“How can you trust humans to care for themselves?” Her laughter mocked me. “They require oversight.”
“No.”
“Have you thought about what will happen in the absence of Ezra?” Her fingers tightened on the blade. “You’ve cleared the way for any charun with enough might and resources to claim his crown. The vacuum must be filled. Why not by you? You care for these mortals. You would tend them better than anyone else.”
“And where does that leave you? While I’m busy tending my mortals?”
“I want to rule.” She shrugged like it ought to have been obvious. “We can share top billing. You can manage the humans, and I will rein in the charun.”
“You want to start a power bid that will ultimately kill hundreds, if not thousands, of those mortals you so generously set aside for me.”
She scoffed at the numbers. “Have you seen how fast they breed?”
“This terrene is sealed.” I wasn’t giving any information away. She had to know we had been successful, or else she wouldn’t have come out of hiding. “Once you control all the charun, then what?”
“Then I rule them.”
“Have you ever successfully ruled anything?” I let my gaze slide to either side of her, illustrating how she stood alone. “The coterie you inherited from your mother is dead. That doesn’t speak highly to me of your leadership abilities.”
“That’s not fair.” A quick flash of crimson rouged her cheeks. “You killed them.”
“And you didn’t stop me. As I recall, you ran.”
“You’re cadre.”
“You’ve told me time and time again that I’m not.” I clucked my tongue. “All I’m hearing from you, my darling niece, are excuses.”
Teeth grinding, Sariah fumed. “What would an alliance cost?”
“More than you can afford.” I held her gaze. “You as good as killed my uncle. Do you really think you can offer me anything that would make up for that? Any hope we had of an alliance died with him.” I forced the wobble out of my legs. “Your allies will scatter. You can’t hold onto them. You’re not cadre, and you have no coterie. The war has been won, and your side lost.”
“Have you forgotten?” She drew the dagger across Cole’s throat in a shallow cut, and blood welled along its edge. “I have one last bargaining chip. You would do anything for him. You’ve proven that. Join me, lend your forces to mine, and I will release him. I’ll even give you my word that I will never threaten him or the rest of your coterie again.”
“Your word means nothing to me.”
Teeth bared, she pressed her luck, and her weapon. “Do you want me to kill him?”
A telltale shimmer in the air behind her plummeted my heart into my toes.
The adolescent dragon who appeared behind Sariah had to hunch to avoid hitting the ceiling, but that didn’t slow her down. Phoebe struck, fast and true. She bit Sariah’s head clean off her shoulders with a crunch I would be hearing in my nightmares for months. The god killer dagger fell onto Cole’s lap, and Sariah’s body toppled a few seconds later.
Legs gone to jelly, I sat on the lowest step before I joined her remains on the floor.
“Well,” I panted, the pain catching up to me, “that was exciting.”
I caught myself glancing at the door, half expecting Kapoor to stride in and complete the evening, but he didn’t, and he never would again.
Dad, however, made his entrance wearing the scowl that had launched a thousand groundings during my teen years.
“Phoebe Heaton.” He folded his arms over his chest and tapped his foot. “Shift. Now. Then get a mop.” He ignored Sariah’s headless corpse. “Hurry up, now. All that blood will stain.”
His blasé attitude caused me to laugh, and once I started, I couldn’t stop. Even when the pain grew to be more than I could handle, I still chuckled like he had told the greatest joke of all time.
“I told you guys she was cracked.” Santiago huffed out a sigh. “No one ever listens to me.”
“Give her a minute.” Miller watched me with increasing worry. “She’s just releasing steam.”
The coterie engaged in a heated argument over human coping mechanisms and how maniacal laughter couldn’t be a good sign I was dealing with the stress of the past few months. For no good reason, that tickled me even more.
After a full sixty seconds passed, and I was still going strong, Thom crossed to me and bit my hand.
After that, I forgot what was so funny.
The darkness was absolute, but the soft mattress comforted me before I broke out in cold chills worrying if Sariah had captured me again. On the heels of that happy thought, I remembered she was dead. I shouldn’t have felt sad about that, but I did. Just a little. “Am I dead?”
A soft rumble came from my left. “No.”
Well, that was good news. “How long was I out this time?”
Strain filled Cole’s voice. “Three weeks.”
“Three weeks?” I shoved upright. “Whose idea was that?”
“Yours.” He flipped on a lamp and studied me in its glow. “Your body required the time to heal.”
Careful of the wounds I recalled from my earlier bout of consciousness, I touched my chest and found delicate scar tissue crisscrossing the area over my heart. “What did I miss?”
“Your father grounded Phoebe for killing Sariah. She’s got another week left on restriction. Maggie recruited Miller to help her claim your old room, since it’s the second largest in the house. She reasoned there are two of them but only one Santiago, so it’s only fair they get more space.”
A laugh escaped me, and I was pleased when it didn’t hurt. “Business as usual, huh?”
“More than you know.” He picked up his phone and hit a button. “She’s awake.”
After he ended the call, I waited to be filled in on the rest of the news, but he didn’t enlighten me.
Rixton burst into the room whistling a jaunty tune with a garment bag slung over his shoulder. “Hey, Bou-Bou.”
“I’m recovered enough to kick your ass if you don’t stop calling me that.”
“Good.” He hung it on the curtain valance and grinned. “Then you’re well enough to go to work.”
“Work?” I goggled at him. “Did the NSB make contact?”
“We made contact with Kapoor’s replacement.” Cole helped me into a sitting position and then joined me. “He fired you.”
“That happens when you take a leave of absence without informing the boss.” I massaged my nape, relief and embarrassment mingling. “Guess I’ll have to start job hunting.”
“No need,” Rixton informed me. “I found you gainful employment while you were lazing about.”
He pulled down the zipper to reveal … a Canton Police Department uniform.
“Rixton … ” I didn’t know what to say. “How?”
“I might be retired,” Dad said from the doorway, “but I know the new chief.” He winked. “I put in a good word for you. You can start whenever you’re ready.”
“I … ” I shook my head as if to clear it. “I never thought this far ahead.”
“You don’t have to come back if the badge isn’t what you want.” Rixton sat at the foot of the bed. “You’ve done enough protecting and serving to last a lifetime. You can always retire and let Cole be your sugar daddy.”
“As much fun as that sounds —” and it was genuinely tempting, “— I can’t just sit on my hands for the rest of my life.”
“Good.” Santiago passed me a tablet. “Read this.”
The top story in the local paper gushed about a recent housing boom and rental shortage.
“What does it mean?” I passed it back to him. “What am I missing here?”
“Your new neighbors? They’re charun. All of them.” Santiago smirked when my mouth fell open. “Word spread about your heroics. Your allies want to live close to the woman who saved the world. They’ve bought up every piece of property they can within a twenty-five-mile radius of your farmhouse.
I expect that area will continue to widen over time as more real estate becomes available.”
“Canton is on its way to becoming a different type of nexus.” Miller smiled as he joined the others. “You’re going to have your hands full, Luce.”
“We’re starting a taskforce of our own,” Rixton informed me. “Nothing official, but unofficially? It’s going to kick ass. With so many charun in town, we’re going to need to allocate resources to helping them acclimate to their new world order. Think MIB, except blue or red. I have cool-toned skin. I look better in those colors.”
“Sounds like you have this all worked out.” I gave Dad another glance. “What about you?”
“Your friend Wu bought this place from me and transferred the title into your name.”
Wu had promised to cut a check for the farmhouse to fund Dad’s retirement after I allowed it to be used as a temporary sanctuary for the enclave, but I didn’t know he went through with it, or that he had given it to me.
“Oh” was the best response I could articulate.
“With the proceeds, I decided to buy a smaller house in town.” He cleared his throat. “With Miranda.”
“Does it have a pool?” I joked, but Dad flushed. “It does, doesn’t it? Let me guess — it’s saltwater.”
People would think he was cradle robbing, but I doubted he cared. I sure wasn’t going to say anything, especially since the reverse was true. Dad deserved all the happiness his heart could hold, and if that happiness came with a tail … well … I wouldn’t begrudge him that either.
Examining each face around the gathering, I was missing one person. “Where is Phoebe?”
“She’s shopping for school clothes with Miranda,” Cole told me. “She wants to enroll, get the full human experience the way you did.”
“School wasn’t a picnic for me.” I shrugged it off but navigating high school had frustrated me no end. “The whole Wild Child thing.” I hated spilling my guts with Dad standing there. “She might do better enrolling under your name and leaving me off the paperwork.”
“That’s for her to decide.” He threaded our fingers and brought my hand to his lips. “Something tells me she’s already made up her mind.”
“How do we explain the resemblance?” I fidgeted with the hem of my shirt. “Several of my teachers are still at the school.”
“She isn’t catching on.” Santiago cackled. “He never said she was enrolling at your school.”
“She would need documentation to prove she’s a resident before she can register outside this district.” I was the first to admit my head was still fuzzy, but Santiago was making it harder on me than it had to be. As usual. “Unless she’s going private?”
“She’ll enroll in Jackson.” Cole took pity on me and filled in the blanks. “We have investment properties there. We can use one of those addresses for the school. She didn’t want to go private. She wants to have the full experience.”
“How will she … ?” I palmed my forehead. “Wings.”
Human kids her age either begged their parents for a lift to school to avoid the bus or daydreamed about the day they received their driver’s license for the same reason. Phoebe would never have to learn how cramped, smelly, and miserable a bus ride could be thanks to her wings and invisibility.
“It sounds like you guys have worked everything out.” I cocked an eyebrow at the gathering. “It doesn’t seem like I’m needed here. Maybe I should continue napping my life away.”
More footsteps rang out in the hall, and Sherry appeared with Nettie in her arms.
“You can’t nap your life away.” She crossed to us and dumped my godchild in my arms. “I need some alone time with my husband, and I just volunteered you since you’re the reason he’s been MIA.”
“Uh.” I held the baby with as much fear as a live hand grenade. “You’re leaving her? With me?”
“Yep.” She hooked a finger in Rixton’s beltloop and hauled him to her. “You’ve been falling down on the job, G-mom. Now you have to make up for lost time.”
“Rixton?” I fed a plea into my expression. “Do something.”
Wiggling his eyebrows at Sherry, he chuckled. “Don’t worry, I’m about to.”
“Back in two hours.” She waved to me. “Thanks in advance.”
Rixton held up twin peace signs. “Make that four.”
After backing from the room, he spun on the threshold and chased after her. Their footsteps pounded down the stairs, and their laughter filled the old house as they raced to the front door.
“I’ll take her.” Maggie swooped in to steal the baby. “They’re so cute at this age.”
“They’re cute at all ages,” Portia countered. “Look at the dimple in her chin.”
One thing bothered me. “How did they know to be here?”
Unless my eyes were playing tricks on me, I spied a diaper bag just inside the door to my room. Sherry had come prepared to leave Nettie with me. Something smelled fishy around here.
“I might have helped you along,” Thom admitted. “It’s not healthy for you to remain in a healing fugue longer than necessary.”
The worry pinching his brow made me want to squirm. “Are you saying I didn’t want to wake up?”
“He’s saying you’ve endured trauma that can’t be healed with sleep and salve,” Miller said gently. “You’ve suffered many losses and had no time to mourn them. Emotional pain can manifest as physical exhaustion. Your spirit needed time to heal as much as your body, but it’s easy to get lost in a place where you don’t feel the pain you’re meant to be recovering from.”
“Ah.” I got it now. “Thom gathered you all here and gave me a hit of something to wake me.”
Miller nodded, and so did Thom, but the latter still appeared unhappy.
“I’m going to take some long overdue advice,” I announced to all of them. “I’m going to start therapy. Kapoor swears by it.” I hesitated. “He swore by it.”
“Lots of cops in therapy.” Dad smiled, his relief tangible. “I can grab you a referral easy.”
“I’d like that.” I noticed Thom had yet to relax. “I’m not okay yet, but I’ll get there.”
That eased the tension in his shoulders and smoothed the creases from his forehead.
Eager to test my sea legs after lazing about for so long, I stood close enough I could fall back on the bed rather than jam my tailbone on the floor if I wobbled. When I had no trouble getting around, other than the sweat beading my forehead, I shooed everyone out while I pulled on clothes.
Cole remained, and I didn’t mind his gaze roving over me one bit. Even if his interest ran more toward clinical than I would like.
Once I had on clean undies, sweats, and a tee, I found myself standing in front of the garment bag Rixton left me. “Where do we go from here?”
“Anywhere.” He pressed a kiss to the side of my throat. “Our futures are wide open.”
Leaning back against him, I let my eyes close as the possibilities unfurled before me, a road with so many forks I couldn’t choose a single one to walk. For the first time in what felt like forever, I could do anything, go anywhere. I was well and truly free. We all were.
Limitless potential swirled in the air, and I sucked it down, eager for a taste of what was to come, content that whatever path I chose, the others would walk alongside me.
“I like the sound of that.” I rubbed my thumb over the gleaming badge pinned above the breast pocket of the uniform shirt. “I like it a lot.” I turned in his arms and patted his cheek. “Almost as much as I like you.”
“You love me.” He tickled my sides until I squirmed. “Admit it.”
“I do love you.” I brushed my lips over his. “So much I’ll give you a head start.”
Confusion gave way to understanding, and his next kiss blistered my mouth. “Count to ten.”
“Five,” I countered. “You don’t need help to win.”
After grunting his agreement, Cole took the stairs with a slig
ht uptick in his usual gait.
I couldn’t have stopped the smile curving my lips any more than I could halt the sun in its tracks. I might not feel up to playing prey to his predator at the moment, running was a no-go until I could stand without losing my breath, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t stalk him.
As much as I wanted to believe I had honed my tracking skills, I suspected he let me find him.
Just as I suspected I let him ravish me in our tent piled high with pillows, hopes, and dreams.
EPILOGUE
Farhan cracked open his eyes on a moonlit beach. Water frothed around his ears, soaking his back, but his skin pulled tight with sunburn, and dehydration cracked his lips.
“We got a live one.” A young boy leaned over him, grinning. “His eyes are open and everything.”
A woman with cascading blonde hair, tiny shells braided into its length, appeared beside the boy.
“You are right.” She patted the top of his head. “You did well, Ian.”
“Where am I?” Farhan rasped. “Who are you?”
The dress she wore shimmered like abalone, and the wind snapped the damp hem against her ankles.
“I am Tatiana.” She knelt beside him, her fingers cool on his skin. “I am called Queen of the Seas.”
“There is no sea queen.” No intel existed on a Tatiana of that renown. He would know. It was his job to know. No, it had been his job. With both his bosses dead, he wasn’t certain of his current employment status. “How did I get here?”
“We are aware of your organization.” Her smile bared teeth as white as pearls. “We have taken great pains to avoid its notice.” The boy returned and passed her a waterskin she dribbled over Kapoor’s lips. “As to how you got here, we fished you out of the water.”
The sweetness of the water left him parched for more, which she provided.
“A pod of Diorte passed through,” she continued, “and we assumed you were a carcass they left in their wake. They normally do not feed when they cull, as the purpose is to die. That made you a peculiarity, and I dislike those so close to my home.” She cut him off when he started coughing. “I sent scouts. They reported you were alive and brought you here to recover.”
End Game (The Foundling Series) Page 24
