Chapter 16
Chapter
Sixteen
FIVE MONTHS LATER
Iput my hand out of the window of the car, letting the breeze flow through my fingertips as I try to work out exactly where we are.
It’s cold, and we have been driving for hours, but I’m crap at noticing the signs as we drove, as my mates kept me busy.
I’m sure they distracted me on purpose. About fifteen minutes ago, they put a blindfold on me, and now I can’t see a thing.
For a second, I thought it was some kind of new sexual thing, but nope.
Finn squeezes my hand from where he sits next to me, and I sigh, resting my head on his shoulder.
The last five months have been…ours. I didn’t know what it would be like after the war, but it has become our own strange sense of normal.
My aunt has sent aid to every city around the world, sending Nexus and Vian with powers to help fix the cities I destroyed with Georgina.
It will take time, a lot of time, but humanity will recover, or at least that’s what my aunt thinks.
We have grown closer in the last few months, and I am glad to have her in my life.
Annie and Issan officially had their mating ceremony a month ago, and it was beautiful.
She wore a white dress that made her look like a princess, and I threatened to kill Issan if he hurt her.
All in all, a perfect wedding. Onyx walked her down the path to the temple, and I know that meant everything to him.
Annie loves the fact that Onyx is her brother, even if she doesn’t want to talk to us about who her father is when he was an awful man.
She just loves Onyx and how I’m now technically her sister-in-law.
Severi even danced at the wedding with me. It was the best.
“Feyre has been a lot better since her memory was wiped,” Finnegan murmurs to me.
Feyre…it has been difficult, and I know Finn is trying to make me feel better about the fact that I’m a massive trigger for her.
I haven’t seen her in months because she hasn’t been ready, and I don’t want to be the reason she goes back on all the work she has done to get better.
It still stings that the only family Finn has doesn’t want to be around me.
Finnegan squeezes my hand, and he just knows.
“Time will help, and she does ask how you are. She loves you too.” I nod, glad for once he can’t see my eyes.
The therapists and doctors are really happy with her progress.
It might take time—it’s been five months since the war ended now—but Morriganis City is the best place for her to be.
So full of life and people who are doing all they can to help fix this world, too.
Queen Maia of the Vian…well, she is impressive.
That woman was born to be a queen and to rule the Vian.
They listen to her, and she has begun by making a peace treaty with my aunt and welcoming Nexus into the city.
There are now laws, and what is left of the guards are now tasked with upholding the new laws, which include no killing Nexus.
That the only way for a Vian to gain power is if the Nexus wants to give it up, and they must not kill to do so.
It’s complicated, but Maia seems to be a badass at handling the situation.
Severi and I have been back to the city twice, and I’ve been nothing but impressed with her work.
The people look happy. It still hasn’t sunk in that we are free, that I get to wake up with my mates and there is no threat looming over us.
My Nexus has settled down well to the change in lifestyle, but I think she is content from the ninety thousand or so Vian she got to kill.
That’s got to keep her sated for a couple of years… right?
She laughs. “No.”
I groan and I’m about to explain to my Nexus why we don’t need to kill anyone now when I feel a double tap on my shoulder.
“Hello, Franklin,” I whisper to him, knowing it is him. He always taps me twice on the shoulder when he wants to talk to me. It’s almost like our secret language.
“I’m so excited to show you what we’ve done today,” he whispers to me. “They banned me from saying anything.”
“What have we talked about? Spoilers. You’re not allowed to say anything,” Hollis reminds his son.
“Ugh, Dad,” Franklin mumbles, and I hear his overdramatic collapse back in his seat.
I grin to myself. I totally taught him how to be overdramatic and sarcastic.
Much to my mate’s annoyance, Franklin and I have become an unstoppable team with sarcastic quips and over the top reactions when we want something.
Not that my mates ever really say no to me or Franklin.
It took about two months for Franklin to come around and trust me properly.
Until that point, I’m pretty sure the kid was just outright terrified of me.
But Nibbles has been the middle ground between us, and Hollis encouraged me to try taking Franklin on daily dog walks with Nibbles. It worked.
I haven’t told Hollis about how our dog walks included a trip to the ice cream shop, the toy shop, and various other sweet and chocolate shops we found on long walks.
I’m sure it was the giant chocolate bar I bought the kid on one walk that made our relationship solid.
Franklin had to hide it under his shirt and sneak it to his room to eat.
I’ve never been a kid person, but he’s Hollis’s son, and I love Hollis, therefore he’s family.
I love Franklin too, now. I may not have any idea what to do with children, and I’m not even sure I want children myself, but it’s nice to have him around.
Franklin brings much-needed joy to our group.
He’s just so innocent. It makes me think of how I was as a kid—who I could have been if I’d been brought up without fear and pain.
I am determined that the world we sacrificed and fought for will be good to Franklin, and I will protect him so he will never have a childhood like mine.
“Franky tells me everything, and you’re all being mean expecting him to keep secrets from his favourite person,” I remind them all. They all laugh at me, and Franklin giggles.
Rhodes must lean closer as I hear him clearly. “Well, we are aware as to why Franklin is not told secrets, but this one couldn’t be avoided. What happened at Christmas cannot be repeated.”
I laugh to myself, well, Franklin joins me from the back.
Christmas Eve was hilarious. Franklin didn’t really understand that you can’t tell people what you got them for Christmas, and he came to tell me all about the rescue kitten in the spare room that my mates had adopted for me after I fell in love with her at the shelter.
I will never forget Alek’s face as he walked in to us discussing names for my new cat and Franklin asking when I can go see her.
My delightful, angelic cat’s name is Boba, and she is every bit as sassy as me.
She bites my mates when they annoy her, which I completely understand because they’re males, and why not bite them to show them their place?
Outside of that, she demands food four times a day in a clean bowl only, demands pets but bites if you pet her too long.
She won’t go in her litter box unless someone has just changed it, and is overall a wicked delight to everyone except me.
For me, she’s angelic, and she has never bitten me.
She licks my hand, sleeps at my feet, and follows me around.
She even guards the shower, and if one of my mates joins me, they have to remove her from the room and get bitten for it.
Boba is currently meowing her head off in the back seat of the car behind us, where Annie is and Issan is driving.
Onyx snuck her in there before we drove off, knowing full well Annie would not have been okay with taking Boba along, given how she can be a little dramatic with her cat screams of horror when we take her anywhere new.
My mates insisted that both Nibbles and Boba needed to come with us, and also that they would pack for me.
I wonder if she’s still half screaming, half hissing, half meowing at Annie and Issan. I turned my phone off, and so did all my mates, because we all know better, and we are only a slight bit glad Boba is not in our car. Okay, we all thanked Onyx for his genius plan.
“How much longer?” I curiously ask.
“Nearly there.” Finn takes my hand away, and I hear the window shut.
I tap my foot on the floor of the car as we roll over a smooth road before we stop.
I’ve been wondering non-stop what the big surprise is since they mentioned it a week ago.
I’ve never seen my mates so secretive, and I’m dying to know what it is.
I doubt it’s another adoptive animal when Boba has been such a delight to us all.
I do want more pets, a boatload of them, but convincing my mates might not be easy unless Boba suddenly decides to behave.
Doubtful. She acts like me. The door opens and Onyx—I can tell from his hands—leads me out.
We walk a few steps in the cold with Onyx holding both my hands and leading me.
A car door slams shut nearby, and someone angry stomps over.
“There is something wrong with your cat! Seriously wrong! She is demonic. How do you have Nibbles, the sweetest dog known in history, and then Boba, who is just evil—it’s just unfair.
It’s completely unfair. She has not stopped screaming like she is dying, and the odd times she took a break from screaming was to slam herself around her padded cat cage and make it roll.
I had to hold it still until she stopped doing that, and then she would just begin screaming again.
No music could stop her. Issan says he has gone deaf, and I’m sure I have too! ”
Whoa, Annie is mad. I’m not too surprised about Boba. Honestly, it sounds like she has behaved well. “It was Onyx’s idea. Not mine!”