Chapter Twenty-Four

“You should stay for Halloween if you’re feeling up to it. It’s a big deal here. Paranormal sorts welcome,” Simeon leaned on the supersized Mustang “minivan” as Hades and Seph finished another prolonged liplock.

“We’ll go home and run things for you two,” Milly quickly volunteered. “Zag and I can handle the basic incoming list, Dad.”

“I want to go home. I want to see home!” Seph opened her eyes and looked around. “Where are we?”

“Country Pines Motel. So you can have a bit of bonding time before you go home and everyone wants to celebrate your return, ma’am,” Simeon bowed and cursed himself internally. He’d slipped back into his old Victorian speech patterns in the presence of a queen—and Emily was probably laughing at him.

“Well... Maybe for a night, my love? The children will be fine. We can all have dinner together first. OR they can get an adjoining room! A family vacation, love, we haven’t had—”

“No! No, no.” Zag held up a hand. “I mean, yes, we want to be with Mom, and we want a vacation. We just want you to have a little alone time first. Not even the walls of Tartarus are thick enough to—”

“Zagreus!” Milly hissed, stomping on her brother’s foot.

Persephone hugged her children. “I will be squeezing both of you for hundreds of years to come. I have much time to make up for. But, I’m proud that you have matured into such thoughtful, kind people who understand how to give a thoughtful gift, like a little time alone.”

“Speaking of gifts,” Hades stepped forward, bringing Seph with him. “Whatever your heart desires, Simeon.”

“Emily first, please.”

Emily looked at him. “You had the sword dangling over your head.”

“Do it,” Simeon said and closed his mouth.

Emily rocked from foot to foot. “I don’t know what you can give me.”

Hades smiled. “Try me. I possess all material wealth—and yes, I will need my credit card back, Simeon.”

“I don’t want to feel guilty about loving Simeon.”

Simeon twisted around to face her so fast he left a divot in the lawn of the motel. “What?”

“Oh, my dear. That’s something I could give you—but it’s better if you get it for yourself. To choose to love someone in spite of old prejudices, to see him as the exception, rather than the rule... That’s a gift you can give yourself. If I give it to you, you’ll always wonder if your feelings are real. No. Don’t ask for that, my dear,” Hades shook his head.

“Hey, listen. Emily, listen. I got a soul. I have a soul. I’m not pure and perfect, but I do have a soul. You know I can love you now that I’m closer to human. You don’t have to feel guilty. I would have asked for that—so you could have a soulmate. A soul for yours, see?” Simeon took her hands.

Emily frowned and brought her hands slowly up to cup his face, staring at him in the purple-black night that would usher in the last day of October. “I loved you without that—even though I believed I shouldn’t. I would love you anyway, you idiot. I don’t even know if I could stop myself. I’m in love with you. Guh!” Emily threw her hands down, frowned, and lightly kicked his shin. “You win.”

“I do win. I have you! The greatest treasure and prize in my life, Huntress! If you’re the only thing I want, the thing I would live and die for, doesn’t that mean you win? You were told you had to get Simeon Crow and end his reign of terror. Well, I’m perfectly willing to follow you around like a lovesick puppy and never even show my fangs again. I’m vanquished, Van Helsing!” He lightly slugged her arm. “ You win.”

“Oh, these two are charming! Hades, we will have them over for dinner, won’t we?”

“Of course! Although I might suggest we pick a restaurant, dear. Dining in the Underworld can be tricky for mortals.” Hades gave his wife a smile, then turned to her rescuers with a slightly impatient look. “Should I come back to the gift portion of our arrangement later?”

“I want a car! A plain, ordinary car! Not one that pops to Bermuda or China at the touch of a button.” Emily blurted.

“Car.” Hades snapped his fingers, and a shining red sedan appeared. “2030 Jaguar.”

“But... It’s not 2030.”

Hades hemmed and hawed for a moment. “Noooo, but this is going to be a very good model, and it won’t start accumulating miles until then. So, it’s a particularly good gift,” Hades said, patting the hood with a fond smile.

“Thank you! I love it!” Emily actually hopped in place.

Simeon beamed. Nice to see her act joyful. Excited. Like a little kid. Wish she could have that childhood back.

But she can’t. And she wouldn’t be the person I fell in love with without all the things that made her who she is. Even the gods of life and death didn’t try to rewind time to help Seph deal with what she went through.

I guess all he can try to do is help her work through it, and love her as she does. Try to give her the best rest of immortality ever.

“Can you give me a beautiful diamond ring in Emily’s size, but make it especially sturdy? No, more than sturdy, unbreakable ? She gets into all sorts of scrapes fighting, and not to mention all the heavy lifting she does at the market.”

“Simeon!” Emily hissed.

Hades snapped his fingers. “Done.”

Simeon felt a cold, smooth band of gold drop into his hand, a blindingly bright star-cut diamond dominating the circlet. “Put this on, Huntress.”

“Simeon, I—”

“You love me. I love you. I know you had a rotten childhood, and I had a rotten... well, pretty much everything. If we failed, I wouldn’t be here. Now, we have time left. Years, I hope. Decades! I want to spend all the time I have left giving you the best life a person could ever have. The best way I know how to do that is to make sure you know how much I love and want you. How much I’ll be there for you when you need me. Sickness and health, richer or poorer, apocalypse and demons or peace and happiness.” Simeon got down on one knee and glared up at her defiantly. “How else can you keep me in line without constant direct supervision?”

“But... We just ... We just got to be friends !”

“So? Friends first, then lovers. It’s a great way to start. Hey, your father already fixed us up, remember? Introduced us,” he smirked. “‘Crow is yours.’ He said that. Now, take me.” His eyes sparkled with hungry mischief.

Emily’s blushing cheeks turned an even darker shade of pink. “That’s not what he meant, Simeon!”

“It’s open to interpretation!”

“Simeon, it’s too much. No one has ever... No one has ever loved me like this, so fast. So completely.” Her lower lip trembled. “It can’t be real.”

“Oh, it’s real. 24 karat and a shiny rock the size of a golf ball’s worth of real, Huntress. I dare you to marry me, Van Helsing,” he growled, a teasing glint in his eye. “Can’t ignore a challenge from a vamp, can you?”

Emily’s startled face hardened. “Fine!” She held out her hand, fingers shaking.

“Um. Wait. I don’t think this is exactly how one should propose...” Hades looked nervously between the couple and then turned to his wife and children. “Seph, maybe we should ask them—”

“Dad.” Zag pointed behind his father. “I think it’s okay.”

Hades turned back around in time to witness Simeon swooping Emily up into his arms as they shared a resounding kiss.

“Ah. Good.”

Seph tugged on Hades’ arm. “We should go inside and let the kids get home.”

“What about the vampire? It’ll be dawn in a few hours,” Hades fretted. To his wife, he whispered, “I did threaten to send him and all vampire spawn into Tartarus for eternity. Considering what a nice person he turned out to be, I feel a little guilty.”

“I think they’ll come up for air by then. Look, there they go.” Seph smiled as the newly engaged couple sprang apart at last. “Congratulations, you two. May you have a love like ours.” She leaned against Hades and snuggled into his side as he put his arm around her shoulders. “One that lasts a thousand years without wavering.”

“Something steady. Always there,” Emily agreed, eyes shining at Simeon.

“Worth going on for.” Simeon smiled back.

Persephone came forward and took Simeon and Emily by the hands, garlands of white flowers springing from her touch to adorn them. “Thank you. You have no idea how grateful I am, how much I wish... Words cannot express... Thank you ,” she concluded, kissing each one briefly on the cheek.

Simeon looked at Emily, his own forbidden love, his own treasure. My own Seph, he thought.

“No, thank you ,” he whispered and led Emily toward her new car.

Hades and Seph disappeared inside the motel. Zag and Milly simply disappeared.

“Want to go home?” he murmured, settling in the car, not at all surprised to see their luggage was already inside it.

“No. Not until after we got to the magic store and let the rest of the family know we’re okay,” she sighed, running her hands over the steering wheel.

“You said family,” Simeon pointed out as she drove through the dark streets of Pine Ridge.

“I know.” Emily drove past the Night Market. “Still open. Want to shop?”

“No!”

She chuckled and flexed her fingers. Her ring felt heavy—and perfect. A solid reminder that someone loved her enough to ask for her to share his entire life, good or bad. “I love my ring—and the husband that comes with it.”

“Mmm. Thank you. You know... I didn’t mean to rush you into things. I had been thinking this whole time about how I could use my wish for you. Maybe wish for you to find true love. Or get your mother back? I even thought about asking for my own soul, so maybe you’d... love me.”

“Oh, Simeon,” she whispered. Her heart clenched inside her chest at the desperate wistfulness in his voice.

“I bet he’d give us another if we asked. If you want something instead of the ring.”

“Are you kidding?” Emily screeched, clutching the ring to her chest and glaring at her future groom with wide eyes.

Simeon sighed. “Thank God.”

“But I do wonder if Hades might do one other favor?”

“What?” Simeon sat up in his plush leather seat, his pale face tight with sudden worry.

“Do you think he’d be your best man? He did push us together. I thought you might ask Jakob Minegold, but it just occurred to me that maybe he could walk me down the aisle instead?” Emily said aloud, a hesitant question in her voice.

“I think it ought to be the other way around. Hades can walk you down the aisle so he can make bad dad jokes during the reception as the father of the bride—even though he’ll only be able to stay for a few minutes before he’ll have to go off to sort out an underworld traffic jam or something.”

Emily gave a deep, contented sigh. “Either way, it’ll probably work out.”

“Abso-bloody-lutely!” Simeon vowed. “As long as we’re together, it’ll work out. No, even if we’re apart, it’ll work out. Like Hades and Persephone, Huntress. I swear, I will always love you, always find you. Never leave you—until not even death does us part.”

Emily curled her fingers around his and squeezed. “I agree to your terms, vampire,” she teased in a voice full of happy tears.

Simeon chuckled and leaned over, lips brushing her shoulder. “Truce.”

If you enjoyed this book, I would love for you to leave a review!

If you want to read a steamy epilogue told from Simeon’s point of view, please continue! If you want to leave the story right here and skip an extra dose of steam, stop reading now. Just know that everyone has a happily ever after no matter where you end!