Epilogue #3
I’m a soft touch. I’ve grown attached to Gus just like I’ve found a couple of good friends and a new family here in Moonburrow.
I’m already trying to figure out how I can convince Honey to let us take a roadtrip with her ‘sidekick’ when Riordan crouches down low enough that he’s on the same level as Gus.
“I know. You’re a deputy, too, and that’s why you’ve gotta stick around town. Someone needs to be acting chief deputy while I’m gone.”
Gus chitters in excitement.
Riordan nods. “That’s right. A promotion.”
Gus puffs out his chest. Then, as though that was all he needed to hear to give up on his ‘chaperone’ duties—or his plans to tag along on our trip—he dashes toward the edge of the suitcase, tumbles out of it onto the bed, leaps to the floor, and disappears out of the open door.
Both Riordan and I watch him go. Once he’s gone, I turn to my mate, a small smile playing on my lips. “You know what I was thinking?”
“What’s that?”
“Who needs me to muck around with a translator spell when everyone in Moonburrow already understands Gus? And he understands them?”
“It’s not everyone, my sweet witch. Just those he decides are part of his clan.”
His clan, I think. That’s what Honey and Ash have called it, their small group including Max, Roxy, Riordan, and me, too, now.
It’s his family, and if my own eyes water a little to think of how much it touches my heart that a wild opossum considers this magic lady one of his own… well, wouldn’t it do the same to you?
I expected Gus to head down to the kitchen, maybe return to the bakery so that he can resume his position on his flour bag throne.
That’s why I’m slightly surprised to hear a muffled squeak a few moments later while I’m zipping the suitcase up as Riordan folds the lid on one of the cardboard boxes he filled with my books and decorations and the potted plant of wormwood I kept in my room to have some semblance of privacy.
I turn to see that Gus is perched in the doorway, something clamped gently between his teeth.
Something silver. Something shiny. Something round—
My lips part. My eyes go wide. “You have got to be kidding me.”
Knowing that he has my attention, Gus scampers over to my feet. With a satisfied sound in the back of his throat, the opossum drops it by my toe.
I recognize it instantly. Even if I didn’t, the amount of magic that pours off of Morrigaine’s compact is undeniable.
The same compact I put somewhere safe and then couldn’t remember where the hell that somewhere was.
I mean, I knew it had to be somewhere near.
The tingle was constant so wherever I put it, it had to be in the apartment somewhere.
I just couldn’t hone in on it, and because of that, I let it go, believing it really was safe.
And it was, wasn’t it?
I look down at Gus. “You?”
Gus sits proudly, whiskers twitching.
“You hid my compact?”
He squeaks. I don’t speak opossum, but I know a ‘uh-uh’ when I hear it. And, like Riordan said, when you’re part of Gus’s clan, you just know what he’s trying to say, don’t you?
“You’re right, Gus. My mistake. You made sure no one else could steal it.”
Gus lashes his tail, preening.
Riordan taps the badge at his waist. “Took it into custody, Deputy Gus? Good job.”
Gus bounds forward, rubbing the side of his snout against one of Riordan’s expensive dress shoes.
He doesn’t care that Gus leaves slobber behind.
Just like how he wears the wrinkles in his shirt as a badge of honor, as proof that his mate has held him close, the slobber on his shoe is another sign that someone loves him enough to leave their mark.
The same as how he wears my scratches on his lower back, a mating mark that lets Riordan know that he belongs to me as I belong to him…
Crouching low, I pick up the compact. There’s a slight jolt as my hand closes around the silver. It’s such a small thing that’s caused so much trouble, and yet, if it wasn’t for this mirror, I never would’ve come to Moonburrow.
It’s supposed to have so much power. In the hands of the right spellcaster, it can amplify spells and make them do whatever it is you want.
But while I’m a powerful cursebreaker, and I’m trusting myself with some of the more common witch spells, I still believe that it deserves to be kept hidden, kept safe, and somewhere it can cause no more trouble.
Luckily, I know just the spot.
Approaching Riordan, I place the silver compact against his palm, encouraging him to fold his fingers over it so that he doesn’t drop it. “For you.”
“You’re giving this to me? Your family’s magic mirror?”
“You’re my family now.” I press a kiss to the corner of his mouth. “And I trust you.”
To Riordan Lobo, that’s almost better than saying ‘I love you’. Almost, though, and because I can’t stop myself, I make sure I add that, too.
“My sweet witch,” he groans, ducking his head so that he can turn my gentle kiss into something a lot more claiming.
And I allow it because he’s my mate, and there isn’t anything I won’t let Riordan Lobo get away with so long as I get to call him mine.