Chapter 21 #2
“Willow,” she says, sounding relieved, and maybe even a little… emotional? “You’re awake.”
I blink. “You must be Marit, Commander of Nurses.”
Lucky chokes out a laugh. Marit doesn’t. “I am not mean, I promise. Just… impatient, and maybe a little bossy. They were trying to tell me no.”
I smile. I like Lucky’s mom.
Behind her, a tall man fills the doorway. He’s a little broader than Lucky but has the same build, same green eyes. He has Lucky’s exact same platinum blond hair. His expression is unreadable until he steps closer and says, “You must be the black cat with nine lives.”
My eyes flick to Lucky, my brows furrowing. Did he really tell his dad about his Dagger Kitten nickname for me?
“Black cat energy,” his dad clarifies, observing my confusion. “You cheated death. I’m Anders.” He grins, all wolfish pride. He extends a calloused hand, gentle despite the size of it.
“It’s nice to meet you both,” I say, even though I’m still undecided. From what Lucky told me, these people are dangerous. There’s a reason Lucky felt he had to fake his own death and escape them for ten years.
But the energy in the room isn’t bad. In fact, there’s something about them that makes me feel at ease. And I get the feeling that, however I escaped Phoenix’s cabin of nightmares, they had a hand in it.
Marit moves to the bedside, studying me with unsettling precision, the kind of gaze that says she could spot a lie before I even think it. “It’s quite the story, the bad blood between you and that fraud. Lucky kept a few details to himself, but I can use my imagination to fill in the blanks.”
“I’m sure you can,” I say carefully.
But Marit smiles, approving. “You’re sharp. I like you.” She pats Lucky’s arm. “She’s better for you than I was expecting.”
“Mom,” he warns.
“What? You pick chaos. I’m relieved it’s chaos with a spine.”
I try not to laugh. It feels weirdly good, the way she disarms me without trying. There’s no false sweetness here. Just honesty.
Anders clears his throat. “You’ll have to forgive our entrance. The others are still trying to find parking.”
“The others?”
As if summoned, the door bursts open again. This time, chaos incarnate walks in.
“My babies!”
Lucky drops his head into his hands. “Here we go.”
An older woman—small but fierce—barrels into the room, muttering something in rapid Norwegian as she crosses herself, then grabs Lucky’s face and smacks a kiss to his forehead.
“Mormor,” he groans.
She ignores him entirely, turning her full attention on me. “Willow,” she says as she hugs me awkwardly while I lie in bed. She can barely reach me. “Our beautiful witch. I’m so glad to see you awake.”
“I—”
“She’s not a witch, Mormor,” Lucky says quickly, his concerned expression giving away that he thinks I’ll take offense. “She reads tarot.”
“Tarot,” Mormor repeats, nodding solemnly. “Witch. This is good, Lucky. The family needs one.”
Behind her trails a man with silver hair wearing sunglasses, even though we’re indoors.
He’s chewing gum like he’s auditioning for a crime drama.
Another man follows in after him; this one looks around the room like he’s casing it for cameras or bugs.
Finally, a woman in a glittery cardigan walks in holding an enormous balloon that says GET WELL, WITCHY BITCH in sparkly marker.
“Oh shit,” I say with a laugh.
“Yep,” Lucky mutters. “Thissss is my family.”
“I’m Vivi,” the sparkly one announces. “And this is Henrik. Don’t let the sunglasses fool you, he’s mostly harmless. Unless you owe him money.”
Henrik lifts a lazy salute. “Ma’am.”
“Einar,” the other man says as he shakes my hand. “Lovely home you have. Your cat is an asshole to unexpected guests, though.”
My brows furrow in confusion. I glance at Lucky, who just shakes his head in a way that says I’ll explain the chaos later.
I blink up at all of them—the entire feral, loving, completely unhinged family. And for reasons I can’t explain, my eyes sting.
Because they didn’t have to come. They didn’t have to stay. But they did.
Marit and Anders flank the foot of the bed, Mormor takes Lucky’s chair, Vivi ties the balloon to my IV pole, and Henrik and Einar just stand by the door like they’re guarding us from invisible enemies.
It’s loud and awkward and ridiculous, but there’s something beautiful about it — the way they fill the sterile room with warmth, with life.
Marit catches me watching them and says quietly, “We’re a lot. I know.”
I nod. “Yeah. But… a good lot.”
Lucky just watches me, gauging my reaction to them. He’s nervous. Ten years of avoiding this many people doesn’t evaporate in a few moments. He’s still leery. They almost blew up his entire career. I’m still not sure of the long-term damage they caused to Saint Shade.
But something feels okay about this all. Lucky doesn’t look closed off. Cautious, yes. But the way he watches his mother, Aunt Vivi, there’s still love in his eyes. He still laughs with his dad. He’s still keeping an eye on Mormor to make sure she doesn’t trip over her own two feet.
I’d dare say there’s healing going on, and all it took was me getting kidnapped by a fraud of a guru and him trying to kill me.
It’s a long two fucking hours until the hospital will release me. I’m very, very ready for some quiet by the time the nurse finally takes my IV out and signs my discharge papers.
My body still feels wrong. Like it’s recovering from the inside out. My stomach twists with leftover acid, and everything aches. My throat feels like I swallowed bleach and gravel. But I’m alive. I’m upright. And that’s more than Phoenix wanted for me.
“Take it easy for a few days,” the nurse says, fixing me with sharp eyes. “Nothing too strenuous or emotionally taxing. Lots and lots of fluids, got it?”
“Got it,” I say, fighting the urge to bolt. I just want to leave.
With one last, sharp look, he finally hands over the discharge packet.
The second he leaves, Lucky slips his hand into mine and pulls it to his lips. “Let’s get you out of here,” he says softly.
Outside, the sun’s too bright, the air tastes dirty. Lucky unlocks the car—the car that is riddled with bullet holes—and helps me in like I might shatter.
“You can stop hovering,” I say, trying for humor.
“Not a chance,” he says as he buckles my seatbelt for me. “I almost lost you. I’m going to be clingy as fuck for at least a week, Dagger Kitten. Don’t get sick of me while I recover, okay?”
“Um, you took out a fucking psycho to save me,” I point out. “A psycho who, it turns out, had also killed a lot of people, by the way. We’re trauma-bonded now, baby.”
Lucky shakes his head like I just splashed him in the face with ice water with that revelation. “Well, that’s fucking great to hear. But on that… Phoenix is still alive.”
I do a double-take, blinking at Lucky in shock. “He got away!?”
Lucky quickly shakes his head, “No, no, no. I knocked him out.” He points to the bruise on his forehead. “Dad and the uncles tied him up. They’ve got him. The family’s been keeping him somewhere secure. Until you’re ready for him.”
For a second, all I hear is the ringing in my ears. Panic and rage took hold for a second as I imagined Phoenix once again slipping through my fingers. But that revelation, that he’s alive, that he’s waiting for me… My head is spinning a little. “You didn’t kill him?”
“I wanted to,” Lucky says, voice tight as he stands, leaning in my door.
“Fuck, Willow, I wanted to. But then I heard you. You were—” His throat works.
“You were barely breathing. And I knew that if anyone deserved to end him, it was you. You’ve worked so hard to bring him to justice, to take care of what the system has ignored. You deserve to be the one to do it.”
Something hot pricks the corners of my eyes.
It’s not exactly tears, it’s something deeper.
No one, no one has ever understood me like Lucky.
I’ve never been able to be my whole self around anyone else.
This man could have let his anger, his fury, take over, and he could have ended Phoenix.
But he understands what this means to me, and he held back.
He looks over at me finally, expression raw, unguarded. “When you’re ready. We’ll go. You end him. And I’ll be right there with you.”
I swallow hard and nod. “Thank you, Lucky. I want to do it. Today. In an hour. But first, I need a shower. I feel like I was dragged through the landfill of hell.”
Lucky just laughs, and it’s a relief to hear it. “Anything you want, Dagger Kitten.” He shuts my door and rounds to the driver’s seat. He starts the engine. And even though the windshield has two bullet holes in it, and the rest of the car has dozens more, he pulls forward and aims for the road.
“Your house,” I say as I look out the window. “I don’t know if my sisters are home, but if they are, I don’t want to have to answer their questions. They don’t need to know about any of this.”
Lucky reaches across the console and takes my hand. He doesn’t have any siblings, so he doesn’t understand the burden of being the eldest, of always protecting your siblings. But he can at least empathize.
I feel like a zombie when we’re parked, and we ride the elevator up to the penthouse. I don’t even remember walking through the beautiful space. All I can think is clean water, clean water.
The second I shut the bathroom door, I finally exhale.
The click of the lock feels like a breath of relief. Even though none of it was bad, from the moment I woke up, a lot kept happening. Lucky’s family. The truth. Now, I finally have a few moments to myself. For a moment, I just stand there, palms flat on the counter, watching my reflection.
The hospital bandage still circles my wrist. My eyes are bruised, bloodshot. My lips are dry and cracked from Phoenix’s poison. I look like a woman who survived something unholy—and did it by sheer spite.