Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 109540 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109540 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
The four wanted to see in person Kentarch’s Beast, the great Chariot’s ride, and they promised to return with Tee’s baby shower presents for the Arcana museum.
Tourists couldn’t get enough of the exhibits we’d displayed. I’d relinquished Lark’s letter, Aric’s scythe, and my ballet slippers, among other precious belongings. I would bequeath more mementos upon my death.
I swallowed—if I didn’t win the game . . .
Jack asked me, “Wrong that I kind of like my position?”
“Who wouldn’t like being governor of the Southeast?” He would be in all the history books, the leader of the world’s largest community—a place of hope, run on a tight leash. “What an accomplishment, Jack.”
We’d kept all the regions agrarian. Those who’d lived through an ash-laden hell couldn’t get enough of green fields.
Were there some pockets of resistance out there? Yes. A couple of years ago, those cannibals on the Eastern Seaboard had organized into a new gang—the Teeth. Their leader was, you guessed it, dubbed the Hierophant. Zero points for originality. They even occupied some of the same mines that Guthrie, the real Hierophant, had.
Jack gave his tie a last adjustment. “You know I couldn’t have done it without you.”
I placed my hands on his cheeks and met his gaze. “Yes. You could have.” I wasn’t giving him lip service. He had the patience I’d never mastered, and the people skills I’d left by the wayside. “I wish everyone from before could see you now.” All the folks who’d doubted him.
His shoulders straightened. “You’d keep me as a history podna?”
I grinned at him. “Happily.”
“My biggest accomplishment is holding on to you.” He clasped my hands and pressed a tender kiss on each palm. “Doan know how I got so lucky, me.”
Arm in arm, we turned toward the door. As we descended the stairs, my gaze took in the framed pictures on the wall. We had them of our children, my parents, and grandmother. Mel. Jack’s mom, Clotile, and his old buddies.
I’d finally been strong enough to hang the picture of Aric, Circe, Lark, and me from the night of the battle. . . .
When Jack and I exited the front door, horses nickered from the stables. Thanatos’s line had carried onward through Titan, to an entire stable for us and our kids.
In addition to the white roses that flourished at Haven, in honor of both Aric and Matthew, I’d planted yellow roses beside the front porch steps ten years ago in memory of Sol. I glanced down at his icon on my hand.
I’d received it with no way of knowing how he’d died, until a couriered letter had arrived from across the sea, informing me that Sol had suffered a heart attack in bed. Rumor held that the Sun God had been with several amantes, shining in delight all the way to the end.
I missed him, but grief didn’t feel appropriate. He’d lived his life exactly as he’d chosen. Wine, women, men, and song. I’d put markers for him, Circe, and Lark in the cemetery.
Only Matthew and I remained.
As long as I didn’t use my powers, I felt fine. I’d be fine. I trusted Matthew, even though I had never heard from him again.
As Jack and I often did, we stood side by side on the porch, his muscular arm looped around my shoulders as we surveyed Haven. He inhaled deeply, rubbing his chest with emotion. “We are home, Evie Deveaux.”
A distant memory whispered from the past: We are home, Evie Greene.
We hadn’t been then; we’d had such a long way left to go. To get here.
Yet it didn’t feel long. Before I could blink, decades had passed like a flash of Joules’s lightning.
Time was a thief—who kept on stealing.
Jack said, “Remember when you told me how badly you wanted to see a field of cane beneath a blue sky? That the rasp of their leaves made your heart swell.”
“It does even now.” I leaned against his strong frame, ivy embracing an oak. “You assured me I’d see it again. That we could do anything together.”
“We did. We built this place and raised a passel of kids.” He sighed in contentment as the southern breeze rustled the leaves. “Smell that honeysuckle, would you? Even now I could die a happy man.” He turned to face me. “Only got one worry, me.”
Oh, not now, Jack. Once or twice a year, he would bring up the subject of exiting the game.
And I would always remind him of upcoming events we couldn’t miss. Tee and his wife were going to have another baby this winter, and Karena was getting married in the spring. We had a harvest coming soon and the museum to expand. A temple in town was in the works for all the pilgrims who kept arriving.
But even if I could bear to part from my family, I worried about Matthew. And shouldn’t I be ever loyal to him? I believed he’d set into motion this magnificent life for me, then left me to go live it.