Epilogue
Chloe Reaper
“Shh.” I snapped my fingers at my brother.
He had a finger up his nose but yanked it out fast when he saw me scowling. Disgusting. “Don’t look at me like that. It hurts when a booger is lodged halfway to your brain!”
“Shh!” I said again, looking around the corner of Grandpa’s castle, praying our parents didn’t catch us.
We were supposed to be in the family room watching a movie, but the triplets were coming, and I wanted to surprise them.
They might be dragon shifters with enhanced senses, but Dad said it’d be years before they actually developed them.
Plus, I was the daughter of the strongest witch in both worlds.
They wouldn’t find my hiding spot. Not this time.
“Don’t tell me what to do,” Finnick muttered, his face turning red.
“I’m older than you.”
He rolled his eyes. “By three minutes.”
Still counted. We were seven. Two years older than the triplets. No way I was going to be outsmarted by them. That would be humiliating.
Where was Helena when I needed her? Life was rough being surrounded by gross boys all the time.
The front door creaked open.
I slapped my hand over Finnick’s mouth and shoved him behind the piano in the ballroom. My heart raced with excitement when Aunt Joy walked in with the three little weasels behind her.
Instantly, all three cousins snapped their heads toward us.
I ducked down, heat rising in my cheeks. How did they do that? I thought they were basically human until they transitioned. When I peeked, Gerald was grinning and waving.
“How do they always find us?” I hissed.
“I don’t care. Let’s go play with them,” Finnick whined.
Ugh. I was going to float Gerald to the ceiling, and then we’d see who got the last laugh. I might not be stealthy, but I was a witch.
“What should I do?” I giggled, peeking under the piano again.
“Don’t do anything. Mom already grounded you last week for turning Tobey into a toad,” Finnick said. Tobey was our dog.
“It was an accident!”
Just then, Uncle Sebastian, Barron, and Payne faded into the ballroom. Aunt Joy greeted her mate with a smile. While the grownups were distracted, I let my sticky magic dance between my fingers.
“Chloe…” Finnick sounded nervous.
But I just grinned and flicked the bouncy web of magic toward the triplets.
Only…something went wrong.
The web split midair, transforming into three glowing yellow orbs that bounced around the ballroom like pinballs. They struck my uncle dead-on—and that’s when the chaos began.
“Uh-oh,” I whispered. “Time to run.”
“Go, go, go!” I shouted, tugging Finnick with me.
“What the—” Uncle Sebastian started.
“Oh, fuck,” Barron snapped. “This isn’t my body!”
“Why am I Payne?” Payne groaned.
I didn’t make it three steps before Aunt Joy’s voice rang out loud and sharp. “Chloe!”
I stopped mid-sneak. Turned. Smiled sweetly. “Hello, Aunt Joy.”
She folded her arms. The triplets giggled behind her.
???
I didn’t think I’ll ever forget that moment—no matter how old I get.
I tried really hard not to laugh while my uncles bickered inside the wrong bodies.
Since I was technically in trouble, I wasn’t supposed to smile…but every time Payne tried to talk to Aunt Joy from inside Uncle Sebastian’s body, she shut him down with a glare and said, “Not until you’re back in your own body.”
It only got more embarrassing when the whole family showed up.
While Mom and Aunt Isabella fixed my spell and switched everyone back, Dad pulled me aside for a lecture. But when I returned to the family room? Everyone was cracking jokes about it.
So, naturally, I acted like it was all part of my plan from the beginning.
Right in the middle of telling my very dramatic version of events, everything shifted. The air changed. The room quieted.
A little horned boy materialized beside Grandpa.
My eyes went wide. He was younger than me—maybe five—with black skin veined in pulsing orange light. His eyes were bright blue, glowing like embers. And he even had a tail.
He was smiling up at Grandpa with such a sweet look on his face—kind of the same look my cousins and brother gave Grandpa when he told us one of his awesome stories.
Grandma’s lips trembled as she stepped toward him.
Grandpa was frozen, eyes locked on the little boy.
“Grandpa. Grandma,” the boy said happily, then began rattling off our names like he already knew us.
When he looked at me and said, “Chloe, we’re going to have so much fun,” I believed him.
I smiled back, curious. “Who are you?”
He laughed like I’d asked the silliest thing. “I’m your cousin. I’ve waited so long to see you guys!”
Grandma dropped to her knees, grabbing his hands. “What’s your name? What’s my grandson’s name?”
“I’m Damien,” he beamed. “Mom said to give you this.”
He hugged her. Grandma wrapped her arms around him, eyes glistening with tears.
“She also said for you guys to watch me for a few hours so she and Dad could have alone time.”
That made some grownups chuckle through their shock.
Damien looked up at Grandpa, hopeful. “Are you happy to see me? Mom said you didn’t know I existed, but you’d be happy. She helped me learn how to fade here so I could visit. She can’t see you herself.”
Grandpa’s eyes welled. He gently patted Damien’s head. “Thank you for working so hard. I’m so glad to meet you, Damien. You have your mother’s eyes.” He cleared his throat. “Is your mom…okay?”
“Oh, yes!” Damien grinned. “We have so many pets. Mom loves them—but not as much as she loves me and Dad. And I’m gonna have a baby brother soon!”
He paused, looking around. “Can I come every day? Everyone always looks like they’re having fun.”
Grandma laughed softly. “I’ll be sad if you don’t.”
Damien beamed.
“Oh, and I almost forgot!” he added. “Mom says she loves everyone. And she’s happy. She promised to see you again one day.”
Grandma and Grandpa pulled him into a tight hug, both crying freely now. Everyone got their turn to hug Damien, and he soaked up the attention like sunlight.
And me?
I realized I wanted to hug him too.
He might be a boy, but he wasn’t so bad.
And I finally understood who his mother was.
Kara Reaper.
Aunt Kitty.
The one I never got to meet, but everyone always talked about with quiet sadness.
They said she helped save the world. They never said much more.
But right then, I knew one thing for sure.
She was okay.
And when Grandpa smiled at Damien and said, “Tell your mother we’ll be waiting,” I saw it.
Peace.
The kind that lives in your bones.
And I couldn’t stop smiling.
The End