26. Zuri
ZURI
ONE MONTH LATER
The elevator hums down through the mountain with the two of us in it, and the amulet sits small and heavy in my hand.
I’ve had a month to do this. For a month I found reasons not to.
The truth is I kept waiting on Delilah to come back for it.
I woke up ready every morning, and she never came.
Then Stillwater shut down for good a week ago, every employee laid off, the whole building emptied out, including that bitch Whitney.
I processed a lot of paper in that building. Karma didn’t need my help with hers.
The last of the soaps and cleaners came off every shelf in the valley too, between Malachi’s lawyers and Jay’s podcast, which turned the recall list into its own episode.
Today I’m ready.
The doors open on the fourth floor’s darkness, and I step into it without waiting for the lights. I know what’s beyond the dark now.
The lights come on ahead of us the way they did the first time, one long row after another, running down the hall until the far end blurs. We walk the length of it over the gold dragons in the floor, and the steel doors stand at the end, tall as ever, built wide enough for wings.
“Open it for me,” I tell my mate.
Jalen leans into the seam and blows his smoke. The vents pull it in, and deep in the steel the locks start turning. The sound doesn’t scare me anymore. It sounds like family.
The doors swing wide, and I walk in first. Jalen follows behind me and doesn’t crowd me.
The gallery rail is right where I left it, and the gold goes down forever below us, tier after lit tier. I carry the amulet along the rail to the second safe. Jalen leans past me to open it, then steps back and gives me the room.
The amulet has been warm in my hand the whole way down. I set it inside, right where it was sitting when all of this started.
It feels strange, saying goodbye to it. Everything traces back to this one small treasure. The ghouls came for it, my stolen folder mattered because of it, and a dragon ended up standing in a Stillwater lobby right where I’d walk. It bought me my forever family, my home, and my mate.
Jalen eases the safe shut with a small click.
I stand there with my empty hand still open, and my eyes sting.
Jalen turns me into his arms while the click is still fading. “What’s wrong, baby?” His head tips, and he pulls a slow breath of me, reading what I can’t say fast enough.
“Nothing.” I put my hand flat on his chest, right over all that warmth. “I just realized I don’t have to worry anymore.”
He leans in and kisses me slow, and the warmth behind my heart fills up my whole chest. “Does that mean we can finally have our honeymoon?” His mouth curves against mine. “I believe we talked about this. Me and you, not getting out of bed for a while.”
I smile into it and kiss him back. “Yes. But only on one condition.”
He raises an eyebrow. “What’s that?”
I narrow my eyes at him.
He knows. He pulls away from me and grips the gallery railing with both hands, head down. “Here we go again with this podcast. I told you. I don’t need it. I have you now.”
I wave my hand out over the tiers of gold glittering below us.
“You don’t hoard treasure. That’s your brothers.” I point right at him. “You hoard information.”
He turns his head and looks at me.
I close the space between us and lay my hand over his on the railing.
“I got everything I ever wanted in life because of you,” I tell him. “A family. A home. Real love. But I had to trust you and your dragon to get there.” I squeeze his hand. “Now I’m asking you to trust me.”
He looks down at our hands. His thumb moves over my knuckles while he works up to it.
“I’m afraid my messy podcast will run you away,” he says.
I’m already shaking my head.
“I don’t want you to change who you are. We’re supposed to grow together. Evolve. Keep your podcast. Be who you are, and grow into the new man you’ve become.” I reach up and take his face in both hands. “You saved Shadow Wolf Creek. You saved me. And we all love you for it.”
He starts up again. “But—“
I stroke his cheek with my thumb and take my time about it. “I love you, Jalen. All your messiness included. You are perfect just the way you are.”
He stares at me, and his mouth stays open with nothing coming out of it. I’ve made the loudest man in the valley go quiet again, and I’m keeping count.
Then he comes off the railing and pulls me back into his arms. “I love you,” he says, and he kisses me hard enough to bend me back over his arm.
I giggle into it, and he scoops me clean off the floor and swings me around while the gold tiers wheel by below us. He sets me back down, and I cup his face and look into those green eyes that caught me in a lobby.
“I love you too,” I tell him. “And you’re stuck with me.”
He smiles at me.
I straighten his collar. “Now let’s go put your podcast equipment back together. You’ve got a show to air.”
He smiles wide and sweeps me right back up into his arms, and he kisses me as he carries me toward the doors.
“I have the perfect idea for my next episode,” he says over my head. “Andy’s been missing from the diner, and you want to know why? Because a bear shifter named Carissa scooped him up. The man who can’t keep employees couldn’t keep himself. Baby, the tea is HOT.”
I laugh so hard I kick my feet in his arms. “How did you even find that out?”
He hikes me up higher. “I’ve got my receipts.”
“Messy Jay,” I say.
“Where there’s smoke—“
I catch the rest of it with a kiss, and then I give it back to him against his mouth. “I’m probably the fire.”
We come out of the vault, and the great doors swing shut behind us and lock.
In the elevator I wiggle in his arms. “You can put me down now.”
“Nuh-uh.” He tucks me in closer. “I’m getting my honeymoon.”
I giggle, and the elevator doors shut on us.