Epilogue, Too
Winter in Meresin, though it wasn’t as cold as in other regions of the Convocation, was a chilly, miserable season of greeting rain and persistent mud.
It was good to be home.
Nic laughed as Bria, who’d determinedly pulled herself up using a table leg, tipped back and fell on her rump, green eyes wide in surprise.
“Every wizard has to learn the steps gradually,” she reassured her daughter, savoring the sheer, blissful relief of knowing her children would never know the pain of being “only” a familiar.
“She’ll be pacing around the library like you do before long,” Gabriel observed.
“Ha ha. Just wait and—”
A knock came on the door, GF poking his head in. “Ah, Nic? There’s a delivery out here for you.”
“What is it?” She asked, gathering up Bria with an oof of effort. The child seemed to double her weight every day.
“Let me,” Gabriel said, taking Bria from her. Bria adored her daddy. She squealed and sank her little fists in his silver-white hair.
“Beats me,” GF answered Nic, leading the way out to the front entrance. “It’s got your name on it, but I’ve never seen anything like it. A dozen wagonloads of dead branches is what it looks like.”
Nic stopped on the steps, gazing in shock. Warmth spread out from her heart. “Thank you, Alise,” she murmured.
Gabriel came up beside her. “What are they?”
She gave him a wide, supremely happy smile. “Grape vines.”