by Kami Garcia
“I can,” Rid said, slipping in behind him. “Poor guy.” That said, she seemed to have no problem knowing right where to put her hands.
Muscle memory, Lena Kelted.
Some things never change, Ethan Kelted back.
“I’ll miss you,” Lena said.
“We just need some time,” Ridley answered her cousin.
“And maybe a couple Advil,” Link said, cracking a smile. “Maybe a couple hundred.” He shoved one booted foot down on the gas, looking over his shoulder to Ridley.
She nodded and pulled on her helmet. “See ya, losers.”
“See ya, Cuz.” Lena took a step back.
“Hey,” Ethan said.
Link raised an eyebrow.
“You watch out for yourself, will you?”
“Me? You’re worried about me?” He scoffed at Ethan, making a fist. “Gun show, remember?”
Ethan shrugged. “Not worried. Just… I’d kind of like to have you guys in my future, you know?”
“You mean like a best man?”
“Shut up. Maybe. Someday.”
Link grinned. “Dude. Don’t you get it? I’ve been your best man all along. What makes you think I’d stop any time soon?”
Ridley’s arms circled his waist as he laughed, and she leaned her head against his back.
Then Ethan heard the Ripping sound, and they were gone.
John and Liv were the last to go, but once they had taken off for the airport, quiet descended over Ravenwood Manor like the snug lattice of a well-cut pie crust.
Everyone was gone now.
The sun was setting; Ethan and Lena watched it slip down behind the river, sitting with their backs against Lena’s bed. Her room, which Ravenwood had itself once again turned translucent, allowed for a perfect view.
“I’ll miss this,” Ethan said.
“I know. I can’t believe it’s almost September.”
“Two down. Two to go.” Ethan counted the years that kept them apart the way he and Link used to count the days until summer.
“Shut up. You love school.”
“Not as much as I love some other things.” Ethan smiled at her, and fumbled in his pocket—which only reminded him of his father looking for Lilian’s wedding ring, hours earlier. The thought made his stomach lurch and his face turn red. All this talk about weddings…
Still, he pulled something out of his pocket and pressed it into Lena’s hand.
A ring. Engraved. A circle within a circle, coincidentally.
“What is this?” She looked surprised.
“It’s for you. I figured, seeing as you lost one ring today.” Every Binding Ring had been lost today, not just the one Ethan had given Lilian English; they’d simply vanished. Liv was already working out the physics of it all, and Ethan knew she’d crack it eventually. But for now, it was a mystery.
“Ethan—it’s beautiful.” It actually wasn’t. It wasn’t much more than an old piece of tin, probably.
“You’re beautiful,” he said. She really was.
She smiled, examining the ring more closely.
He watched her take it all in.
“It was my mom’s. I found it in her jewelry box last week, when I was supposed to be looking for cuff links, and I kept it out. Marian said she got it when she was admitted into the Southern Scholars Honors Society, right after she finished her PhD.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I know it’s old. And it’s not real silver. And I’m guessing it’s worth about twelve dollars.”
“Even better.” She smiled, and he knew she really did think it was.
“Well, it meant something to her, and she meant something to me, and I knew that would mean something to you, if that makes any sense.” He knew he was rambling now, but he didn’t care.
“Perfect sense.” Lena’s eyes were sparkling.
“I know we have a whole lot of our lives still ahead of us. So I don’t want to get, you know, creepy or anything.”
“So our future is creepy now?” She laughed.
“You know what I mean. But the way I figure it, you’re you, and I’m me, and I can’t imagine ever being with anyone else.”
“I know.”
Ethan took a breath. “I tried to think about what it’s like to be with you. Like, the words for it. You’re not going to like it.”
“Try me.”
“It’s, well, it’s… an honor.”
“A what?” She looked pretty horrified, if he was being honest.
He didn’t stop. He had to get the words out. Sometimes the truth was just like that. “Loving you, Lena Duchannes, is the greatest honor of my life. Even knowing you would be, but this—well, this is better.”
“Ethan.”
“I’m not afraid of what’s going to happen to us. The universe can end all over again, and I’ve finally realized it doesn’t matter.”
“No?” Lena smiled wistfully. “You’re not holding out for a fairy-tale ending?”
Ethan shook his head. “This is real, and this is ours. This is my forever, as long as it lasts, and I’ll take it. Some forever with you is better than a thousand forevers with anyone else.”
“Even a fairy?” Lena blinked back tears, though she was smiling. She wiped her eye with one hand—and then used the same hand to wipe Ethan’s.
“What would I want with a fairy?” He kissed the back of her now tear-streaked hand. “And like I said, even this, it’s an honor. Just to be clear.”
“I believe you mentioned that.”
“Marry me, don’t marry me. Save the world with me or not. Love casts a long shadow, Lena Duchannes. I don’t know why I didn’t figure it out before.”
“You did. We both did. I think we worked all that out standing in the middle of Route Nine in the rain.”
Ethan tangled his fingers affectionately in her curls. “Maybe. All I know is, my mom is sitting on our back porch in some sunny other dimension, loving Macon Ravenwood as hard as he loves her, even if it’s only from his dark dungeon of a library. And Amma’s heart is so big I can almost hear it pound, even though there’s a sky between us.”
“Because love is the thing that stays,” Lena said, leaning her head on his shoulder.
That’s right, Ethan thought. He didn’t even have to answer. She heard the words as he thought them.
Because love.
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About the Authors
Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl are longtime friends and coauthors of the #1 New York Times bestselling Beautiful Creatures novels and Dangerous Creatures novels. The first book in the series, Beautiful Creatures, is now a major motion picture. In addition to writing together, they are both acclaimed solo novelists. The Legion series, by Kami Garcia, includes the instant New York Times bestseller Unbreakable and Unmarked, both Bram Stoker Award nominees. Margaret Stohl is the author of the Icons series, as well as the instant New York Times bestseller Black Widow Forever Red and its upcoming sequel, Black Widow Red Vengeance, from Marvel Press. Kami and Margaret invite you to visit them online at kamigarcia.com and mstohl.com.
MORE GREAT STORIES FROM KAMI GARCIA AND MARGARET STOHL
Beautiful Creatures
Beautiful Darkness
Beautiful Chaos
Beautiful Redemption
Dream Dark: A Beautiful Creatures Story
Dangerous Dream: A Beautiful Creatures Story
Dangerous Creatures
Dangerous Deception
ALSO BY KAMI GARCIA
Unbreakable: The Legion Series Book 1
Unmarked: The Legion Serie
s Book 2
“Tense and deliciously twisty, Unbreakable is a breath-stealing midnight run through some of the creepiest locales I’ve seen rendered in fiction.”
—Ransom Riggs, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
ALSO BY MARGARET STOHL
Icons: The Icons Series Book 1
Idols: The Icons Series Book 2
“Epic in scale and exquisite in detail—a haunting futuristic fable of loss and love.”
—Ally Condie, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Matched trilogy
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Welcome
Authors’ Note
Epigraph
I. Fifteen Pies and One Cake
II. A Dog of a Party
III. A Friends-and-Family Council
IV. Down the Aisle
V. With This Ring
VI. The Vow
About the Authors
More Great Stories from Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Copyright
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 by Kami Garcia, LLC, and Margaret Stohl, Inc.
Cover © 2016 Hachette Book Group, Inc.
Cover image © Artens/Shutterstock
Cover design by Maggie Edkins
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
Little, Brown and Company
Hachette Book Group
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The Little, Brown name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
First ebook edition: January 2016
ISBN 978-0-316-30333-0
E3
