Together, they journey through the cemetery until they find the Dean family plot. Riker clears the old flowers off the relevant headstone, and they place the new ones at the base. A sign to all who pass by that the Unbeatable Abigail Dean is gone but not forgotten. And as long as Ella and Riker live on, she never will be.
Ella doesn’t have a god to pray to in order to pass a message along to her mother, but she closes her eyes and says in her mind nevertheless:
Mom,
* * *
I just wanted to let you know that I’m all right. If you’re worried about me, wherever you are, worried about the daughter you left behind—please don’t be. I’ve found a new direction for my life, one I’m sure you’d have hated, but it suits me surprisingly well. I’m good at it, as good as I am at the piano, if not better. I have the opportunity to do great things, and while music will always have a place in my soul—it’s a part of me—my heart beats to a different drum now.
* * *
I hope, if you hear this, that you don’t blame yourself for changing the course of my life. If you want to blame someone, blame that asshole, Sartell. Or blame me. Because your hardheaded daughter couldn’t extinguish the fire that drives her to act “heroic” after it was lit at Charlotte Braun’s house. But really, I don’t want you to blame anyone. Your death changed me, the fight with Sartell changed me, my introduction to the world of the supernatural changed me, true—just like that same knowledge must’ve changed you when you learned it on your first day at the DA’s office.
* * *
So please, Mom, don't be upset. And don’t worry about me either. Change is part of life, and this is how I’ve changed. For the better. For the best. I’m not Ella Dean, pianist in training anymore. I’m Ella Dean, DSI detective. And I’m proud of that fact.
I hope you will be too.
* * *
Sincerely,
Your Daughter
Ella opens her eyes to find them wet, and she quickly wipes away her tears before they can fall. She doesn’t check to see if Riker noticed—he did; he always does—but merely stands there until Riker is finished with his own silent prayer. He lets out a deep breath when he’s done, like he was holding it in the entire time he was speaking to someone he could not see in a way no one could hear, an almost ritualistic habit. He shakes himself out of his morose mood and looks to Ella, questioning if she’s ready to go.
Ella gestures for him to start moving. She lingers at her mother’s grave for another long moment as Riker turns and walks off down the path. She wrings her hands in front of her, glances to the clear blue sky hanging above the city she calls home, the city she loves, for all its people and places, for all its secrets and shadows, for all its men and monsters. Then she says, “Bye, Mom. See you on the other side.”
And she walks away from her mother’s grave.
For the rest of the night, Ella plays a variety of board games with Riker’s team in between gorging herself on vanilla cake and copious scoops of strawberry ice cream. When they’re all played out, Siobhan and Nakamura drop on the sofa, while Chantel and Riker turn the TV to a local sports channel to review some recent game results. Ella sits curled up in a chair for almost an hour, sipping tea and enjoying the feeling of sugary dessert filling her stomach to the brim, after the extended day of stressful exams—they really put her through the ringer.
But she came out the end in one piece.
That’s what matters.
When she doesn’t feel like sitting anymore, she sets her tea on a coaster and looks around for something else to do. She spies, of course, a lovely instrument parked in the corner of Riker’s living room. It looks out of place, this wooden fixture, too large for such a modest home, but not once since the day they hauled it in here has Riker complained about its existence. Or about how often she stops by to play it. Or how late at night she stays, seated on the bench, fingers dancing across the keys.
Smiling, Ella rises from the chair, crosses the room, and takes a seat at the piano.
She begins to play an etude by Chopin.
Enter the City of Crows!
If you enjoyed this City of Crows novella, then check out the main series, starting with Soul Breaker!
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About Clara Coulson
Clara Coulson was born and raised in backwoods Virginia, USA. Currently in her mid-twenties, Clara holds a degree in English and Finance from the College of William & Mary and recently retired from the hustle and bustle of Washington, DC to return to the homeland and pick up the quiet writing life.
Clara spends most of her time (when she's not writing) dreaming up new story ideas, studying Japanese, and slowly reading through the several-hundred-book backlog in her budding home library. If she's not occupied with any of those things, then you can probably find her playing with her two cats or lurking in the shadows of various social media websites.
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