Epilogue
GABE
Five days after Cato’s plan failed and we saved the world, we’re all running on empty.
It didn’t help that while Connor and I were dealing with the aftermath of a cataclysmic event, life around us was trying to continue as normal.
The estate had visitors, and we’ve just come out of a busy fall weekend.
Everyone’s exhausted, mourning Jill and our ghosts, and trying to come down from the adrenaline of what happened.
Connor took the boys back to California last night.
He had to go deal with the Collective council in person.
They “summoned” me too, but Con and I both laughed in their faces.
We’re not comfortable leaving Mannix and our friends here completely unguarded, since Cato knew exactly where we were and might have shared that with other demons.
Until some of our conduits are able to chat with spirits and advise us what’s going on in the otherworld—or Marc comes back to update us—we’re keeping our guard up.
Of course, that’s easier said than done.
One of the outcomes of the new barrier is that all former gateways, guarded or unguarded, are gone—including the one here at the estate.
Two new naturally opening ones have been reported in the last week, but that’s all.
So traffic from the otherworld is limited for now to summoned demons, demons who already had tethers to humans and can use those, and the few demons and spirits that came through the new gateways before they were guarded.
So I stayed here to keep an eye on things, and Con went to tell the Collective that things have to change.
News of what happened spread like wildfire, and although there are some who think we did the wrong thing in not officially telling the Collective everything we knew—despite the traitors—most people are backing us.
Connor’s got the clout right now to demand a review of the Collective’s structures and processes, and we’re going to make a lot of noise until it happens.
Matt and Ian went back to school. They didn’t really want to leave, and fuck knows I didn’t want them to, but it’s been two weeks already and we were fast coming up on them needing to either go back or defer the whole semester.
Since they’re both determined to keep their promise to Norval about shaking up the Collective, they want to get done with school sooner rather than later.
My phone rings, and I sigh. It seems like it never stops ringing these days. Tom glances over. “Just turn it off. That’s what I did.” The trainees apparently got very fond of Tom when they were sharing information with him, and he’s been “adopted” by a few hundred of them.
“I can’t.” Especially not if his phone’s off. The thought of both of us being out of touch gives me hives. “Hello?”
“Could you come up here, please?” Skye’s voice is bubbling with laughter. “Kieran’s about to have an aneurysm.”
“Why?” I wave to get Tom’s attention and stand. He gets up from where he’s been doing the restaurant’s bookkeeping and follows me to the door without asking questions.
“Just get up here. Bring Tom. I think he’ll really enjoy this.”
I’m not sure what could freak out Kieran but make Skye laugh, but I’m keen to see it. I fill Tom in on the little I know as we hurry up the hill. It’s a nice quiet Monday morning, a relief after the chaos of the weekend.
We step into reception, and I nearly trip. Leaning against the raised desk, dressed in a sharp charcoal-gray suit, a perfectly matched three-piece set of leather luggage at his feet, is Marc.
“What are you… What the fuck?” I glance at Skye’s grinning face and the way Kieran’s got both hands clutched in his hair. Josh is here too, even though it’s his day off, so I’m betting Skye called him to witness the… whatever this is. I’ll deal with that in a minute. “What happened last week?”
Marc raises a brow coolly. “Nice to see you too. Thank you for all your hard work. Why no, I’m not any worse for the wear after killing your enemy and preventing the slaughter of your loved ones.”
I can’t remember why I wanted him to come back.
“Your enemy too,” I remind him. “What’s happening in the otherworld?”
He sighs. “It has a name, you know.”
Seriously? “No, I don’t know. What’s it called?”
He says… a word. It’s long, multi-syllabled, and I don’t quite catch all of it. “Could you repeat that more slowly? And break it up?”
“Never mind. It’s not like I want to hear you butcher it every time you try to say it. ‘Otherworld’ is fine.”
Normally, I’d press the issue, because respect for people’s cultures is important, but I’m pretty sure with Marc, that would just be a waste of time. “So what’s happening there?”
He shrugs. “After Cato died, things fell into disarray. We weren’t as prepared as we’d hoped to be, and it took a few days for my associates and me to bring things back to the status quo. But a new leader has taken over now, one that’s much more acceptable to me.”
I hesitate, and Tom asks, “It’s not you, is it?”
“Fuck no.” His eyes widen. “Don’t even suggest it.”
“But this new leader has no plans to take over Earth?” I confirm, and he nods.
“Far from it. In fact, she would like to establish diplomatic contact with the Collective. Or whoever’s in charge of inter-dimensional matters now.”
“Still the Collective,” I manage, reeling a little. “Diplomatic contact?” I look at his luggage again. “You? You’re the diplomat?”
He straightens his cuff. “Indeed.”
“Tell him he can’t stay here,” Kieran interrupts, his voice pitched high.
Marc flicks him a glance. “Whyever not?”
“You don’t have a reservation!”
“Pah. It’s a Monday in the shoulder season. I’m sure you have a room.”
Kieran’s desperate gaze meets mine, and I wince.
I get it—having a higher demon stay in the hotel where we have guests and unknowing staff is not ideal.
But, as loath as I am to say it, Marc’s proved himself…
trustworthy. And if he truly is here to act as an emissary from the otherworld, I can’t turn him away.
“Is the other cabin free?” I ask. At least that will keep him away from the main building.
“Oh, dear me, no,” he insists. “I’ll stay in the hotel proper.” He tilts his head. “After all, you owe me.”
“Owe you?” Kieran nearly chokes on the words. “What for?”
Marc… shimmers. I can’t think of any other way to describe it. It’s like a wave of heat envelops him.
Our ghosts appear.
My jaw drops, even as Tom shouts and grabs his grandmother in a hug so tight, she squeaks.
Josh pounces forward in delight, hugging first Johnny, then Hattie, and finally Joe before reaching out to take hold of hands and arms. Even Kieran’s smiling, his eyes a little damp as Maisie sidles up to him and pats his chest.
I stretch out my hand and touch Norval. He’s real. Here. “How?”
He harrumphs. “When I found the power-sharing document, there was another one that talked about ghosts. It’s called a merge, and it allows the ghosts to connect with a living being and share their energy.
But it can only be done once. After that, the ghost is…
well, done.” He grumbles a bit. “I told the others. We figured if things got dire and you needed more power, if it was the only way, we could merge with you. But you were doing just fine.” He side-eyes Marc. “He wasn’t.”
Marc rolls his wrist. “I wasn’t expecting to have to go up against Cato by myself. But I was holding my own.”
“Until you slipped.” Joe’s gruff words land like a stone, and Marc nods.
“Until I slipped.”
Norval picks up the story again. “If Cato killed Marc, there wasn’t anyone else here who could stop him. We didn’t have enough hunters, and already Jill…” He trails off. “Anyway, we decided… well, you know what we decided. We merged with Marc, and he won.”
Skye pokes Carter, then pats his shoulder. “But you’re here. You’re not done.”
Norval’s expression turns a little sour.
“That’s his doing.” He jerks his head toward Marc.
“He didn’t allow a full merge, just enough to borrow energy from us.
So when Cato died, we were still there. Our memories still existed, but our souls were too low on power for us to separate from him.
So he took us to the otherworld and let us recharge. ”
Which they couldn’t have done here. Anyone who’s ever felt the flow of energy through a gateway can tell you it’s different in the otherworld. If Marc had merely expelled their memories here, without enough soul to ground them, they would have ceased to exist.
But he didn’t. He saved our ghosts.
Dammit. We owe him.
I look at Kieran and see the same reluctant realization on his face. “You stay away from the other guests,” he orders, and Marc smirks.
“Why would I want to socialize with humans?”
I wince. He was the best diplomat the otherworld could manage?
While Kieran lays down the law, I mentally consider our options.
Without an open gateway on the estate, the ghosts won’t have as much energy as they’re used to.
But on the other hand, the gateway was only here for the last fifty years—before that, they coped just fine.
Maybe they’ll have to manifest less often, but Mannix Estate has always had strong energy, the kind that’s generated when a place is loved deeply and completely.
And… it might be too early to tell, but there’s been a lingering effect of this being ground zero for the rebuild of the barrier.
Time might change things, but for now, there’s an excess of etheric energy around the place.
Tom slips his hand into mine and draws me outside. “What?” I ask softly, glancing over my shoulder at the others. “What’s wrong?”
He shakes his head and smiles at me. “Nothing. I just wanted the pretense of privacy for a second.”
My lips curve, and I steal a kiss. “I like privacy with you.”
“I love you.”
My heart stutters in my chest. I’ve been thinking about how to tell him for nearly a week now. I didn’t imagine he’d go first.
“Life’s short, and we of all people know shit happens.” His chuckle turns into a sob as he looks back inside at his grandmother. “People might say it’s too soon, but I don’t care. I love you. And I don’t know what the rest of my life is going to look like, but I want to work it out with you.”
I take both his hands in mine and kiss him again, properly this time. “Our life together is going to look like this. Happy. Full of the love we feel for each other.” It’s my turn to chuckle. “And friends and brothers and probably ghosts.”
“Of course ghosts,” a familiar voice says. “Tommaso, the front steps are not where you tell your boyfriend you love him!”
Tom closes his eyes in exasperation, and I kiss him again.
This is our happy ever after.
Thank you for reading Gateway Catastrophe and the Ghostly Guardians series!