Epilogue
Callum - Two Months Later
“Witch,” I growl, rounding on my mate. “What happened to following the plan?”
Seren laughs, the sound like starlight in the midnight forest surrounding us. “I improvised.”
“Improvised? Is that what you call what you did back there?”
She props a hand on her hip. “Yeah. I would. What would you call it?”
“Reckless.” I take a stalking step forward. “Dangerous.” Her eyes glint. She takes a step away. “Liable to take a decade off my life, star.”
She only gets three good strides running away from me before I catch her.
Arms around her waist, I toss her over my shoulder. She struggles, but she’s not going anywhere.
“Hey!” she protests from where she dangles beneath my wing. “We got the sword back, didn’t we?”
I shift said sword where I affixed its scabbard hastily to my belt. “Aye. But at what cost?”
She gives a little humph. “Barely a cost. Unless you count your gray hairs, and you know how much I like those.”
To emphasize her point, she reaches a hand up to tug at the disheveled length of my hair.
It needs a cut, but my witch likes it long, so who am I to deny her the pleasure of running her clever little fingers through it?
When she’s had enough of reminding me about my ever-graying hair, she takes that hand and finds the curve of my wing.
Wicked thing.
Seren is more than aware just where she needs to touch me to—
“Witch.” I swing her forward and set her on her feet.
She barely has time to take half a breath before my mouth is on hers. I kiss her deep and thorough, fangs scraping against her lip in retaliation for her teasing.
When we pull back, we’re both breathless.
“Next time, can you at least pause long enough to tell me when you’re going to dive headfirst into a bottomless cavern?”
Another humph. “It wasn’t bottomless. And you caught me, didn’t you? Besides, it was either that or get eaten by the bog adder that was chasing—”
“Witch,” I say again. “Next time, you’ll tell me.”
Her eyes scan my face, and her expression softens.
“Alright. Next time, I’ll tell you.” She hefts her bag over her shoulder and nods to the sword at my hip.
“Although next time I’d also like a job with a little less…
excitement. Maybe serving someone a warrant or something.
Collecting a parking ticket. Give us a little breathing room, you know? ”
“I’ll see what I can do.” I take her hand and open us a portal back to the Veil.
We’re in a realm known simply as the Dusk. A land of perpetual twilight filled with the sort of creepy, crawly things that would best be left in nightmares, I was none too keen to take this assignment.
But Seren’s got an insatiable hunger to see as many of the thirteen realms as she can, and on paper it didn’t sound all that complicated.
A stolen sword stashed away. An elven family who would pay highly to see their heirloom returned to them.
I just didn’t account for the adders.
My witch is right, though. We made do and got away, and even though my heart is still pounding as we step through the portal, the adrenaline rush isn’t all bad.
Especially because of what it does to my star.
She’s always keyed up after a job like this, practically bursting with magick and energy, and as soon as we get somewhere private, I know that energy is going to be well spent.
At the Veil, she steps up to the stone and lays her hand on it. The ether flashes rich earthen brown, and we both pause on the threshold.
“Admit it,” Seren says, taking my hand. “You had fun.”
Magick sparks between us, familiar and comforting and no less exciting than it was the first time we met.
“That’s not the word I would use,” I grumble, and she just laughs.
With a quick, affectionate squeeze, she tugs me forward into the ether.
If truth be told, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be than following my witch from realm to realm, making the most of this freedom we won for ourselves.
It turns out there are plenty of ways to find bounty hunting work, and we’ve spent the last couple of months taking jobs that interest us and living just how Seren said we would—doing whatever the hell we want.
She’s the talent, making quick work of our assignments with her seeking magick. I’m just the muscle and the portals, making sure she’s always covered and that we’ve always got a way to escape.
Though, if what Seren’s friends have told her is true, she should develop her own portal magick once we’re fully mated—some quirk of the bond between witches and demons that allows them to share each other’s magick once their mate bond is sealed.
I wonder if I’ll get any of my star’s seeking powers in return.
If, that is, we’re ever fully mated.
Seren says she’s waiting for the right time, that she doesn’t want to rush into anything, but if I know my maddening, impulsive witch, she already has her mind made up. Now she’s just savoring the opportunity to tease me and leave me yearning for the day I get to claim her for good.
I’ve no doubt we’ll be mated sooner rather than later.
In the meantime, I’m more than content to wait.
Especially if it means traveling the realms with her, portalling her and feeling her strong arms around me, hearing her surprised little gasp that never goes away no matter how many times we make the jump.
I do just that when we make it out of the Veil and into the Middle, where we’re set to meet our contact.
After we’ve returned the sword to its rightful owner and collected our payment, we’re moving again.
Back to the demon realm and the court, where Finn is hosting another gathering tonight in honor of…
well, I’m not exactly sure, but he loves any excuse to host a party, and Seren loves spending time at court, so we’re going.
“Ready?” she asks when we’re back at the Veil, crimson ether swirling.
“Always,” I tell her, taking her hand and letting her lead me onward.
Seren
Finn’s parties always leave me with a wicked hangover.
Sitting on the balcony of the suite of rooms I’m beginning to think of as ours at court—even though I absolutely shouldn’t, no matter what Finn says about them always being available for us to use—I sip a strong, dark beverage that’s not exactly like coffee, but is warm and rich and seems to have the same effect.
It was another great night hanging out with the demons and witches who make up Finn’s wide circle of friends, and that, combined with yesterday’s successful job, has me feeling on top of the world.
Truthfully, I’m feeling on top of the world most days lately.
Callum and I still don’t have everything figured out. We don’t know where life will eventually take us or what our future looks like, but I don’t mind at all.
I’m just enjoying the time.
Time with Callum, time to explore, time to find out what we are and what we can be before we commit to anything.
Even though in my heart, I’m already more than committed.
It’s fast, a whirlwind, and someone with better sense would probably think twice about it, but that’s never been me.
From the moment he caught me in the Middle and put his ring on my finger, I’ve been all his.
One of these days, I’m even going to have mercy on him and make our mate bond permanent.
It’s been fun, this little game of waiting. It’s been so wickedly satisfying to tease him, to build both our anticipation by delaying the inevitable, but I’m just about at my limit.
I want all of my demon. Forever.
Today, though, I’m not moving very fast at all. And neither is Callum.
We’re taking our leisurely time after a tough assignment and a late night, and there’s nothing I want more than a slow morning and another cup of this delicious not-coffee.
Like he can read my mind, Callum brings the pot for a refill when he comes to sit beside me, then pours himself a mug.
The demon realm is beautiful today.
Sun shining, autumn air crisp and bracing, it’s just a few weeks before Samhain, and the change of seasons is in full swing.
I take a deep swig of my drink and look over to admire Callum doing the same.
Goddess, I’ll never get tired of looking at him.
Handsome, rugged, and mine, I could stare at him like a love-struck idiot for hours, and when he notices, he arches a brow.
“Like what you see?”
“You know I do.” I set my mug down on the low table between our two chairs and stand.
Sliding myself into his lap, I lay my head in my favorite space right between his shoulder and his jaw.
“So,” I say, glancing up at him. “About that tip we got from Pytri.”
Callum groans, like I knew he would. “Can’t we take even a single day off?”
“What?” I nudge him with an elbow. “It’s a good tip. And the bounty on it is—”
“Worth far, far less than a lazy day spent right here, with you.”
Well.
I suppose I could be convinced to take a day off every now and again.
“Besides,” Callum continues. “You’re going to let me pick the next job. It’s the least you can do after almost getting us both eaten.”
He has a point.
“Deal.”
I lay my head back down, content to spend the whole day right here, like this.
At least until a noise from back inside our room intrudes on our little bubble of cozy togetherness.
There’s a knock at the door, and we both turn to look before sharing a questioning glance.
“Expecting anyone?” I ask, and Callum shakes his head.
“Maybe it’s Finn?”
“Maybe. But you know he’s never up before noon.” With a shrug, I raise my voice and call toward the door. “Come in!”
It swings forward slowly, tentatively, and when it finally opens, I blink, then blink again, not entirely able to believe what I’m seeing.
My sister, standing in the doorway.
“Soleil? What are you doing here?”
An expression flashes across her face—one that looks strangely like panic—before she schools her features back into the cool, aloof neutrality I know so well.
“I’m here to help Vayla, and, well, I thought it would be bad manners if I didn’t stop by and let you know I’m at court.”
I stand from my seat on Callum’s lap and cross the room toward her. “Vayla? With what? And aren’t you supposed to be tits-deep in all your Ascension bullshit right now?”
Soleil rolls her eyes, and I’ll take it as a very, very good sign she’s not immediately biting my head off over disrespecting her precious coven.
“There are a few sections of Ariana’s grimoire that need a potion master’s touch in translating and proving out. I… I thought I could lend a hand.”
“Really? And Esme agreed to that? I thought her and Allie were on each other’s shit list lately.”
Soleil shrugs, and again, something unreadable passes through her eyes before I can fully figure out what it is.
“It’s important to the coven,” she says, like that explains anything.
Before I can interrogate her any further, she turns her attention to my mate.
“I also owe you an apology, Callum. For what happened back in the coven hall, the way I acted and the things I said to you, I’m—”
The end of her apology is muffled by a big demon hug.
“There’s no need to apologize,” he tells her. “You saved Seren, and that’s all that matters.”
He lets her go, and though she looks a little flustered, Soleil finds a smile.
“Well,” I cut in. “Maybe not all that matters. You were a bit of a jerk, Sol. Really, there I was, about to draw my last breath and you were—”
An odd, strangled noise from the hall catches all our attention. We turn to find Finn standing there, jaw hanging open and eyes wide with shock.
Eyes that are fixed solely on Soleil.
I know that look.
Star-struck, dumbfounded, like the ground beneath his feet has opened up and dropped him into a whole new world.
Oh, Goddess.
Not again.
***
Thank you for reading Demon’s Bounty!