Chapter 28
TWENTY-EIGHT
We knew the aftermath would be chaotic, and that healing would be a difficult road. And by the end of that day, we began to see just how steep a climb awaited us.
Four streets had sustained major structural damage.
At least two dozen buildings had been set on fire or partially demolished, and would need to be rebuilt.
Forty-three protesters had lost their lives, along with twenty-four of Blake’s followers.
The rest had been caught fleeing the scene, taken into custody, and would eventually be tried for crimes we could only begin to enumerate.
And yet, there were bright spots too. The teens being reunited with their families.
The nearly eight thousand people who would return home safely thanks to Faris’s planning and the heroic efforts of their Idrian defenders.
The mayor and the governor actually both met with Faris, thanking him for defending the city and laying the groundwork for a far different level of cooperation and integration than any seen before.
We were all feeling grateful to be alive—and clinging just a little bit closer to the ones we loved—but we were also feeling decidedly anxious until just after dark that night, when a beat up black pickup truck pulled up outside the draped and scaffolded front of The Portal where all of us had gathered.
It was cold, but someone had brought in a propane fire pit and hung string lights from the ceiling. Seamus had found several unbroken bottles of fae liquor, and Irene had managed to scrape together enough ingredients to whip up a few trays of her signature appetizers.
We had nothing to sit on but a motley array of benches, camp chairs, and a broken-down couch, but it was enough.
Faris and Morghaine sat side by side, her head on his shoulder, his arm holding her close.
Kira was perched on Draven’s lap, her eyes bright as they murmured to one another in tones too low to hear, while Kes and Shane tucked themselves in a corner, content simply to be together in silence.
Behind us, Ryker and Angelica sat on the bar, legs swinging, eyeing one another with a sort of amused resignation as they passed a bottle back and forth.
Ari, Hugh, and Ethan sat in the lone unbroken booth—my Bug hard at work on some as-yet-unnamed Lego creation—while Hugh observed indulgently, and Ethan occasionally offered a suggestion.
Only Deverin sat alone, watching with an almost lost expression as we turned to family, all of us thankful, and yet also wondering whether anything would ever be the same.
Perhaps because he was alone, he was the first to notice the sound of tires outside. The first to rise in anticipation when we heard doors slam, a whimper of pain, and then a pair of familiar voices approaching.
But by the time they ducked through the plastic sheet covering the empty doorway, everyone in the room was on their feet.
“I should have known,” Tairen-li-Corva grumbled as she looked around the room. “Leaving us to clean up your messes while you started the party early.”
Logan stood beside her looking exhausted but proud, and for once, I didn’t hold back. I just walked up and hugged him fiercely while tears ran unchecked down my face.
“You did it,” I whispered.
“Yeah.” He was crying too—this boy who was so quickly becoming a man. “I did. I really did.”
I pulled back, my hands still on his shoulders. “Now you’d better not ever complain again that I don’t let you help. How did you get back?”
He grinned at me. “The gateway disappeared, but when we found a way out, we realized we were only a few hours away. The whole time we were in an abandoned hospital just outside of Tulsa. I think the truck belonged to one of Blake’s people, so we just… took it.”
I had so much more I wanted to say, but then Ari flew out of nowhere to hug him, and the squishy moment was over all too soon.
I turned to Tairen, ready to hug her too even if she punched me, but all impulse to levity died when I realized that they’d brought a third person with them.
She knelt on the floor, head down, wrists bound, her hair hanging loose and her shoulders slumped forward.
But I didn’t need to see her face.
“What happened after we left?” I asked, my words falling harshly into the brittle silence.
“Your boy,” Tairen announced, “is a far better person than I am. He insisted on clearing the facility before he buried it, and we discovered this one ransacking an office. She was carrying a bag full of stolen magic, about a million in cash, and several hard drives I can only assume are filled with lovely evidence to be used against Blake in whatever court of law decides to try him.”
The woman’s shoulders began to shake, and a moment later her head lifted, revealing white teeth bared in laughter.
“You’ll never convict him,” Heather told us with a dreamy smile.
“He has too many connections. Too many friends. He’ll only come back.
Stronger. Smarter. Because by now everyone knows what’s possible.
You can’t put this back in a box. They’ll be coming for your magic sooner or later, and when they do, I’ll be here.
Laughing. The same way you all laughed at me when I was powerless… ”
Her words droned on and on, and I looked up at Tairen, both of us recalling the pact we’d made when Callum’s life hung by an uncertain thread.
Heather’s hand might not have wielded the blade, but she was the one who’d made it all possible.
But while I’d once thought that I would cheerfully return the favor, today I’d seen enough death. Witnessed more than enough hatred. Callum was safe, and vengeance could not undo what had been done.
“She’s in your hands,” I said calmly.
Tairen’s nod was a solemn thing, and I half expected her to pronounce judgement right then and there.
But she didn’t. She turned instead to Logan.
“What do you think we should do?” It was a genuine question, and he looked back at her without flinching.
“I know she’s done a lot of terrible stuff,” he answered. “And she deserves to pay for it. But I don’t think we should be the ones to decide.”
Tairen regarded him curiously. “You believe we would not be able to administer justice because we are too close.”
He nodded seriously. “I think we should let the courts decide. Whoever she’s hurt the most should have a chance to vote on a just punishment.”
And Tairen began to smile—a slow, wicked expression that should have left Heather in considerably greater terror than before.
“Very good,” the former dragon queen said softly. “Perhaps we will do it your way. As much as I would like to eat her and be done with it, it will be far more entertaining to see what the fae and the shapeshifters will do when we inform them of her actions.”
I saw Heather blanch, and rightly so. She’d conspired with the fae to assassinate Callum and Rath, then paid Hector to kill Faris, nearly implicating the shapeshifters in three deaths in the process.
While Faris might be willing to leave the matter of punishment to others, neither the fae nor the shapeshifters were known for being lenient. In the end, Heather might actually wind up wishing for Tairen’s idea of justice.
“There’s an empty cell downstairs,” Faris called out. “I say we figure this out tomorrow. Tonight… tonight is for family.”
And so it was. Tomorrow would come soon enough, bringing with it all of the problems that we’d left at the door.
A city to repair.
Foundations to be built.
New relationships to forge.
And somewhere in the middle of all that, I still had a water-damaged apartment, a sprite child who couldn’t stop disappearing, and a summons by the Shapeshifter Court that needed to be answered.
And yet…
“What are you thinking about?” Callum murmured, wrapping his arms around my waist and resting his chin on the top of my head. “Something changed. You feel… content.”
I leaned back against him, letting the warmth and comfort of our bond wrap around me like a favorite sweater. No more fear. No more anxiety. No more secrets. To know and be fully known was a gift beyond anything I could ever ask for, and I would spend the rest of my days being thankful.
“I am,” I admitted. “And you?”
There was about to be so much on his plate. The burdens of his office had never been light or simple, and they were about to get so much heavier. It wasn’t going to be easy to balance them with our relationship, but no matter what…
“I love you,” he said simply. “Whatever happens after this, that fact is the first and the last thing I need to know. Everything else comes second.”
I didn’t stop to think about who might be watching, just turned in his arms, raised on my toes, and kissed him.
And he kissed me back, until the kids started making gagging noises, the adults pelted us with wadded-up napkins, and we broke apart, shaking with laughter.
There was so much healing yet to come, but none of it scared me anymore.
Because I was home, and this was my family.
And no matter where the future took us, not one of us would ever have to walk that road alone.