luna starts fussing, and Ksenia picks her up. “I think someone needs a nap.”
“No nap!” Luna declares, her first clear words besides “Mama” and “Dada.”
“Definitely time for a nap,” Kharon says.
“I’ll help you put her down,” Ksenia offers.
As they head inside with a protesting Luna, Raven zooms over to take the now-empty seat.
“Auntie Phoenix,” she says seriously. “Can I ask you a question?”
“That depends on the question,” Phoenix says.
“Is Uncle Layden your favorite person in the whole world?”
Phoenix glances at me, and I can see she’s trying not to smile. “Why do you ask?”
“Because you look at him the way Daddy looks at Mommy. And Daddy says Mommy is his favorite person in the whole entire universe, even more than me, which I think is unfair but Mommy says it’s different.”
“It is different,” Hannah confirms. “I love you in a different way than I love your father.”
“But do you love him more?” Raven presses.
“I love him in a grown-up way,” Hannah explains. “And I love you in a mommy way. They’re both the biggest loves I have, just different kinds.”
Raven considers this. Then she looks at Phoenix again. “So is Uncle Layden your favorite grown-up love?”
“Yes,” Phoenix says simply. “He is.”
I feel something warm spread through my chest. Phoenix isn’t big on declarations. Her saying “I love you” still only happens on rare occasions, though she’s getting better at it. But hearing her tell my niece, in front of my whole family, that I’m her favorite person—it means everything.
Raven seems satisfied with this answer. “Okay. I just wanted to make sure, because you should only marry someone if they’re your favorite.”
“That’s very wise advice,” Phoenix tells her.
“I know. I’m very wise.” Raven pauses. “Daddy says I’m wise beyond my years, which I think means I’m smarter than other kids.”
“It means you’re too smart for your own good,” Abaddon calls from his end of the table.
“Thank you!” Raven beams.
“Thank you,” Phoenix says quietly to me.
“For what?”
“For pulling me back. From the dark. I never properly thanked you for that.”
“You don’t need to thank me,” I tell her. “I wasn’t letting you go. Not to the darkness. Not to anywhere that was away from me.”
She’s quiet for a moment. “I used to think I didn’t deserve this. Happiness. Family. You. I thought I deserved to be destroyed for the things I did before I understood what it meant to be human.”
“And now?”
“Now I think maybe I was wrong,” she says. “Maybe I’m not defined by the desperate choices I made when I was just a formless spirit trying to escape the cold and survive. Maybe I’m defined by who I choose to be now.”
I bring her hand to my lips and kiss her knuckles. “You are. And who you choose to be now is pretty spectacular.”
She rolls her eyes, but she’s smiling. “You’re biased.”
“Completely biased,” I agree. “And I don’t care.”
Raven, who has somehow gotten tiramisu all over her face despite the dessert being mostly gone, announces that she needs to show us something inside. This apparently requires everyone to follow her, so we all troop into the villa’s main sitting room.
The “something” turns out to be a drawing she made. It’s taped to the wall, and it’s... well, it’s something.
“That’s all of us!” Raven explains proudly. “See, there’s Daddy with his big wings, and Mommy with her pretty hair. And that’s Uncle Kharon and Aunt Ksenia and Baby Luna. And Uncle Remus and Uncle Romulus—I drew them with two heads, see? And Auntie Lauren. And that’s you, Uncle Layden!”
I study the stick figure that’s apparently me. It has what might be wings, or possibly just really angular arms.
“And this is Auntie Phoenix next to you,” Raven continues. “You’re holding hands because you’re married and in love.”
Indeed, the stick figures representing Phoenix and me are holding hands. Phoenix leans in to look closer.
“Why am I purple?” she asks.
“Because purple is a pretty color,” Raven explains, as if this is obvious.
“Naturally.”
“And I drew hearts around you because that’s what you do when people are in love.”
The stick-figure versions of us are indeed surrounded by hearts. Lots of hearts.
“It’s beautiful, Raven,” Hannah says.
“Thank you,” Raven says solemnly. “It took me forever. Like, at least twenty minutes.”
Phoenix is trying very hard not to laugh. I can tell by the way she’s biting her lip.
“It’s perfect,” I tell Raven. “Truly a masterpiece.”
Raven beams. Then she zooms off to show her drawing to someone else, leaving us all standing there looking at stick-figure representations of our family.
“She put a lot of effort into those hearts,” Phoenix observes.
“She did,” I agree.
“I count at least fifteen hearts just around us.”
“True love requires many hearts, apparently.”
Phoenix bumps her shoulder against mine. “Apparently.”
As the afternoon stretches into evening, we move back outside. The sun is setting now, painting the sky in shades of orange and pink and gold. Someone—probably Lauren—lights candles along the table, and the warm glow makes everything feel magical.
Raven has finally worn herself out and is dozing on Abaddon’s lap, her little wings drooping. Luna is asleep inside, according to Kharon. The twins have stopped arguing, mostly because Remus has fallen asleep while Romulus continues chatting with Lauren.
Phoenix and I sit slightly apart from the others, watching the stars begin to appear in the darkening sky.
“I’m glad we came,” she says.
“Me too.”
“I was nervous about it. Seeing everyone. Being around the kids.”
“I know.”
She’s quiet for a moment. “Do you ever wonder what it would have been like? If things had gone differently with your father. If he’d succeeded in his plan.”
“Sometimes,” I admit. “But I try not to dwell on it. We stopped him. That’s what matters.”
“We did,” she agrees. She leans her head on my shoulder. “Thank you for being patient with me. This past year. I know I haven’t been the easiest person to be with.”
I wrap my arm around her. “You’re exactly the right amount of easy.”
“That’s not a thing.”
“It is for me.”
She tilts her head up to look at me. “I love you, you know. I don’t say it enough, but I do.”
My chest tightens in the best way. “I know. I love you too.”
She kisses me, soft and sweet. When we pull apart, I notice Abaddon watching us with a small smile.
“What?” I ask him.
“Nothing,” he says. “Just thinking about how far we’ve all come. From weapons of destruction to this.” He gestures at the table, Abaddon’s sleeping daughter, at all of us gathered together. “It’s a happy ending.”
“It’s a happy beginning,” Phoenix corrects, leaning back against me.
“That too,” I agree.
I settle my arm across Phoenix’s shoulders, and we watch as the stars come out. One by one, they appear in the darkening sky, brilliant points of light against the endless dark.
THE END