Epilogue

T he spirit fox takes to Seanna like a kitten to a new house. Skittish, terrified and hiding, until abruptly not.

Until one day Chloe comes back from helping the Wights to find Seanna and the fox fast asleep, curled up together on the couch, while a movie plays muted on the television.

Chloe backs up out of the room, tapping the oft used silencing spell on the faded wallpaper, before carefully setting her backpack on the small table.

“They’ve been that way for an hour,” Killian says, and she didn’t feel him teleport in, but it’s long since stopped frightening her.

“That’s new,” Chloe murmurs, turning to face him.

He’s in a new body, one he found a few days ago, but his smile remains the same underneath it all.

“The Wights think that the college is gone for good,” Chloe says, as his hand comes up and cradles her elbow. “Thinks that Atlanta was truly the last straw.”

She lets herself be tugged into a hug, until his chin rests on her head and she can hear his heartbeat.

“You think that’s true?” The question rumbles through him, and Chloe lets the sound of it wash over her.

“Do you?” she asks, not pulling away. “Things are never so easy.”

But as she watches her friend, curled up so securely, in a house made safe, she lets herself hope.