Epilogue
Three weeks after the panic at Lumen Field, Seattle still has questions: Where did the rampages come from? How did they start?
What really happened that day?
We’ve all heard the rumors that empaths were involved, but savvy readers of the number one empathy advocacy blog in the Pacific
Northwest are too smart to fall for that. WE know empaths can’t even WATCH football.
And we also know the REAL questions Seattle should be asking: Who is the true mastermind behind a story like this? Why do
they want to turn the rest of us against the empaths? Which politicians and corporations have the most to gain from xenophobia?
Read on for a post by Eyes on Empaths’ hottest new guest blogger—I promise no one is ready for him.
—Gretel Macy, blogging for Eyes on Empaths
Reece squinted at Grayson’s laptop, which was open on the studio’s island kitchen counter, his internet browser launched to
a familiar website with its familiar banner sprawling across the top of the page.
Well. Mostly familiar.
“Number one empathy advocacy blog,” Reece read out loud. “Huh.”
On the other side of the studio, Grayson was pacing back and forth, having a one-sided conversation into the phone against
his ear. “Yes. Yes, ma’am, I still think the same thing, that Alex will have gone to ground if he’s smart, which he is. You’re
not gonna find him anytime soon.”
At Reece’s elbow, his own phone chirped. He pushed up the sleeve of the University of Texas hoodie, which had slipped down
to cover his hand again, and lifted the phone from the counter to see a text from Jamey, who was on her way to stay with Liam’s
family.
Jamey: Just landed in Juneau. Yes, Diesel stayed behind at the new facility with Aisha. Yes, all the empaths are okay. And yes,
you still have to stay far away from Orion.
Reece’s throat tightened. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair that he was free and the others were locked away in the Orion facility
in BC. It didn’t matter that their rooms had mountain views and saunas and cold plunge tubs; gilded prisons were still prisons,
and maybe Reece still couldn’t remember what all he’d done under corruption’s influence, but he was certain he belonged behind
bars.
Reece: I deserve the same fate
He sent the text to Jamey. He’d said it to her a thousand times already, but the guilt wouldn’t let him go.
Across the studio, Grayson was still on the phone. “No. No, ma’am, I’m quite sure I don’t want to meet with him. I appreciate the update, but respectfully, Senator Braun is still not my problem.”
Reece’s phone chirped again.
Jamey: I’m going to choose not to be insulted by your ongoing implications that Evan and I are flailing idiots who don’t know what
we’re doing by leaving you in Seattle.
Jamey: But try to remember that we care about the Orion empaths too. We’re going to help them. ALL of them. And you’ll help us help
them—when it’s SAFE. Not just for you, for EVERYONE.
“You fighting with your sister again?”
Reece looked up from his phone as Grayson joined him at the counter. “How’d you guess?”
He brushed his finger gently down Reece’s forehead. “Your brow’s furrowed.”
Even that light touch sent sparks over Reece’s skin, his empathy automatically picking up the unmistakable warmth of Grayson’s
affection, like a glimpse of blue sky peeking through the rain clouds of his own mood. “There’s no playbook for processing
these emotions,” he said, throat still too thick as he showed Grayson his phone.
Grayson’s eyes flicked over Jamey’s texts, then met Reece’s eyes. “You deserve to be locked up in Orion.”
Lie.
Reece bit his lip.
Grayson set his own phone on the counter. “You heard that lie, right?”
“It doesn’t mean it’s a real lie. It just means you don’t believe it—”
“That’s true, but my point was that you’re still hearing lies,” Grayson said more softly. “We don’t know what that means. We don’t know what might happen if you’re back in the company
of other corrupted empaths, and no one—not me, not your sister, not Dr. Easterby, not even Stone Solutions—wants to risk it.”
Reece ran a hand over his face. He could appreciate their logic, but it didn’t help the guilt. “Who was that?” he asked to
distract himself, nodding at Grayson’s phone on the counter.
“Stone Solutions’ new CEO, actually, officially approved and instated by the board of directors this week.” Grayson folded
his arms on the counter. “Ms. Marist and I are gonna have to figure out our new working relationship. She wants the senate
bill to pass, but she’s not running secret laboratories, so that’s one step up from the real low bar set by her predecessors.”
Reece bit his thumb. “What’s happening with the Stones?”
“Couple of board members are pressing charges against Charles Stone. They’re not real swayed by his argument that his ends
were justified when his means involved their money.”
“And Cedrick?” Reece prodded.
“He’s back at Orion. For now.” Grayson added a little more softly, “I know being an empath’s hard. But you’ve got to give
it time.”
There was no sarcasm in his voice, nothing but sweet understanding. Reece sighed.
“I did get good news from Marist,” Grayson said. “Stone Solutions is picking up the bill for both our cars.”
Reece straightened up. “No more Hayabusa engine ruining my gas mileage?”
“Unfortunately,” Grayson said, which made Reece snort. “She didn’t understand why I hired Mr. Lane’s cousin to fix my old truck instead of buying a brand-new one, but she gave me what I wanted.”
Reece broke into a smile. “So are they ready?”
Grayson nodded, then licked his lips.
Reece frowned. “Why are you nervous?”
“I’m not—”
“Big lie right there.” Reece narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “What else did you do to my car—”
“Nothing. I just—well.” Grayson cleared his throat. “Alex is back in hiding. The other empaths are safe for now. And the truck’s fixed.
I had this thought that—if you were interested—that maybe we could—you know. Hit the road. Together.”
Reece blinked.
“Before I met you, I drove so much alone, too dead inside to appreciate all the beauty around me,” Grayson said more quietly.
“Meanwhile you’re still hearing lies, but maybe if we get you somewhere else for a while, away from all the reminders here
in Seattle, that’ll finally reverse itself too.”
“Evan.” Reece’s heart leaped with want, then crashed. There was no way, simply no way that he could ever let that happen.
“We can’t,” he said, swallowing. “You’ve got your emotions back. If there’s any risk the corruption could set back in, then it’s not
safe for you to be that alone with me—”
“Sugar,” Grayson said, patient and gentle. “You don’t remember your corruption, but I do. So I know there’s no lie in my words
when I tell you that no version of you is ever gonna hurt me. I know it like I know my own heartbeat.”
Grayson was right: It wasn’t a lie, and Reece could read the truth of it in the depths of those open hazel eyes. His throat
tightened for a new reason. “I don’t know how you can believe that,” he said plaintively.
Grayson put his hands on the back of the barstool and turned it so they faced either other, his arms boxing Reece in snugly. “I got my reasons.”
The corner of Reece’s mouth grudgingly turned up.
Grayson leaned in so their foreheads touched. “I’m safe with you—all of you.” His fingers brushed the sensitive skin of Reece’s neck, making his eyelashes flutter both at the touch and the faith
beneath. “Fact is, I’m gonna have a much bigger problem keeping you safe.”
Not a lie. Reece frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I’m proposing to take Bad Decisions Bear on a road trip.” Grayson’s breath tickled his lips as he spoke. “It’ll be like having
a lemming in my shotgun seat.”
“What lemming? And what do you mean, your shotgun seat—”
“I mean like that time I said don’t wander off and you did it anyway. Or that other time I said don’t wander off and you—”
“I’m not going to—son of a bitch,” Reece said, groaning as it twisted into a lie.
He gave up on words, closing the distance to bring their lips together. Grayson’s hand threaded into his hair, his tongue
slipping into his mouth, and his kiss had turned out to be every bit as addictive as Reece had once suspected. He cupped Grayson’s
jaw and drank in emotions bright as sunshine, the blue skies that had always been behind the gray.
“You really want me to come with you?” he whispered into the kiss.
“Yeah, Care Bear,” Grayson whispered back. “I want it so much.”
His words were true, and under that warm skin, his feelings told the same story, of desire and joy and affection, so intoxicating
Reece could have gotten drunk. Being an empath was hard, but being an empath with a partner like Grayson was a special kind of heaven.
Reece tilted his chin up and head back, softening his lips invitingly. And sure enough, he got an answering shift of Grayson’s
emotions, into something more primal and urgent. “A road trip isn’t the only thing you want with me,” he said slyly against
Grayson’s mouth.
Grayson groaned. “You got such an unfair advantage.”
“Lucky for you, I would never use my empath advantage to convince you we should take the car with better gas mileage—”
“Oh, I know you just heard yourself lie with that—”
“Or to get you to agree that I should do all the driving—”
Reece’s world suddenly shifted, drawing a laugh as Grayson lifted him right off the barstool and set him on the high counter.
“Now who’s at an advantage?” Reece said, even as his arms went around Grayson’s shoulders to pull him in. “Showing off that
super strength to win fights?”
“That’s what you get for lying to my face.” Grayson had fit himself between Reece’s legs and was leaning closer. “We’re taking
the truck, and you’ll just have to accept that sometimes I’ll be the one behind the wheel.”
“In that case.” Reece brushed his lips against Grayson’s and felt the answering shiver in both of their bodies and hearts.
“Remind me you know how to drive.”
And then he was back in Grayson’s arms, their joined laughter echoing around the studio as they tumbled together down to the
bed.
* * * * *