Chapter 73

CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE

JOULES

1 boba later … (that same night)

Kaycee and I are sitting on the edge of my bed.

It almost felt impossible to leave my family to come up here, to reconcile the fact that I’m alive after really, truly being dead. I was dead, and Joe was there. I’m not sure that he is anymore, like maybe he left to start a new life somewhere else, but I just don’t know.

“What was it like?” my future wife whispers, her fingers tangled in mine.

I turn to her, but I can’t make myself say it. Because there aren’t words. It was movement and love, and that’s all that I know. Fuck, well, I guess owe my ancestors some apologies. I always thought they were hacks for refusing to write about this.

I force my lips into a smile, digging my fingers into Kaycee’s dark hair. Her big, brown eyes swell with tears, but I kiss them off. My wrist is bare. I’m alive. My sister is alive. Joe is dead, but life is never perfect. It’s just … life. Imperfect and beautiful.

“I will never take you or my family or anything else for granted ever again.” I hold my hand against the side of Kaycee’s face, and she leans into me. There’s a knock at the door, but it opens before I can say anything else.

Lake and Tam, they’re holding hands as they walk into my room together.

Then it’s just the four of us, the idea of magic, and the sense that we have a long future ahead of us.

“We broke the curse,” Lake says, and Tam lifts her hand up to his lips to kiss her knuckles. Since I died and came back to life today, I give the guy some grace. He isn’t so bad. Could’ve done a lot worse. “Joe broke everyone’s curse.”

“That means our future kids won’t be cursed either, will they?” Tam asks, a wonder in his voice that’s reflected in Kaycee’s face, in my sister’s smile.

“Why don’t we get started on that, KQ, so we can find out?” I growl, and Kaycee snorts. Her cheeks flush, and I grin as I lean in to nip at her lower lip.

“Maybe in ten years, Joules Frost.” She stands up and holds out her hand, raising a brow in invitation. “Telescope?” she whispers. I take her hand in mine, grab my sister’s with the other, and the four of us make a chain going down the stairs and into the yard.

The rest of the family joins us, a group of warm hearts and wondrous eyes looking toward the sky.

We set the telescope up, and we peer through it, and there’s the Heart Nebula staring back at us from the other side of the galaxy. Stars and a lawn covered in brown petals. A dead tree.

Hope.

I give a little laugh and rub my hand over my mouth.

Tam is holding Lake, rocking her back and forth. My parents are gazing at one another like they fell in love all over again today. Aunt Lisa is sitting in a chair with Joe’s picture in her lap, smiling.

Tam’s stupid manager is pacing and cursing while his bodyguard leans against the wall and talks with Ella in low, reverent tones. Because he saw it. We all saw it.

Magic.

“We did it,” Lake says, sidling up to me. “We did it, Joules.”

“We did,” I reply, taking her in my arms and looking up at the sky. Tam and Kaycee stay close, and I imagine that the four of us will be spending a lot of time together. Because if you have time, use it wisely. “Thank you, Joe!” I call out, and Lake laughs.

Another drone flies into the yard and Uncle Rob picks up the shotgun.

Thank fuck for that.

Who knows what stories the paramedics are going to tell about what they saw.

Who cares?

The ruined drone falls into the cloud of brown petals on the lawn as I hug my sister and my girlfriend close.

And that’s the story of how the Frost Family broke the curse.

Peace and love and all that shit.

Goodbye and goodnight.