I’d lived for so many years that before Rick had been taken away time had probably literally flown. Five years living without him seemed longer than the thousands of years I’d spent time in human form. I understood why Nate had refused to face reality after I’d taken my partial leave of absence, and he hadn’t had to watch me go into the fire.
I couldn’t just take off and leave things to resolve themselves. The battle had come to a screeching halt when Malphas died, it probably had the second he’d shown up, but I was too busy to notice. I was told after the fact that the demons had all disappeared when the smoke came, which meant everyone got to watch as my life was tilted on its axis.
No one really kept track of how long I sat there on the ground, but I remember Nate telling me we should go check on our babies. Remembering who was watching after them was enough to snap me to attention and I got us back to our home, bringing what I could of Rick with us. There wasn’t a lot, but I wanted to be able to say I had something.
I wasn’t sure how to get to wherever the Fates were keeping our eggs, but it turned out I didn’t need to find them. Eva was waiting in the nursery for us, with the babies right where I remembered seeing them last.
I’d checked to make sure it was actually them, and not some kind of trick. Once I connected with them and verified they were okay, I turned to Eva and threw the strongest fireball I had at her.
Being the all-knowing thing she was, she moved out of the way before it hit her. I’d made my stance on her being anywhere near my family clear, and even after a few attempts on her part we hadn’t spoken a word. I was only ever a pawn for her, as was everyone else I loved.
It made things difficult for Liam, who idiotically still claimed to love her, but I wasn’t about to give him all the reasons for my hatred of his wife. I protected him where I could and the rest was up to him.
The only person who knew everything was Nate. I had a feeling Aisling knew too, as the real her was exactly like the alternate reality version of her. Although, since she had the real me to imitate it was even funnier to watch her stroll through the house bossing everyone around.
My three amazing kids, and their daddy, were what kept me sane as I tried to figure out how to live without Rick. I knew how connected Nate and I were, but I’d felt the strong strings that were cut when Rick died. A part of me knew that Malphas had something to do with some of those strings, but I would never admit it.
“You must think we’re total failures,” a female voice I’d only heard a few times said from behind me.
I’d been sitting in Rick’s room thinking about how long it would take the next year to pass and sharing with him some of the things that he’d missed. It was something everyone allowed me to do on the anniversary of his death. I tried to keep my true moping down to only that day, and it turned out it was easier if they just let me do my thing.
I didn’t bother turning around. She looked too much like her sister and I blamed all three of them about equally for messing up my life. Since it was Atropos, she was as much to blame as Eva. She was the one who had to actually cut Rick’s thread of life.
“How’d you get in? I’ve done a pretty good job of keeping your sister at bay between my magic and a handful of jinn boosting my spells.”
“It works to an extent, but on days like today we felt we’d push our luck and counter it so I could have a little discussion with you.”
She didn’t move from her spot, which probably kept her from getting a fireball haphazardly thrown her way. I made note of needing to work out a better spell and tried to ignore her.
“I know you’re mad and that’s my fault. There had to be a price paid for a miracle and the only thing I could think of was your memory. You’d already used it for your own spell, so I thought it’d be okay to keep a part for myself. In the grand scheme of things, I still think it’s a fair trade.”
I didn’t want to, but I turned around to face her anyway. She didn’t sound like Eva in her constant “I’m better than you” voice. There was a hint of sorry in her voice, which didn’t really help her cause, but I was interested in the words she’d been saying.
“What are you talking about?”
She stood inside the closed door to the room. Her white draped dress shifted as if a wind was there to keep it in constant motion.
“The month you’ve been missing since you came back. You traded it to me for a favor. Most of the time I don’t accept any kind of bargains when it comes to my line of work. It’s one of the reasons I have very little contact with anyone. Even uniques like to barter for a few extra years when they’ve found a human they’re fond of.”
“What favor did I trade it for?” I didn’t bother asking if she’d be able to give the memory back to me. I’d stopped trying to rack my brain for anything I could be missing.
“I think you already know the answer to that, which is why removing the memory was important. You had to have revenge in your heart when you killed Malphas. If you would’ve known the future we’d planned out, it wouldn’t have worked.”
I knew one thing for sure after listening to her, she made about as much sense as her sister. I needed them to take out a whiteboard and draw it out for me.
Before I could ask her to expound on her musings, I heard the doorbell ring. She smiled and nodded.
“It was a good trade, and I believe you’re going to want to go get that. I know you found out about Malphas’ origins and what we did to make sure you didn’t meet, but we’ll talk about that another day. Right now you have something to celebrate.”
She disappeared and the door swung open. There wasn’t anyone there, but a second buzz of the doorbell moved me into action. If I’d read the clues right, I was going to do a lot of celebrating.
“I’ll get it,” I yelled as I flashed to the doorway.
I didn’t have time for running and Charlie was already about to open the door. It was nice having everyone in the house to keep me from wallowing too long, but getting in my way was hazardous to their health.
“You sure you’re okay to greet company, Mom? It looks like you’ve been crying and I know how much you hate it when people see you crying.”
“This guest will relish in the fact that I’ve been crying, and he’ll be lucky I’m happy enough to see him that I won’t mind his jabs.”
I didn’t waste any more time talking. I threw open the door and my hand flew to my mouth when I saw it was really him. A part of me was sure Atropos had been playing a joke on me, but she wasn’t.
Rick stood in front of me, wearing a pair of jeans and a black button-down shirt. I could sense him, and it was different than the feeling I’d been clinging to for years. It was stronger and healthy and alive.
“I heard you might be throwing a party for me today, so I figured I better show up.”
His cocky smile made the tears flow a little faster. I didn’t care as I took a few steps and wrapped my arms around him. We stayed glued together until Nate’s throat cleared behind us. I wanted to stand there and continue verifying Rick was alive, but I supposed other people wanted to see him too.
“Hi, Uncle Rick,” Aisling said as she walked out and pulled on my pant leg. “Mama, there’s some of us here who haven’t had the chance to meet your brother, so maybe you’d like to let him come inside and sit down so we can get a look at him.”
I looked down into her eyes, so much like my own, and laughed. “I suppose that would be the nice thing to do.”
She nodded and trotted back inside. I loosened my grip just enough that we could both walk, and ushered Rick inside. I had questions I hoped he’d be able to answer, but I had a feeling I’d have to contact at least one Fate to get the full story. That Fate still wasn’t going to be Eva.
“Where have you been for the last five years?” I asked. It came out a little accusatory, like he’d been in on the scheme to keep him away from me.
“You would probably know the answer to that better than I would. I remember fighting a demon and Nate yelling at
me, and then nothing. I literally woke up like ten minutes ago and found myself out in the woods leading up to the house. Seeing your little mini-me leads me to believe five minutes hasn’t gone by.”
I shook my head as I sat down on one of our couches. “Not exactly.”
Nate sat down next to me and my mother sat next to Rick. It was a little tight, but I didn’t think anyone cared. Much like the future I’d once seen, everyone had shown up to honor Rick, so the room was overfilled with men trying to keep the fact they were tearing up hidden.
Nate put his arm around me and pulled me back a little. “I’m sure Rick would like to not have to compete for air with you.”
“That’s true, but if I’ve been gone long enough that this little cutie is up to my knee, I can understand why baby girl is having some trouble. Just what adorable little niece are you?” Rick asked.
“I’m Aine. That’s Aisling and that’s Aidan. You look a lot like the picture Mama keeps by her bed.”
“Wow, I can’t believe I’ve been elevated to that honor. She used to only allow pictures of your daddy there.” Rick winked at Aine, then looked back up at me.
“Do you have any idea what happened? Maybe that isn’t something you should answer right now, but I’d like to know if I’m going to get any clues soon.”
“Mama traded some memories to make sure a vision of you dying didn’t come true. Atropos agreed to the trade, but the five years was something she couldn’t really control. There’s a lot of pieces of the puzzle still in motion, so no one knows much more than that right now.”
My eyes darted to Aisling. I wondered how long she knew that Rick was going to come back and the exact details about things. She shrugged her shoulders, which was her move to let me know she wasn’t going to answer any of my questions.
“Well, I guess you know what we know, and what I’d been clued into just before you showed up. I should probably go get you something to eat. You’re always hungry and you haven’t eaten in years.”
As much as I wanted to keep touching him to make sure he didn’t disappear, I needed to be up doing something.
“Do you mind if I come in and grab some water real quick? I know someone would probably run and get it for me, but I’d like make sure you guys weren’t haven’t fun by installing a foosball table in the kitchen while I was gone.”
It was clear when he spoke that he needed a moment of my time without everyone else around. I was fairly certain we had plenty of time to talk when everyone had scattered for the day, but I was curious what he wanted to say.
“Sure, but you have to know I wouldn’t let that kind of atrocity happen.”
Nate rubbed my back quickly as I stood up. It was a nice gesture, and I was a little surprised he wasn’t following us.
“You can fill me in later. I think you two need a moment.” Nate kept the words between the two of us.
“I’ve got quite a few things made for the dinner, so it shouldn’t be hard to find something to nibble on. Since you’re going to be in there, please stir the sauce on the stove,” my mother said.
I knew she had food cooking and had been at it all day. It kind of defeated my need to make something for Rick to eat, but I could stir to try to keep myself from turning into a total blithering idiot.
We kept quiet as we made our way to the kitchen, but I kept a firm grip on his hand, and that was good enough for me. I was sure he had all sorts of questions about what had happened in the years he’d been gone.
“You’re pretty open with your thoughts, baby girl. Do you think you can lock them up for a little bit, at least from the majority of the mind readers in the other room? You’ll probably want to make sure they can’t hear us regularly too, unless you feel like having this chat telepathically.”
His words confused me. We’d made it to the kitchen, so I stopped walking and turned to him. I couldn’t think of anything that would require a cone of silence. He’d just reappeared after five years and had claimed he didn’t have any memories of that time.
I didn’t waste time quizzing him about what he considered secret. I pricked my finger with a kitchen knife I had to move to find and said a spell before returning to my spot.
“Did something happen while you were gone you don’t want everyone else to know? If those Fates played around with you, I will kill all of them. I’ve been doing a lot of research on how to do it and I’m pretty sure I could whip something up.”
“No, what we need to talk about is what someone whispered into my ear before I felt a knife in my chest.”
He didn’t have to say anything else for me to know he was right to make it a private conversation. I would’ve preferred never having the conversation, or at least waiting until he was settled, but it was probably best to get it out of the way.
“What did he say?”
“I have a feeling you won’t be surprised, which is a little concerning.”
“I’ve learned enough surprises about Malphas that it’d be impossible to not know there was always something else out there.”
Rick stood there and just stared at me. I’d hoped he’d be willing to go for the ripping it off like a bandage route, but I wasn’t going to press him. If I waited long enough, he could’ve decided I didn’t need to hear whatever it was he had to say.
“He told me when I came back to let you know that eventually he would too, but he’d made sure things would be different. He said something about wanting you to describe what it felt like when you pushed that knife through his heart. I thought he was a little delusional, since you hadn’t stabbed him, but the worried look on your face tells me differently.”
I’d been wrong about nothing surprising me. I deemed it not the right time to think about what was said. I walked over to the stove and started stirring the sauce.
“I’m sorry I didn’t wait to tell you, but you have to remember no time has passed for me. I’m going to grab a roll and a glass of water and head back out. I’ll keep everyone at bay with my amazing wit until you’re ready to rejoin the party.”
I looked up briefly from my stirring and saw him filling a glass of water. “Thanks, Freddie. I won’t be long. I just need a second to fix this sauce. Mom let it sit at too high of a heat for a little too long.”
He smiled and walked away, knowing I was making up the bit about the sauce. There wasn’t really anything I could do about what he’d said, other than hope the eventuality he mentioned was millennia away. As I got back into my normal routine in a kitchen, I decided that was exactly what it meant and there was no reason to worry.
I’d defeated the bad guy, brought together people who’d been at war for centuries, and I had a family who I adored and they adored me back. Life was perfect, and I promised myself it was always going to be that way.
THE END
AFTERWORD
One last twist
I thought I knew exactly how things were going to end, and it was pretty dang close to what I envisioned. I didn’t see Malphas’ origins, or think they were something that would come into play, but I’m happy they were mentioned, even if they ended up being unexpected.
As I predicted, when I wrote and reread the last two chapters, I had tears streaking down my face. My nose is still a little stuffed up as I write this final note. Avery will always be the first character to take me by the hand and tell me her story. It’s like she’s one of my children and I’m going to miss not writing more about her, much like I did after I took a break a couple years ago.
Hopefully this break won’t last as long, I’ll be a good girl and update Facebook and Twitter when my focus switches back to Avery and the gang. Thank you again to all of those who have found these books and let me know what they think of them.
Amber
About the Author
Amber has always had a passion for the written word. Along with that, she’s always had ideas for stories swimming around in her head. It finally got to the point where she couldn
’t take it anymore and had to start getting her thoughts down on paper. There are still too many ideas, but she is working to get them out as fast as she can. Her hope is that one day her brain will be hers again.
Other hobbies of Amber’s include: drawing, baking, arts and crafts, motorcycles, hockey and archery. She likes to think she has eclectic tastes where her hobbies are concerned. She loves to laugh and tries to make herself smile at least once a day. With the crazy thoughts going on in her head that usually isn't hard.
Other books by Amber Lynn:
Argonauts’ Adventures
The Witch’s Web
The Dragon’s Fire
Daughter of Gaia Series
Daughter of Gaia
Queen of Aquima
Nightwalker Saga
The Nightwalker Knocks
The Nightwalker Teaches
Unlucky in Love series
Calypso in Love
Nani in Love
Rhea in Love
Hermia in Love
Desma in Love
Nyx Slaughter series
Night Calls
Night Marks
Night Bites
Night Howls
Night Lurks
Night Finds
Night Rises
Nyx Slaughter: Books 1-7
Avery Clavens series
Not in My Job Description
Just Another Day at the Office
Working Through the Weekend
Another Day, Another Dollar
The Harder I Work, the Luckier I Get
More Books
Searching for Home
Between Blood
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