EPILOGUE #3
“You’d better talk to him,” Lys grumbled as they flopped back into their chair. “What’s the point of shacking up with the head witch’s son if it doesn’t get us a discount? Do those witches understand how much it costs to find new housing for an entire population?”
“Sounds like the matter’s settled, then,” Desh said cheerfully as he stepped back out into the drizzling rain.
“Lovely as always to see you both again, but I’ve got to get going.
I left Streya with some old mates of ours from the Hells, but she’s still got major separation anxiety.
It’ll be better for everybody if I get back quick-like, so I’m off. You know my number if you need me!”
“No one needs you,” Lys told him, but their voice held no venom for once as they added, “Don’t fall off the ferry.”
Desh waved over his head and jogged off down the path, vanishing into the dripping forest the second he reached it like a deer into the mist.
Shaking her head at the seemingly obligatory fear-demon need to make a dramatic exit, Bex took a seat at the table next to Lys and spent a few minutes accepting prayers from the demons who’d come to see her.
When they were all satisfied that their queen had heard them and were safely on their way out of the forest, Bex told Lys to go get some dinner and made her way at last to Adrian’s cabin.
She still wasn’t sure how the building had made it back here from the Holy City.
The last time she’d seen it, the cabin had been sitting high in the branches of his giant tree.
When they’d finally come back to his forest after pizza, though, the cozy witch hut had been right back where Adrian set it up the first day he’d come to Bainbridge.
That had seriously freaked her out. As with all the weird happenings in his forest, however, Adrian had taken it in stride.
Or maybe he’d just been in a hurry to get her inside.
That had been their first night back together and alone.
Thinking back on it now still made Bex a little giddy, a feeling that was only amplified when she saw Adrian waiting for her.
He was right where he always was when she got off work: sitting in one of the two new wooden Adirondacks he’d made for his porch so they wouldn’t have to sit on the stairs now that it was the rainy season.
Not that Bex wouldn’t have gladly sat on the ground if it meant being next to him, but the new chairs were insanely comfortable for something made from wood.
Adrian was hard at work making something else out of wood right now, carving down a large stick of maple while Boston snoozed beside him next to the clay chiminea Adrian had set up on the porch to take the chill out of the wet air.
His whole face lit up when he spotted Bex walking over. He sprang out of his chair at once, setting his woodworking down on the armrest to give her a kiss that tasted faintly of sawdust.
“Hello,” he whispered in a warm voice before giving her another kiss on the neck that made Bex’s whole body shiver. “Your tea is on your chair.”
“Thanks,” Bex said as she staggered to her seat. She didn’t know when Adrian’s kisses would stop making her stomach feel like a swarm of butterflies, but so far, the answer seemed to be never.
Still blushing furiously, Bex groped for the tea he’d made for her, which was exactly where he’d said it’d be on the arm of the chair that he’d also made for her.
He’d made her a whole ton of stuff now that he had time, including a hand-thrown pottery mug sized exactly to fit her hand with a leaf-shaped lid to keep her tea warm.
“Thanks,” she said again, cupping the warm cup between her hands as she relaxed into the smooth, sturdy chair that put her at the perfect angle to look up at the forest’s dripping canopy. “Can I talk to you about—”
“If this is about the bill, I’m on it,” he said as he plopped back down in his own chair. “I already told the Old Wives I’d replace the trees last week, but my cousin Arachne is the coven’s accountant, and she’s a stickler for this sort of thing.”
He picked up his woodworking project again with a sigh. “I’ll go through the roots tomorrow and take a look at the damage myself. At the very least, you shouldn’t have to pay what she’s asking. Market value for the lumber is just ridiculous, especially since you’re not even getting the wood.”
“I really don’t mind paying for damages I incurred,” Bex insisted.
Then she smiled. “But I don’t want to spend the money if I can avoid it.
We probably won’t be getting another Heavenly palace to strip, and being queen isn’t exactly raking in the cash.
I need to make the funds we’ve got last, so thanks for looking out for us. ”
Adrian huffed as though he were insulted she thought he wouldn’t, and Bex’s smile grew wider.
“Did you want to talk about the scales, then?” he asked instead.
“I read Iggs’s report about the baby. It really looks like the spell that put scales in every human’s eyes at birth ended with Gilgamesh.
That doesn’t affect the scales that are already in people’s eyes, of course, but things are going to get very interesting in the next few years when all the babies who can see magic their scale-eyed parents can’t get old enough to talk. ”
“Very interesting,” Bex agreed. “But that wasn’t what I wanted to talk about either.”
“I’ll stop guessing blindly, then,” Adrian said, giving her a sheepish look as he put down his woodworking and turned to give her his full attention. “What’s on your mind?”
It was actually much harder to broach the subject now that he was looking at her so intently, but Bex had faced princes, gods, and a god-king, and she managed this, too, eventually.
“It’s about your brother, actually,” she said, putting down her mug so she could give him her full attention as well. “Leander wants to move into the RV.”
“That would be a relief,” Adrian admitted. “Not that I mind hosting him, but he’s not the most pleasant roommate. Also, three’s a crowd.”
He finished with a slow smile that made Bex blush to the roots of her hair, which was ridiculous considering what she was about to ask. Her shyness must’ve been truly baked in, though, because Bex couldn’t stop nervously fidgeting with Drox’s ring as she forced herself to continue.
“He asked me if he could have my room upstairs,” she said, spinning the heavy black loop like a pinwheel on her finger. “Since, you know, I’m not in it much these days.”
“Sounds sensible,” Adrian replied with a beaming smile that told Bex he already knew where this was going. “But if he’s taking your room, you’re going to need somewhere else to live.”
“Yeah,” she said, letting go of her ring to tug on her black hair instead. “I was hoping, that is, if it’s okay with you, maybe I could—”
“Move into my place?” he finished eagerly. “I thought you’d never ask. I would love for you to move in with me, Bex.”
“I’d love for you to move in with him,” Boston added lazily from his spot in front of the chiminea. “Maybe he’ll actually be able to focus on work for once if he’s not pining all day waiting for your return.”
Adrian shot his cat an irritated look, but Bex just smiled. “Well, if you’re both okay with it, I’m in. It won’t even really be moving, since most of my stuff’s already here.” She flashed Adrian a nervous smile. “Thanks for letting me invade.”
“Thanks for wanting to,” he said, reaching out to grip her still-fidgeting hand. “Thank you for everything.”
“That’s my line,” Bex said, blushing furiously but keeping her eyes on Adrian as he pulled her captured hand over to his chair. “I get to move into a custom house on an island. All you get are a bunch of demons knocking on your door at all hours.”
“They were doing that anyway,” he reminded her, leaning down to press a kiss against her knuckles that somehow managed to go straight through the rest of Bex as well.
“But I’ve never minded the demons. I love being part of your team, and I love that you moving in means I’ll get to see you even more.
I love you in general, just in case you needed a reminder. ”
Bex didn’t. Adrian said and showed that he loved her every day, but that didn’t stop her from grinning like an idiot.
“I love you too,” she whispered back, squeezing his fingers tight. “Thanks for sticking through everything with me.”
“As if I’d ever let you go,” he said, kissing her hand again before he pulled her up from her chair and guided her inside his cozy cottage, where dinner was already warming on top of the stove.