Epilogue

HALWEN

" I 'm just saying, if you wanted to give me a medal of valour, it would go very nicely with my jacket," I drawled, my smile tired but refusing to be snuffed out as I walked beside Lucifer down the newly repaired hallways of the Iarlon palace.

"I was considering a reward—" he began.

"Fuck medals, rewards are my favourite. How much are we talking?"

The devil couldn't suppress a smile, his crimson eyes glittering. He looked better than the last time I saw him—when we got back to the palace after the battle at the Damned Realm and found him covered in Cronus's stomach goop and his own blood, running down a corridor to crash into Lili. I hadn't been much better; I flowed in and out of consciousness, my arms cut up, blood smearing my hair to my scalp. Now, Lucifer looked healthy, powerful, and I hoped I did the same.

"Land," he replied dryly. "A sizable plot of it on the edge of a forest whose name bears remarkable similarity to yours."

I gasped, pain and emotion and something very close to happiness crushing my heart in my chest. "I swear, if you're lying—"

"I wouldn't lie about something so important to you. You'd own the land from the edge of the forest all the way to Moraena. You're not free to overrun the town, but you can do anything with the undeveloped land."

"You're really serious," I breathed, smiling so wide that it tugged a cut on my cheek.

"I really am. I—shit," he hissed, his head snapping up when footsteps pounded down the hallway towards us. Lili was back to normal mode, her scary goddess mode turned off like mine now we weren't under threat, but her mouth was in a flat line and there was something dangerous about the glimmer in her eye. She walked so fast that her pale lilac dress streamed out behind her, feathers rippling in her brown wings. Lili was one of the kindest, most understanding and generous people I'd ever met, but I would not fuck with her right now.

"I get the impression you're in trouble, Lucy," I said, eyeing the devil.

"You're supposed to be resting in bed!" Lili hissed, close enough for me to see the panic amid the wrath in her expression.

"I found him in the dining hall," I supplied helpfully, like he was a lost dog I'd returned to their owner.

Lili's wrath softened, her brown eyes going so tender that I looked away, intruding on an intimate moment. "You were hungry," she breathed, closing the distance between us and reaching out her hand. Lucifer linked their fingers without hesitation, a matching softness in his eyes that made me ache for my mates even though I'd left them mere minutes ago.

"Yes," he agreed, walking between me and Lili down the hallway.

I shot him a dry look, a smirk curving my mouth as I told Lili, "He was organising a clean-up operation."

Lili's eyes narrowed on her man's face. "That sounds dangerously like work, Luc."

"I assure you, Lilia, there was nothing even remotely resembling work. Just a conversation on the merits of us using magic versus manual labour in removing the mess the rebellion made."

That rebellion had ended swiftly. Lili had them all by the balls anyway, but the second word spread that Lucifer was back, alive, the whole coup fell apart. The spirits were still running amok though; Asta and Renna, both whole and unharmed and as fierce as ever, tried to pull him into a conversation about controlling them but he'd already ducked out the door after me. 1

"Hm," Lili said with a clear warning, eyeing him as we walked. "That better be true. You know what'll happen if I find you working before you're fully healed, Luc."

"Oooh," I teased, "someone's getting his sex privileges revoked."

Lucifer's dark head whipped towards me, his eyes bright with outrage. "I am the devil!"

"And my friend's the Queen of Hell. Cool, huh?"

His gaze flattened with exasperation.

"She's a badass and I love her," I told him. "Hurt her, and I'll cut your balls off, dry them, grind them into a powder, and use them to season your dinner. You'll never know," I whispered.

He looked horrified. Lili snorted.

"I'm glad you're both okay," I added with a genuine smile, pausing when we came to the turn in the corridor that would take me to the huge, golden infirmary. "It got a little dicey there."

"I knew you could do it," Lili replied, nothing but warmth in her eyes when she met my gaze. "Not just because the prophecy said you could, but because you're you. You fight hard for what you believe in."

I wouldn't have said that.

"You didn't stop looking for your mates until you found them," Lucifer pointed out, though his eyes never actually left Lili.

"And it's obvious how much you love Hell," Lili pointed out, returning his loving stare until I started to feel like a third wheel. "You've fought like crazy to keep it safe."

"Crazy is a good choice of word," I agreed with a faint smirk. "I appreciate the vote of confidence. Really. But if Hell goes to shit again and you need someone to save it, you don't know me, we've never met, and there's no such person as Halwen Vakhara."

Lili's answering grin was crooked. "Halwen Vakhara? It doesn't ring a bell."

I winked. "I like you."

"I like you too," she replied, her grin softening to a smile.

"Sorry, Lucy, but I'm stealing your girl," I said and pulled Lili into a tight hug, her wings knocking into mine as we both squeezed each other. It was a long, grateful to be alive type of hug, and emotion choked off my throat, burning my eyes. I was lucky to have her, to have Renna and Tali and Asta—friends who had my back even if it meant facing down a titan and his shadow army. And sure, Asta had been furious because Cronus took Renna, and Lili had been there to save her man, but they were there with me, and it meant more than I'd realised until I got home.

"My name is Lucifer."

"Sure it is, Lucy," I agreed, finally letting Lili go and surprised to see her eyes shiny like mine.

"Go, be with your mate," she said, pretending her voice wasn't choked. "And just—thank you. For killing him. None of us could have done it, and I would have lost everything . Thank you. I'll never ask for your help ever again."

"More beautiful words have never been spoken," I joked, 2 giving them both a smile significantly weaker than it was before she mentioned Wane. I backed towards the hallway to the infirmary. "Maybe keep an eye on Asta and Renna… They might have started a war with the spirits by the time Lucy here gets back to work."

"Noted," Lili agreed, fighting a laugh. "We have a plan for handling that. And Cronus's army."

"Uh." I gave her a weird look. "Harvey obliterated Cronus's army."

Lucifer winced. Oh boy, this was gonna be bad news.

"He… didn't actually bring his army to the Damned Realm," Lili said, her tone carefully neutral. "He wasn't expecting a fight he couldn't win, so he stashed them away somewhere."

"Presumably we have no idea where," I groaned.

"Nope. And we don't know who they are, what species, or if they were freely supporting him or compelled like the soldiers on the field."

I stuck my fingers in my ears. "Can't hear you. Didn't hear a single word you said. Living in blissful ignorance from this day forward."

And with that, I turned my back on them and hurried into the infirmary before they could drop any more unfortunate truth bombs.

Sure, I was the Fury, and I'd killed a titan, but I wasn't having anything to do with any more quests of greatness and save the world missions. I was settling down and living happily ever after.

Non-fucking-negotiable.

It had been two weeks since the battle at the Damned Realm, and Wane was stable but still doing his best Sleeping Beauty impression.

"Hey, you," I said, sinking into the chair at his bedside and frowning when it was more padded and comfortable than usual. "What the…" I reached behind myself for the cushion that had appeared magically from thin air, and choked back a sob. "That stupid, thoughtful, romantic psychopath."

The cushion was dark navy blue with a grey rabbit sewn onto it in clumsy stitches, its eyes massive compared to its face, eldritch and foreboding and insanely cute. One of its ears was folded over, the other sticking straight up with a bow stitched in baby pink thread.

It was a throwaway request I made weeks ago in the safe house near the Kyora mountains. I never expected Kai to remember, but I should have known my romantic mate better. I settled back in the chair with the cushion clutched to my chest, tears rolling down my cheeks.

I cried at literally everything and I was only six weeks into my pregnancy. The next seven months were going to be very, very interesting. But at the end of it, we'd have a tiny, red-faced baby. Not a trick, not a lie meant to break us, but a real child. Cronus had all-but confirmed it with his cruel taunting.

The child you're carrying would be the one to survive if only I wasn't about to kill you.

I was still being extremely careful, walking on eggshells, giving up sparring and thievery for the time being, but… I was hopeful in a way I'd not been for years.

Funny how things work out. The titan who put us through nightmare after nightmare had given me hope in the end. It was still satisfying to remember him exploding into smears of blood, though. Good fucking riddance.

"Kai actually needlepointed me a pillow," I told Wane, reaching out to brush the backs of my fingers down his cheek. It was warm, the main thing that staved off my panic that I'd lost him, and stubbled since he'd been unconscious for weeks. It gave him a sexy ruggedness that I didn't hate at all. "He's insane."

Like I did most days, I curled up in the chair and reached down the bridge between our souls for Wane, checking for new damage, making sure he wasn't fading away. He was so much stronger than he'd been a week ago, Harvey's healing magic working wonders as well as all the healers who worked in the palace. But it wasn't just being cut open by a massive sword that had hurt him; we found out much, much later that Cronus had been pulling from Wane to keep his shadow army replenished. He used the one shadow he stole from Wane as a connection, and like a leech sucked his magic.

"Stop running, you'll break your neck!" Wynvail yelled from the hallway outside the small, warm room where Wane had been set up in a bed, hooked to magic and machines.

"Bite me, asshole!" Verena yelled back, slamming the door open and skidding into the room with her red hair flowing down past her shoulders, blue jeans scuffed at the knee, and a chaotic grin on her face. "Hey. Any change?"

"No. And Wyn's right; those corridors are death traps. Be careful."

She rolled her eyes in true scornful teenage fashion, dropping into the chair opposite mine, then swinging her legs over the chair arm. "I was thinking," she began.

"Wonders will never cease," I drawled, grinning when she scowled.

"Wane's gonna wake up soon," she said, picking at the black polish that clung in scraps to her fingernails. "And I've heard there's a team being put together to find all Cronus's goons who ran from Harvey. I should join them." Before I could speak, or Wyn could argue, she rushed on, "That way I'll have something to push me to learn my magic better, and I can be out of your hair. With a new baby—"

"I presume you say new baby because you're my old baby?" I asked, burying the shards of pain that punched my heart.

She narrowed her green eyes at me.

"You're not going anywhere," Wynvail said firmly. "And that's final."

Verena's scowl deepened. "You really want a teenager around when you've got a newborn? Or even when you've got a hormonal, temperamental pregnant lady?"

"I do," Wyn said without hesitation. "Stop thinking you're anything but family. We're keeping you. Besides, if you ran off to join a hunting team, you know Haley would just follow you to drag you back."

"I would," I agreed, hugging my cushion and trying very, very hard not to cry. But I'd been through nightmare after nightmare lately; I deserved to cry a lot. I'd earned it. "Not that they'd take a kid with them, even if you're a tough little badass."

"I'm not little," she snapped, annoyance flashing across her freckled face.

"You're tiny."

Her eyes narrowed to slits.

"And very cute," Wyn added, suppressing a smirk.

"Adorable," I agreed.

She made a throaty sound and swung her legs off the chair arm, throwing herself to her feet. "You're so annoying."

"Don't go far," I called when she headed for the door. "Remember Cerberus are sweeping out all the spirits left in this place, so we're under a six p.m. curfew."

Verena's baleful irritation faded, replaced with a serious fear I hated to see. She glanced back at us and begrudgingly said, "I won't go far."

"Have you heard from the guard you have a crush on?" Wynvail asked, settling into the chair she vacated with a groan that betrayed his tiredness and worry. He smiled more freely so it was harder to see the lines cut into his eyes and around his mouth, an exhaustion barely concealed by his quicksilver eyes.

"I do not," she snarled, starting forward a step like she'd fight him. "Have a crush. On anyone!"

"The lady doth protest too much," a croaky voice drawled, and we all startled like we'd been shocked by the same lightning bolt.

"Wane!" I cried, spinning in my chair and grasping his hand, squeezing tighter than I should have. "Are you okay? Are you in pain? Tell me where it hurts."

"Will you kiss it better?" he asked with wickedness twined among the weakness in his eyes.

"Always," I promised.

"I can't believe you woke up just to tease me about having a crush," Verena muttered, stalking back towards the bed and resting against the wooden footboard. 3

"I'm not in pain," Wane assured me, trying to pull himself upright. Wyn and I left to our feet, fluffing up the same pillow so Wane had something to rest his back against. "Just weak. My shadows feel… drained."

I brushed an errant lock of chestnut hair off his forehead and said nothing. We'd all agreed it was better that Wane didn't know Cronus had sucked his magic out of him, using the shadow he stole like a straw. He'd struggle to sleep as it was; the truth would only give him worse nightmares. So I kissed his stubbled cheek and said, "You were stabbed by a massive fucking sword, Wane. Give yourself time to recover."

He was an awful patient, though. Harvey would lay in bed all day when he was sick, getting us all to dote on him. Wane would assume everything was fine and get up and act normal even with a fever and sweat running down his face.

"It wasn't the queen who ran me through was it?" he asked, reaching for the glass of water on the bedside table; Wyn got there first and pressed it into his brother's hand so he didn't have to strain.

"Verena," I murmured, catching her eye. "Go run and get everyone else. Harvey first."

She nodded seriously and didn't argue, though her eyes lingered on Wane. "I'm glad you're alright."

His answering smile was tired but so soft. "I'm glad to see you unharmed, too, Verena. You saved us."

She scoffed, rolling her eyes even as her cheeks went pink.

"You did," he insisted. "You took Cronus away, and gave Harvey chance to blast his shadows apart"

Her blush deepened. She shrugged. "I just threw one of Wyn's weird magic things. It was nothing."

My eyes went right to Wynvail, finding him fighting emotion as I expected. She called him Wyn. Harvey had last week, too. It was irrefutable proof that Wynvail was family, and ours. Wanted, loved. All the things Cronus told him he'd never be.

"You throwing Wyn's magical shit was the reason I was able to kill Cronus," I disagreed with Verena, perching on the edge of Wane's bed. The chair was too far away. I needed to be here, feeling his breath on my skin, his warmth seeping through his leg into my hip.

Wane inhaled jaggedly, his stare snapping to me.

"He's dead," I said softly, sliding my palm along his cheek, stroking my thumb over one of his many scars. "I killed him. He can never hurt you again."

"How?" he asked, his voice thick. Verena ducked out the door to find the others, but I gave Wane my full attention, keeping eye contact.

"Verena threw that gold sphere, do you remember it?" When Wane nodded, a furrow between his tired eyes, I said, "It made a world the size of a house, that's what Wyn said—but it actually made a house that was a whole separate world. Cronus and I ended up there, but he wasn't supersized and massively powerful. It was like the house levelled the playing field."

Wane's eyes filled with tears as I explained the rest, skipping over Cronus's emotional torture and mind games when fear and horror entered Wane's eyes—I never once mentioned what he told me about making Wane kill us—but by the time I reached the end, exploding him in the Damned Realm, Wane's eyes shone with pride.

"You did it," he breathed, his bottom lip wobbling. "You really killed him."

"I really did. He's gone."

His throat bobbed, his expression so torn that Wyn reached for him too, squeezing Wane's shoulder.

"I'm free," Wane whispered, choking on hope and shock and relief. "I'm really free."

WYNVAIL

"This place is as lovely as I remember," I drawled, wrinkling my nose at the stench of piss, shit, sweat, and blood.

"It's worse than I remember," Haley replied, gripping my hand in a white-knuckled grip as we walked down the endless black corridor that ran under the Damned Realm. Solid doors alternated with the bars of cells on our left. Every now and then there were delightful puddles our boots splashed through, the light from my white magic, and the glow from Haley's golden dagger, not reaching far enough into the dark to illuminate them.

I glanced at her dagger now, still not used to the way it shone with pure, radiant gold instead of blood-red. We'd all expected her magic to fade back to normal since she murdered Cronus three months ago, but nope, it was still as gilt and godly as ever. I was starting to wonder if my mate hadn't elevated from a god descendent to a goddess herself. Halwen Vakhara, goddess of sarcasm, kindness, and knife fights.

"What are you thinking?" she asked, throwing me a strange look.

"That you're a goddess and I want to worship you. But not here," I added quickly. "We'd both get rabies, tetanus, and herpes, somehow all at once."

She shuddered, edging closer to me as we walked as fast as possible. "I hate this place. I hate thinking of Wane being locked down here for a hundred years."

I brought our joined hands to my mouth, brushed a lingering kiss over her knuckles. "I know. I hate it, too. I wish I could have done more."

She gave me an understanding look and squeezed my hand. "You did everything you could. Cronus controlled you as much as he ever did Wane, don't forget that. You were his prisoner too, just in a different way."

My stomach knotted, the scars on my thighs burning even if they'd stopped causing me pain the moment he died. "I know. It just doesn't feel right that I had Alphaven and Wane had this."

Her eyes softened in the white-gold light. "I know. But he's dead, and everything that's done is done. You have to stop beating yourself up over things you couldn't control, Wyn."

I winced. "I didn't mean to make this self-pity hour."

She huffed, knocking her shoulder into mine lightly. "You're allowed a little self-pity. We all are. And you know that's not what I meant."

My stomach squirmed when she gave me the look.

"Say it."

I bit the tip of my tongue, but spoke the words she had me recite several times a week. They got easier each time, slicing through me like fish hooks less and less. And I was starting, very slowly, to accept them.

"My name is Wynvail."

"Hi, Wynvail, I'm Haley," she said sweetly, making me snort.

"I have an amazing family and a mate who loves me."

"So fucking much," she breathed, her eyes on me as we walked through the cesspit.

"I have people who'll care if I'm hurt and miss me if I die."

"So don't, problem solved."

I smiled, her humour making it easier to get the final words out.

"I'm not a monster or an abomination." And her newest addition: "And I deserve forgiveness."

She paused, reaching onto her tiptoes to kiss me. She was taller than most women in our lives, but our height difference still made me smile. I took mercy on her and tipped my head, meeting her halfway for a quick, burning kiss that made me wish we were anywhere but here. But we came for a purpose, and I wasn't leaving until we'd achieved it.

"I'm proud of you," she murmured, drawing a lump to my throat. I could handle saying I wasn't a monster, but that? It reached right into the vulnerable places inside me like sunlight.

"I'm the one with a goddess mate; I should be saying that to you."

"I'm not a goddess," she scoffed, squeezing my hand as we resumed walking, the tunnel dark and close and disgusting around us. Quiet—still. It was unsettling as fuck, and so was the way our voices echoed.

"Just a Fury then," I murmured.

She scowled. "I'm ignoring that. No grand fates, no events picked out by destiny. Nope, I'm done. I can exact my Fury duties by keeping you all safe from your own stupidity. No double Harvey and Kai will start getting into bar fights as soon as we leave the palace."

I grinned. We were moving soon, but not into the safe house we'd lived in temporarily. No, this was somewhere permanent. Somewhere fully ours, where we could be safe for the rest of our lives. But Haley and Verena were organising it with Tali, and none of them would spill a word of it to the rest of us.

"And I can use my scary Fury powers to scare off any of Verena's potential boyfriends. Until we find one that's good enough for her, of course."

"Of course," I agreed, straining my ears, sure I'd heard something in the distance. I reached deeper into my magic just in case. I wasn't taking chances with my mate four and a half months pregnant.

"Have you seen that guard she's got a crush on."

"No," I answered quickly. "He's too old for her anyway. Verena shouldn't be showing an interest in boys until she's at least eighteen."

Haley snorted. "Yeahhh, thirteen year old girls are notorious for not noticing boys. Well, unless they prefer girls. Either way, good luck stopping her. I was a nightmare as a teenager."

"I can well imagine," I drawled.

"Hey!"

I narrowed my eyes on the corridor, sure I'd heard something this time. Something like paper rasping over stone.

"And don't think I didn't notice how quickly you said no," she huffed. "Did you leave the kid alive at least?"

"He's in one piece," I agreed, squeezing her hand before I let go. "I hear something. Draw your other dagger and stay behind me."

She groaned deep in her throat but did as I said. "I hate being a fucking damsel."

"But you're such a pretty damsel."

"Stop buttering me up by calling me pretty. That shit doesn't work with me."

It absolutely did.

I flared my light higher and sharper in my hand and followed that rasp of movement to a door locked by a series of nasty curses. "Stay back, honey," I warned my mate. "Further than that. Further. Good." She scowled at me, fully exasperated, but I wasn't taking chances.

I pooled magic in my hand and slammed it into the place where I felt the curses concentrate, burning the poison and malice from the heart of it until it was just magic. Sweat beaded at my brow, and I gritted my teeth as the curses fought back, but I blew threw them, one after another, until my shirt was soaked, the magic collapsed, and I registered the warm hand stroking up and down my back.

"Halwen," I growled.

"Oof," she whispered. "Not the full name."

"Over there," I ordered, pointing a safe distance away. "Now."

Her eyes turned sultry, a slow smile curving her lips. Now was really not the time to be getting turned on, but one look at her and I was hard. I waited until she backed up—and stayed there this time—before I pushed the heavy door open, covering my mouth at the stink that burst from the room.

I retched, but forced myself forward a step—and slammed to a stop when I realised what I was seeing. Who I was seeing.

There was a mess of rages and shredded skin on the ground, laying in his own filth. It was the dark skin and shorn hair that tipped me off, but that was the only recognisable thing about Andryas Revairs. He was broken, no limb left without a bone snapped in two, and he looked pitiful splayed on the ground, bleeding from a dozen wounds.

"No one worth saving," I said to Haley, leaving the room. I pulled it halfway shut so she didn't see the filth inside but left it cracked open. It was the only mercy I'd give him, a strange balance of leaving him for dead for everything he'd done to Wane and giving him the chance to save himself because I understood him. He'd tried to fight Cronus and failed. He was the titan's prized pet before Wane, and Andryas was truly immortal—his torture had lasted so long I couldn't predict how awful it had been.

A better man would probably haul him out of there, but I wasn't good and kind. I was ruthless and cruel when needed, and generous when it had been earned.

"We're close," I told Haley, sweeping her back into my side, my arm around her. "Another few minutes and we should be there."

Her throat bobbed; she leaned into me. "I've only seen this place in a vision, when Busty showed me what happened to Wane."

"We won't be here long. And you can wait outside if—"

"No," she interrupted, her voice hard. "I need to do this."

I nodded, and we fell into a nervous silence, the weight of all the violence that had happened here pressing on us. Haley sucked in a breath when the door at the end came into view; I kept my hand on her back, unwilling to part from her, and then we were inside the hellish throne room that haunted my nightmares.

I swallowed back fear, all the hairs standing on end. "I was born here," I murmured, staring at the cavernous space, the horrific throne on its dais where Cronus would sit and command the most unspeakable acts as if they were nothing.

Haley froze, like she'd forgotten. "You can wait outside if you need."

"Fuck no," I said, forcing the words past my tight throat. "I'm not leaving you here."

With Haley close to my side, I approached the throne, swallowing back my terror, ignoring the ghost of pain on my thighs, and lifted my head to look at the wings displayed there, like a butterfly pinned to a board.

"How do we get them down?" Haley asked, her voice small and pained.

"Let me handle that, honey," I murmured, kissing the top of her head and leaving her at the foot of the dais while I climbed it.

"Wyn, whose—whose are the other wings?"

There were three pinned to the wall, all three bugs in amber, relics of his brutality—trophies. "His favourite pets," I answered. "Wane's, Andryas's, and Kithain's."

I felt her surprise, her horror. "The bastard who cut Wane's wings…"

"Had his own wings cut by Cronus's first pet," I confirmed, climbing up onto the throne and ignoring the oily sickness lining my stomach. "Kithain was the first, long before my time. I only know him by name. The golden wings are his. The red are Andryas's. And you know the black wings."

Her pain hit my soul, and I wanted to pull her into my arms. But I climbed up onto the chair arm and used a thread of moonlight to dissolve the nails holding them to the wall, my arms outstretched to catch them when they fell. The weight of them was hideous, a reminder of everything that Wane had suffered.

This is a happy ending, I reminded myself. Cronus is dead, Wane is safe, we're all free of his reach.

Haley got out the blanket she'd brought from her bag, and we wrapped the wings when I climbed down from the throne, Haley lovingly straightening feathers that stuck out at odd angles.

Wane didn't know we'd come here—he'd go apeshit, no doubt—but it was the right thing to do. Even if he didn't want them back, at least a part of him wasn't rotting here, in a seat of power that would always be tainted by Cronus.

Haley held them close to her chest, blinking back tears as if a dozen hadn't already slipped free. I stepped close to brush them off her cheeks and kissed her, a soft, reassuring brush.

"Let's get these home." I nodded to the wings, carefully bundled up.

"You never have to come here again," Haley promised me, leaning into my side when I wound an arm around her waist, guiding her back to the door.

Her words echoed through my soul, taking a weight off my shoulder.

I never had to come back here, never had to see the place I'd first been created. That chapter of my life was closed, and I would never revisit it.

It made no sense for Haley to love someone like me, for her to see good despite all the awful things I'd done, but it was a gift I'd never stop being thankful for.

As we headed back into the tunnel, my light bouncing off its curved walls, I sighed.

"Actually, we need to make a detour."

I'd been given redemption, a second chance, a life that had saved me so many times, which remade me into a better person.

Turned out I was good and kind after all.

I sighed and went back for Andryas Revairs.

HALWEN

"Behold!" I proclaimed, sweeping a hand at the three-storey, red-brick pub I'd spent the past few months buying, renovating, and making perfect—with the help of all my best girlfriends, of course. And Bernard. Turned out the big, grumpy guy loved interior decorating. He even gave us a few pot plants for inside and a topiary of an eagle for the yard.

The pub was my pride and joy. We'd even cleaned up the windows, so the coloured glass sparkled, the windowsills each had flower boxes, and there was a brand new sign that got hung yesterday, the piece de resistance.

"Do you love it?" I gushed, looking at my mates with hearts in my eyes, lingering on Wane who had a decidedly wicked grin on his face, his wings fluttering in the wind as he looked at the sign. It had a very proud, brightly coloured cockerel and a swath of shadows wrapped around it.

"The Cock and Shadows."

"Cock is for cockerel, if anyone asks. But we all know what it means." I gave my shadow mate a wink, and he laughed, almost shy as he glanced away.

"I love it," he said.

"This is ours?" Kai demanded, his mouth parted and crimson eyes wide. "Holy shit."

"No bar fights!" Em and I said at once, then shared a secret smile.

"Wait until you see the inside," I said, excitement quickening my heartbeat. When we walked inside, no one pointed out that my obsession with getting a new house that was safe and unconnected to any threats we'd ever been hunted by was, very clearly, nesting. I was six months pregnant now and damn wasn't my spine aware of it.

Harvey let out a low whistle, catching me around the waist. "She's beautiful."

"Aw, thanks." I batted my lashes at him.

"He clearly meant the pub," Verena drawled, exploring behind the bar with a bright excitement I hoped we saw more often.

"We're not calling the pub a she," Wynvail said with clear judgement at his brother. "That shit's weird."

"We'll call it the Cock," I decreed, a giddy thrill in my belly. Or maybe that was just the baby. Or indigestion. Hell, it could be all three at the same time. "Do you like it?"

"We love it, Hales," Em said, softly enough that my eyes began to sting. I sniffled and he stole me from Harvey, pulling me into a hug that was increasingly difficult the further along I was in my pregnancy. 4 "It's perfect."

"There are five rooms, two bathrooms, and two living rooms. Plus, a kitchen we made even bigger, and a fucking library!"

Emlyn gasped, hugging me tighter. "A library?"

"A library," I confirmed, leaving out that it was just a regular sized room crammed full of books. That counted.

"So where are the weapons?" Verena asked, pretending to pull a pint. The barrels weren't hooked up yet, but when we were ready, this place was a fully functioning pub. It'd probably be smart to wait until after we'd figured out how to raise a baby, though. "It's you, so there's definitely weapons."

I grinned, looking at Wyn. "I stole Wyn's idea, and put a training room in the attic."

"I knew Lili was bullshitting when she said there was no armoury," Verena said with a sharp grin.

Kai stepped into her path when she headed for the door to the house upstairs. "Oh no, you don't. You're still in trouble."

Verena rolled her eyes. "It was one glass of wine, calm down grandpa."

Kai laughed. It wasn't a laugh that heralded forgiveness or understanding. "Who's training you tomorrow?" he mused.

"Oh god," Verena breathed, her eyes widening. "I take back the snarky remark."

"Too late. I'm gonna make you run laps of the city. I know you love running."

Verena splayed herself dramatically over the bar. "You're the fucking worst."

"I fucking know," he agreed cheerfully. "Shall we go explore upstairs?"

I grinned, and not even the ache in my spine, my ankles, my ribs, and every fucking other place in my body could get me down. We had a home, no one would ever knock it down, and no one was hunting us. Life was good.

All I needed now were a few orgasms, and it would be perfect.

WANE

"Here, see how you like it," my mate huffed, fluttering around me *As much as a six-month-pregnant woman could flutter* to touch my shoulder, my back, to brush wavy hair out of my face, to stroke my cheek. The pub was still unopened, and would stay that way until the baby was born, but Em and Verena looked on with amusement where they sat across the bar with a platter of sandwiches and cold cuts.

"I do like it," I replied, amused when she made a low, growling sound in her throat. I caught her against me, wrapping my arms around her above the sizable bump on her belly, resting my head on my shoulder to breathe in the scent of her. "And I can't turn off the instincts that press me to care for you, itzaia." I kissed the side of her neck. "Besides, you weren't complaining this morning when I tied your shoelaces for you."

"Because I can no longer fucking reach them," she muttered under her breath, her shoulders stiff with irritation. It had taken me a month to realise she wasn't angry at me but at her own limitations. "You need to be patient with your body, Haley."

"No, what I need is to have this baby right now so I can see my goddamn feet again."

"I didn't know you were so emotionally attached to your feet."

"Neither did I!" she growled, so fucking cute. "Until I lost the fuckers to this giant beach ball on my stomach."

I couldn't help but snort. "You're so cute when you're grumpy."

"I will stab you so hard, you'll regret ever calling me grumpy," she threatened, her low voice a rumble that vibrated through her into me.

"Would you like me to get your daggers, itzaia?" I asked mildly, stifling a smile.

She grumbled. "No. I love you too much to hurt you, but stop hovering or I might change my mind." She turned her face to give me a glare that only reminded me why I fell in love with her. I never took it for granted—her attention, her care, her love. Harvey and the others might have forgiven me for keeping the baby a secret, but forgiving myself didn't happen overnight and they were right that I'd fucked up. I wouldn't make that mistake again.

"Whatever you're thinking, stop it," Haley said, her tone changing to one of patience and love. She very seriously asked, "Do you need a blowjob?"

"Ugh, gross!" Verena yelled.

"Stop eavesdropping if you don't like what you hear," Haley shouted back, making Em snort.

We all startled when the heavy front door squealed open, sunlight through the stained glass window painting a multicoloured cockerel across the stained floorboards.

In seconds, Kai, Wyn, and Harvey burst into the room, reacting to the distress through the bond, Haley's emotions heightened lately. Kai wore only a tiny pink towel, his red hair drenched from the shower he'd cut short, and the rest of us were dressed in casual clothes, not the armour I suddenly wished we were decked out in.

It had been months since we'd had to fight, and I'd begun to relax, to let my guard down. Cronus was gone, and sometimes I could even bring myself to accept that, to use his name and know he wasn't going to find me, throw me back in my cell in the Damned Realm, and cut my shadows away. Even though I knew he was dead, there was still a part of me that believed the tall, dark-haired woman stepping into our home had come here to drag me back to that place.

But there was no hostility on her light brown face, nothing but curiosity and nervousness in her grey eyes. And she wasn't wearing armour herself; instead a frilly red dress clung to her frail shoulders, sweeping down to her ankles where she shifted her weight from foot to foot.

"I'm looking for Halwen Vakhara," the woman said, looking right at Haley like she knew exactly who she was despite her statement. She took a small step, her eyes wide and hopeful, but she jumped when we all leapt in front of Haley, smothering her in protection she'd grumble about later. But if it kept her and our baby safe, I'd risk my mate's grumpy wrath.

"Go look elsewhere, lady," Verena said in a hard voice, crossing her arms over her chest in a move she'd learned from Em. The way she cocked her chin up was all Haley, though. "There's no one by that name here."

I expected resistance or aggression to show on the stranger's face but instead she smiled. "That's odd," she said, trying to peer around us to Haley. A growl revved up my chest, and Emlyn's own warning sound echoed it alongside Harvey's. Kai stayed silent, but we all felt the air shimmer with his magic, snakes ready to take this woman out, whoever the hell she saw.

"It's odd," she went on, her voice less hesitant but still amused, "because there's a woman over there who looks almost identical to my husband, Lyall. And I know that's her name because I gave it to her."

Haley jolted forward a step, her bump pressing to my back. "Mum."

"One false move and you're dead," Kai warned the woman, but he moved back, and Haley was a force of nature who wouldn't be contained. She rushed *Waddled.* across the pub, batting away Harvey and I when we followed, ready to catch her if she slipped.

"I thought—" Haley cried. "I thought you were in there, but it's been months and I knew I had to be wrong but—you're here?"

"I'm here," Sofina Vakhara agreed, her smile somehow happy and sad at once. I'd seen that smile on my mate's face, her eyes crinkling in the same way. "I'm here, Haley. You killed him, you saved me. You saved all of us."

Haley shrugged, then threw her arms around her mother when they met in the middle of the pub, both clinging to each other. It had been more than a hundred years since they'd last been together, Haley just a child when Sofina left so Cronus wouldn't hunt them. Watching them made my heart hurt, made my chest squeeze tight. I'd never known that kind of love.

A shoulder bumped mine and I jumped, but a weight fell from me when Harvey leaned against me, his wing wrapping around me. I might not have a mother, but I had my brother, and our family, and our mate, and that was more than I'd ever dreamed of locked up in a tunnel in the Damned Realm for a hundred years.

I lifted my arm in invitation when Verena stalked closer, and she reluctantly came for a hug, scowling at Sofina, no doubt thinking about her own biological mother.

"We've got each other," I promised her quietly, and if I saw her answering eye roll, I pretended to only see scorn and not the tears lining her eyes.

We'd always have each other—Haley, Harvey, Verena, Em, Kai, Wynvail, and I. And the baby.

Because holy shit we were having a baby.

HALWEN

"I can walk on my own, you know," I huffed, slanting a sharp look at Kai on my left, then Wane on my right.

"You're four weeks postpartum," Kai snapped, not even letting go of me when his favourite scarf threatened to suffocate him. 5 "I don't give a shit what you can do. We're supporting you. You're precious cargo, my rose, and since you insisted on leaving the Cock, we're coming with."

His worry softened my irritation. We were all stressed to leave the pub so soon, with Leila less than a month old, but it was the right thing to do. Since we moved into the Cock, and life seemed to settle into place, I couldn't help but remember all the people who'd helped us get there. My mind returned to Busty practically every day. It was where we got Leila's name—it meant darkness. It was both a promise that her family would always be with her, she would always be surrounded by darkness, and it was a promise to anyone who would ever try to hurt her. Fuck with my daughter and know true, final darkness.

My soul itched with the need to turn around and go back to her, but I'd come all this way and I had to follow through.

We'd ended up drawn to a house in Rhyl of all places, a cottage right on the coast. Pretty, but ordinary. I frowned, reaching into my pocket and bracing myself for the blast of magic before I wrapped my fingers around the bone key.

"Is this definitely the right place?" Wane asked, as doubtful as I was.

I nodded, frowning. The house was white-brick in a row of four-storey terraces, and not at all remarkable. But somehow, someway, Erebus was trapped inside. "He's here. Or this didn't work at all."

Kai stroked my back, brushing a kiss over my temple. "If he's not here, we'll keep looking. Can you feel anything, Wane?"

"Nothing. Not even a single shadow."

My shoulders slumped. I was so sure we'd be able to find him when Cerny mentioned in a family dinner—we had those now, with all my guys and Verena, all Lili's guys, Renna, Asta, Tali, and a bunch of other new friends I'd acquired—that the bone pin he gave me when we first met was supposed to be carved from one of the old gods. A primitive being of darkness.

I was so sure the pin was carved from Erebus's bone, that I could use it to track him, but there was nothing magical about this place, and I was way too hormonal, sleep deprived, and hungry to handle it.

I burst into angry tears, and was immediately swaddled into warmth and whipcord muscle by my mates.

"We'll find him," Wane promised, wrapping his wings around me and making me cry harder. "We won't stop looking until we do."

"Let's canvass the place before we give up, my rose," Kai said gently. "The pin led you here for a reason. Maybe Erebus isn't here but a clue is."

I wished the sky wasn't so grey and hazy, wished there were more shadows. Would Busty reach out with a ray of shadow again?

I sniffled when Wane brushed the tears off my cheeks, and sucked up my nerve. "You're right. Let's check this place out and then go home."

With Wane's shadows, we didn't need a key to the front door. By the time we'd scaled the white steps up to the front door, he'd already slipped shadow into the lock and got it open.

I shot him a grin, impressed by his skills even all these years since we first met. I was so distracted batting my lashes at my mate that I didn't realise there was a heavy ward on this place until we'd walked through it.

"Shit!" Kai hissed, surrounded us with a swarm of snakes as golden light burst from my hand and Wane slammed a wall of shadows in front of us. But the magic didn't attack us. "Huh."

In my hand, the bone pin began to vibrate like crazy. "What the fuck?" I breathed, my hand dragged out in front of me, the key literally leading me. "This isn't creepy at all! We're going upstairs."

Wane kept his shadows around me as we travelled up the wide steps, the carpet lush under my feet and the whole place smelling of expensive florals and wealth. A chandelier hung above us, the walls decorated with artwork of the ocean, cresting waves, and when we reached the landing at the top, family photos.

"Any idea who these people are?" I asked, squinting at the two people in every photo—a man with deep gold skin and curling surfer hair in a pure white shade, with smile lines around his eyes and a distinguished yet friendly air to him, like a CEO who was a total teddy bear at home; and a girl with pale skin and black hair like Snow White, mischief glittering in her eyes as she smiled up at the man, presumably her father. She grew older in each picture until we reached a photo of the two of them with their arms thrown over each other's shoulders, the girl now in her early twenties with a tribal tattoo on her forearm like she'd picked it up while at college or backpacking around New Zealand. 6

"It's a family home," Wane murmured, voicing my unease. "What are we doing here?"

I shrugged, following the key's pull down the white and gold hallway past closed doors to one cracked open, like the key had already got here first. It felt creepily sentient.

"Let me go in first," Kai ordered, his magic trembling around us. "Stay back, my rose."

"And let the big, strong psycho handle it?" I asked with faux sweetness.

"Ignoring the sarcasm," Kai quipped, sending the door creaking open—to reveal what was clearly the bedroom of the woman in the photos. It was decorated with a mix of classy elegance and punk rock, which I appreciated. I followed Kai into the room and gave a reverent nod to Joan Jett where she hung on the wall. My bone key was less interested in Joan, which was rude. It dragged me across a very plush rug I contemplated stealing, towards a dresser that sat in front of a bay window looking out on the ocean.

"Search for traps," Wane told Kai with the air of a command. It went right to my clit and made me throb, but the key dragged me forward in a rough jerk, and I hissed, trying to get it out of control.

It didn't stop until I stood right in front of the dressing table and then—it fell from my fingers onto the silver surface with a plink and settled there innocently, like it had never ordered me to come upstairs.

"Well, that's not weird," I muttered, ignoring the soreness in my body as I frowned at the table—

Both Kai and Wane startled when I began to laugh, loudly and wickedly. You have got to me fucking kidding me.

The dressing table held a few different knickknacks, telling me I was right about the backpacking. There was a Faberge egg, a gilded music box, several animals carved from wood, a hand mirror embellished with real gemstones, and a snow globe with a gorgeous clay base painted to show a stormy sky. I wiggled my fingers in a wave at the figure who stood within it, on a bank of glittery snow, his suit especially out of place in the snow globe and his signature grumpy expression in place.

I tapped a fingernail on the glass and asked, "Can you hear me in there?"

"Wait, he's in a snow globe?" Kai demanded, leaning over me to frown at the big snow globe. Wane pressed in on my other side, a mix of nervousness and excitement in his expression.

"How did he get in there?"

I shrugged. "Someone must have trapped him. Stand back."

When Kai and Wane gave me space, I picked up the hefty snow globe and, with a thrill in my belly, threw it at the floor hard enough that it smashed. I felt it—the collapse of an enchantment, the unravelling of power—and then Busty was kneeling on the floor, the knees of his dark grey suit wet and his hair plastered to his forehead. When he glanced up, there was true warmth and fondness in his eyes.

"Hello, Halwen."

I grinned. "Hi, Busty."

His eyes went flat. "Please stop calling me that."

"Good luck with that," Kai drawled, reaching out a tentative hand to help the man to his feet—this legend he'd grown up hearing stories about. "How did you get trapped in a snow globe?"

"That," Erebus replied, "is a very long story."

"Wanna come back to ours and tell it to us?" I offered. "I bought a pub. It's called the Cock."

Erebus laughed, low and rusty and a little dry. But I didn't judge the guy; he'd been trapped for fuck knows how long. "I would love to visit the Cock, thank you. And to meet your daughter."

There was something in his eyes, something in the slant of his smile.

"What are you up to?" I demanded, narrowing my eyes.

"Nothing currently. In the past however…."

Wane wrapped his arm around me, a warning in his glare.

"I told you all I was able to do was watch my descendants' lives, Halwen," Erebus said, brushing shards of glass off his knees. "That is true. But when someone dies, I'm able to reach them with my shadows."

"Like when I died," I agreed.

He nodded and was good enough to pretend he didn't notice the grief in my mates' eyes. "Exactly. I saw when you were killed the first time. I knew what Cronus planned, what you would be—his downfall. And I knew you needed the full weight of your family line behind you. So I may have, while Cronus's eyes were elsewhere, lined your womb with shadow. That's what changed you, your biology. It's what gave you the power to bring him to his knees."

"You—" I shook my head, stunned and annoyed and so touched, so grateful.

"Get over here, you bastard," I said, choking back tears as I wrangled Erebus, the first shadow, the… you know all the rest, into a hug.

"Thank you," Wane breathed, his face shining with tears. "Thank you."

Busty's face softened around the edges when he looked at Wane, his descendant. "It was the least I owed you all, for being unable to intervene all your lives. Now, let's visit the Cock, shall we?"

"Yeah," I said, unable to stop smiling, stop crying. "Let's go home."

Thank you so, SO much for sticking with Haley's series to the very end. I hope it was a satisfying conclusion for you. I've loved writing these characters and sharing them with you.

As you can probably tell by the epilogue, I have more stories planned in this world, and one of them will feature Erebus and the girl he's obsessed with (Zara, daughter of Poseidon), but he has a little competition from Charon, Ceyx, Plutus, and Azrael! The preorder will land in 2025, but keep reading for a sneak peek at the title!