Epilogue

The first raysof morning sun had just appeared on the eastern horizon when a Guardian vehicle parked alongside Lucy's jeep. The driver cut the vehicle's supe lights and engine, got out, and shut his door.

Bloodied and splattered with graveling goop, Lucy sat with her back against a fallen tree, her sword at her side. She finished taping gauze on a wound on her arm and stuck the used first-aid supplies in her pocket. "Morning," she said.

"Good morning." Arms crossed, her partner studied the field in front of their vehicles. A dozen gravelings lay in pieces, their decomposing bodies filling the air with the stench of rotting flesh and death magic. "How many total have you killed?" he asked.

"Thirty-seven since I got back from the Underworld. We killed a couple dozen before we left too. Nasty things." With a pained grunt, Lucy got to her feet and returned her sword to its sheath on her back.

She leaned against the tree trunk and held her side. The biggest graveling had thrown her against the tree before she hacked it into a dozen chunks. She suspected she'd cracked some ribs. She didn't tell him that. He'd insist she visit the closest healer, and she wasn't in the mood for it.

If he suspected she was more hurt than she appeared, he didn't let on. He was leaner than the last time she'd seen him, and his hair had gotten a little longer than Guardian regulations permitted. Once upon a time she would have mocked him for that, but not anymore.

"How many more of these things do you think are loose topside?" he asked.

"We haven't gotten any more reports of attacks by shades. This might be the last of them. Bummer. I was having a good time hunting them down. I suppose it's back to business as usual—for both of us." She glanced at him. "I hear you had your hands full with the basilisk nest and the ghouls. Shame you had to miss out on the graveling hunt. This was fun."

His expression didn't change. "I would have come, if you'd asked—and if I knew where you were."

She said nothing.

"Ellis said you went after a dragon by yourself. Again." He was pissed at her—more so than usual. "And you apparently teamed up with a civilian to hunt gravelings and shades topside before taking her with you to the Underworld. And then you refused to identify her or the ghost who guarded the doorway. Why you're not in the brig, I have no idea."

"I'm not in the brig because I told Ellis everything that happened."

He scowled. "I find that difficult to believe."

"Believe it, or don't," she said shortly. "I only knew their first names anyway. Without them, a hell of a lot more people would be dead, both here and…other places. They've all gone back where they came from, and they won't return." She straightened with difficulty. Damn it, her ribs ached.

She didn't want to talk about Walliston, or watching Alice shred the shades in the cemetery, or what they'd faced in the Underworld—especially not with her partner. Ellis had let her simply report what had happened and listened in a clinical, dispassionate way. Her partner wouldn't just let it be a report. In the beginning, he would have, but they were long past that. Things had changed between them and there was no going back.

He joined her by the tree. She wanted to touch him, but she didn't. She wanted to apologize too, but she didn't know where to start or what she should apologize for, so she stayed silent.

His scarred face softened. "I did what you asked: I gave you space. While you were going after dragons and killing things in the Underworld, I hunted black dogs, helped clear out a basilisk nest, and spent several weeks dealing with the mass ghoul rising caused by that major magic flare—and then the aftermath."

She flinched.

Some newly risen ghouls found their way home or to the homes of loved ones. Happy to have their deceased family, friends, or lovers back from the dead, people often hid the undead from law enforcement, despite the danger. And they fought like hell to keep them, threatening to shoot the Guardians trying to save them, even when the ghoul was trying to eat them alive. Given what had happened in Lucy's own family, those incidents always hit just a little too close to home.

"Give me gravelings any day, compared to that," she said finally. "I'd even take a basilisk nest again, even though the last time I had to help clear one out, I damn near died."

"I know." He leaned against the tree beside her and watched the dead Underworld creatures turn to black goo. "I should have been with you. You didn't need to face any of this by yourself."

"I wasn't by myself," she said automatically. "I was with Alice, Malcolm, Alice's guardian wolf Daisy, Esme, and…" She stopped. "A bounty hunter. We were a team, at least by the end."

"You, working as part of a team? Hard to believe."

"It wasn't so bad," she admitted. "I think it worked because there weren't any other Guardians in the group—just a mage, a wolf, a ghost, a cat-dragon, and the other guy." Who happened to be a fallen angel, but she kept that to herself.

She would also never admit she hoped Ronan would return and give her a chance to cross swords with him. Her blade had never tasted an angel's blood, and she was sure it would enjoy the chance to rectify that. Its recent diet of mostly graveling goo had only whet its appetite for more…divine fare.

"It certainly took all of us to complete the mission and survive," she added when the silence stretched out too long. "Daisy and the little witch Torryn knew what they were talking about, apparently."

A long pause. "The wolf knew what she was talking about?"

Lucy smiled. "She did. Smart wolf. Very big, smart wolf." Her smile faded. "I hope they got home safely."

He rose. "Let's get this radioed in to dispatch. I drove all night to get here, so I'll follow you to the closest outpost to turn in my vehicle, and then we'll head out in your jeep. You can debrief me on the way to Dire Springs."

She frowned and followed him back to their vehicles. "What's in Dire Springs?"

"Reports of Cwn Annwfn sightings."

"What?" She stopped with her hand on her door handle. "Does that mean—?"

"Possibly." He opened his own driver's side door. "I'm waiting on confirmation. If it's true, Lord Arawn may be in the area."

The ground beneath them vibrated. Magic blazed up Lucy's arms and sparked from her fingertips, leaving a sizable dent in the jeep's door.

Keeping her own magic hidden during her time with Alice had been difficult but necessary. Others had tried to steal her power. Alice hadn't seemed like the type to stab an ally in the back, but appearances could be deceiving. Dark magic made people unpredictable. And with that death magic eating her alive from the inside, Alice might just have been desperate enough to try her luck. Lucy had liked Alice. It would have sucked to have had to kill her.

Her partner raised his eyebrows at the earthquake and the sound of the metal door bending. "I knew you'd want to know about Lord Arawn."

Lucy took a deep breath and exhaled. Her magic dissipated. The ground stopped shaking. "That cowardly, sneaking son of a bitch." She yanked open her door and got into the jeep. Easy enough to blame the dented door on a graveling. "Let's get to Dire Springs before something else comes up. Arawn's not getting away from me this time."

"Not getting away from us," her partner corrected, getting into his vehicle. "That bastard has eluded justice for too long."

Justice,Lucy thought bitterly. What justice is there for someone like Arawn?

She caught a familiar scent over the stench of the decaying gravelings and the smell of her own blood: incense and iron. She hadn't expected to encounter that distinctive odor again, but apparently a certain crocodile-headed goddess had taken an interest in her.

"Don't crowd me, Ammit," she said under her breath. "Justice comes in many forms. You should know that better than anyone."

The scent swirled in the air around her, then faded.

"What was that?" her partner called through his open window.

"Nothing." With a smile, Lucy tapped Callie's vampire bobblehead to make it bounce. She turned her key in the ignition and shifted into gear. "We're wasting daylight, partner. Let's roll."

TO BE CONTINUED…