Epilogue
TARYN
In the parking lot, two riders met us, bows resting across their saddles and swords strapped to their backs, as if we’d somehow ridden through the apocalypse and straight into the Middle Ages.
Wren stared wide-eyed. “Oh, I’m going to love this place.”
Colson rode beside her, nodding. “I bet you are, darlin’.”
The big man looked as if he belonged on a warhorse, holding a battleaxe.
I glanced toward Ben. “You seriously ended up at Ren-Fest?”
He shrugged. “It’s a good setup.”
Finley gave a quiet laugh from behind us. We’d stopped at the silo after leaving the compound. He’d opened the door with a pistol in his hand, and Rory tucked safely behind him. Max nearly knocked me over when he saw me.
Only three of the women from the compound came with us. The others went in search of family, and nobody even thought to stop them. They had been denied choice long enough.
The trees opened, and I forgot to breathe.
The old festival grounds spread below us, surrounded by reinforced timber walls and watch platforms. Smoke curled from chimneys. Gardens filled spaces that had once held vendors and games.
People moved between buildings.
I didn’t see many women, but there seemed to be more than any other place I’d been.
A little boy ran across the road carrying a wooden sword while another chased him.
Playing. Not running for his life.
The gates opened and Ben rode through first.
For the first time in months, nobody pointed a gun at us when we entered somewhere new.
That alone nearly made me cry. Then I heard someone shout my name.
“Taryn!”
I turned and saw Ethan standing outside an old blacksmith’s shop. Lane appeared behind him with the twins.
All of them beautifully alive.
“Oh, my God.” I was off the horse before I remembered deciding to move.
Ethan reached me first, and his arms wrapped around me. “Holy shit. He actually found y’all.”
I laughed against his shoulder. “Did you have any doubt?”
He pulled back, and his eyes moved past me, searching. Confusion covered his face, then understanding, then grief. “She didn’t make it, did she?”
“No.”
His gaze swept the road behind us again anyway. Probably hoping it was some cruel joke we were playing on him.
I wished it was.
“Did she suffer?”
“No.” My throat tightened.
Ethan’s eyes filled. “I loved her.”
“I know. She loved you too.”
He pulled me back into a hug, his face buried in my shoulder, neither of us speaking.
Lane stepped closer and rested a hand on Ethan’s shoulder, the twins silent behind him.
Grief was so common these days that people didn’t even ask why anyone was crying anymore.
Ben watched from several yards away. Adrian, Lucas, and Beck stood beside him. Close, but letting me break the news to my friend.
Eventually, Ethan pulled back and wiped his face. “I need some time alone. Can I find you later to get the whole story?”
“Yes.” I nodded. “Whenever you’re ready.”
Later, after everyone had been shown where to settle, Ben found me near the old jousting field.
I had just finished at the shower house, where lukewarm water felt like the greatest luxury left on earth.
Someone lent me a clean pair of black leggings and an oversized gray T-shirt that reached nearly to my mid-thigh.
My damp hair hung down my back, and for the first time in months, I no longer smelled of sweat, blood, smoke, or rot.
I felt almost human again.
Beck, Adrian, and Lucas had disappeared into the men’s side of the shower house a few minutes earlier, which meant I finally had a rare moment alone.
Or I would have.
I looked at my father. His hair had more gray in it since I last saw him. A new scar marked his jawline, but he was alive and breathing.
“I thought you were dead.”
“I thought you might be too.”
“I watched you fall.” I shuddered at the memory.
“It was touch and go for a while. I managed to get away from the infected, but one of Nash’s men got off a lucky shot. If it hadn’t been for a couple of the men in this community finding me, I would have died. Enhanced or not.” Something in his expression broke. “I’m sorry, Taryn.”
I blinked. Ben Calder apologizing might have been stranger than the dead walking.
“I came looking for you as soon as I recovered.” Ben rested his forearms on the old wooden rail.
I blinked back tears. “I would never have left you if I’d known you were still alive.”
“I’m glad you left.” He turned to look at me. “You’re the most important thing in my life.” He turned back to the field. “I taught you how to survive alone.”
I wiped my eyes. “You did.”
“I don’t regret it, but I’m glad you didn’t have to.” His eyes returned to mine. “Each of those three men would die for you.”
“It doesn’t bother you that I’m with all three of them?”
We didn’t try to hide our relationship on the trip here. I’d seen Ben looking at us in confusion a couple of times, but he hadn’t commented.
“No. The more people invested in you staying alive the better.”
“I’d die for them too, you know.” I wanted him to know I was just as invested as my men were.
“I know.” He looked almost annoyed by how much that frightened him.
I smiled faintly, then stepped forward and hugged him.
Ben froze. Only for a second, then his arms closed around me.
“I missed you, Dad,” I whispered.
His grip tightened. “I missed you too.”
Eventually, I pulled back. “So?”
Ben raised an eyebrow.
“Are we safe here?”
He looked toward the walls. “No.”
At least some things hadn’t changed.
I smiled. “But we’re safer than we were yesterday.”
Ben grunted.
I heard a laugh and looked to see the loves of my life headed toward me.
For the first time in a long time, tomorrow didn’t feel like a threat.
It felt like possibility.