Epilogue

Three years later Ebony and Lark left Dr. Gray's office with a clean bill of health. She immediately pulled out her cell and dialed with a huge grin on her face.

"I did it! Well, we did it," Ebony said, looking at Lark. "We beat it, Shine, I know I couldn't have done it without your help and Lark's."

"Just like I couldn't keep my shit together without yours and Granger's," she said with a laugh. "I'll see you tomorrow for mom's funeral?"

"I'll be there," Ebony said and put her phone away. Shine had managed to keep her mother alive for three years, and it hadn't been easy. The woman was completely out of her mind from whatever drugs Buchanan had put her on. When she had moments of lucidity she seemed stuck in the days after Shine's birth, she just kept asking for the baby, saying she was sorry and when Shine tried to explain that she was her daughter it only made her angry and violent.

Her death had been a blessing, but it didn't mean it hurt any less and Ebony was anxious to get to Shine's side and support her through the small funeral.

Lark grabbed her and pulled her into a hug, burying his face in her neck. "I can't believe it's actually over, no more treatments, no more worries."

"No worries," Ebony agreed. "Now we can really put all our energy into Shine's foundation." Shine had started a foundation to support nosouls who wanted to come forward and get help accessing medications and jobs and housing. It was successful, but it took a lot of footwork, nosoul communities didn't trust easy, and they weren't stepping up in large numbers to risk retribution.

But slowly Shine was turning the storyline and Ebony had hope that the world was headed in the right direction. Shine had patented the medication and offered it free of charge to all nosouls in and out of the U.S. She was a real savior and Ebony was proud to share a soul with her.

Lark opened the car door for her, "Stone called earlier and said that he and Taylor have followed that lead to Canada and think they might have a real chance at finding the women."

Stone and Taylor had hit it off on their drive from Vegas to LA and had decided halfway there that they would go in search of the women and infants who had been taken from BaneCore. The infants had been easier to find than the women, but they refused to give up even after multiple dead-end leads. It would be nice to close that one last door on the horrors Buchanan had brought into the world.

"That's great. We should head up there after the funeral," Ebony said.

"Oh sure, and what, have you arrested at the border?" Lark teased. They hadn't been able to clear her name in Glick's murder and she was technically still wanted for questioning. Luckily, Shine had been able to pass some laws that made travel within the U.S. free of scanning necessities, but out of country was still a no go for her.

Ebony stared out at the Texas landscape as they drove to a private airfield where Lark's plane waited to take them to DC,

They were undoing the things that the gods had done, and she worried that it would come back to bite them all in the ass, but she couldn't believe they were wrong in the journey. Equality and opportunity for all living beings couldn't be wrong. Love couldn't be wrong.

She believed with her whole heart that the gods were wrong.