Epilogue

Corin

I'd snuck out of my apartment after claiming my mate for the first time in my nest last night. I hadn't wanted to leave her warmth, to linger in the moment, but she was not the only one who needed me. She was not the only one I needed, as I'd come to learn.

Once, I would have told everyone that I was a loner, that I didn't need anyone besides my two best friends, some relics to tinker with, and a good hunt to get the blood pumping. But I had learned many things in the past few days: I needed my mate. She completed me, and she made me feel proud of the male I had become. I had needed to heal the bonds with the Shamans, to learn what my place was in their hierarchy. And to discover that I knew many things and that I wasn't any less for never finishing my official training.

I also needed one stubborn little robot at my side, as annoyed as I'd been with his insistent presence at first. Triff was part of my family, like Min-Ji, and nothing and no one could stop me from having all of it. Not a vengeful Queen, nor a Revenant.

After we'd celebrated our reclaiming of Haven last night with the whole Clan, I'd conceived a crazy plan. What if what the Revenant had done was possible for Triff too? What if I took his core and placed it in a new body? And what if I didn't trap Triff in a body too small for his big personality, but one that would allow him to really follow me everywhere?

That's why I'd snuck out last night and enlisted Zeidon and my friend's help to locate what I needed. Iave had been grumpy when I'd urged him from his nest, but they had all come with me to search the tunnels below Ahoshaga. I wanted to wake Min-Ji to a working Triff and see her smile with happiness, but now my heart was pounding with fear that it wouldn't work.

"You got this, Corin," Zathar said as he helped me arrange Triff's new form onto my work table. "I know this will work. But wake her. She'll want to be there for both of you." Wiser words had never been spoken. Min-Ji would want to be included in this plan. He was right, and she should be there when Triff woke up.

He left my chambers, the door whispering shut on his tail. I turned to the room with my nest and discovered that Min-Ji had huddled into a small ball at the center, furs piled high on top of her to stay warm. I also discovered that she was clutching the small amethyst core that held all of Triff's memories and his code. She clutched it tightly to her chest, as if she were afraid to let it go.

She woke slowly, her lashes blinking sleepily over her soft brown eyes. "Come, my sweet mate," I urged, picking her up in my arms and bundling her, furs and all, tightly against my chest. "I've got a surprise for you."

Of course, Min-Ji's first reaction at seeing the deactivated body of a Slithrazer Revenant was to squeak in surprise, one hand flinging around my neck and clutching tightly. "Are you crazy? That thing nearly killed you last time…" I laughed because she was giving it a very suspicious once-over, but the hound-like Revenant was well and truly inactive. Zeidon and I had devised a way to zap it and shut it down without harming it permanently, and it had worked perfectly.

"It's okay. I'm going to put Triff in it," I said to her as I set her down on her feet so she could watch while I worked. First, I had to open the metal skull so I could access the Revenant's core. Then I had to find a way to attach Triff's core inside it, so our little buddy could take full control of the Slithrazer body.

When I was ready to turn it on, I curled Min-Ji tightly in my tail for protection and backed away. We watched with bated breath to see if it worked, but for a few agonizing seconds, nothing happened. Then the Slithrazer blinked its purple eyes, and that reminded me of the blinking lights on Triff's dome that he used to blink at us.

The four-legged creature rolled to its feet, spikes along its spine flaring up like a razor-sharp comb. Its flanks rippled beneath the velvet-looking spots on its artificial hide. Then it opened its maw, and the many teeth whirred as they spun—a deadly weapon all on its own, even if you didn't know about the screech it could emit. I braced myself for it as the beast leaped from the table and started to slink across the floor toward us.

"Triff?" Min-Ji asked as I backed us up even further, worried that I'd made a mistake filling him. "Triff, buddy, is that you? Are you okay? I know it's a little different, but now you can go outside all the time! Isn't that grand?" Her voice made the beast jerk to a sudden, rather clumsy stop in the middle of the room. Then the strangest thing happened. The Slithrazer wiggled a little, and then its long, spiked tail started swaying, then wildly wagging left to right. The bot had gone completely mad.

"Triff!" Min-Ji shouted, laughing loudly and throwing herself out of my coils without warning. I chased after her when it appeared she and the Slithrazer were about to violently clash. Then, she was on her knees next to the beast, her arms around its neck, and the bot was making odd beeping noises it was never supposed to make. Its violet eyes locked with mine, and I swore they looked happy. It worked. There was only one bot who could look at me like that, and that was Triff.

***

Min-Ji

Triff was like a puppy and a small pony combined into a deadly robot body. I couldn't believe that this was how Corin had decided to fix our little bot, but I had to admit that it seemed like a good idea now. Less so when I'd woken up that morning and discovered a deadly Revenant on the living-room table.

The bot was still getting used to its new body, but it certainly seemed to enjoy prancing around on its four legs on the purple Serant grass. He was making all those cute, coltish leaps and kicks that playful dogs or baby horses made. It was freaking adorable, and I wasn't the only one laughing and sighing over his antics. He had even enticed Kiwi and Buzz to come play with him. The two colorful Sleara were chasing him around and making cheerful squeaking noises in response to Triff's happy beeps.

"It's going to take some getting used to," Vera remarked. "But it's cute. I have to admit that." She wasn't so pale and wan this morning. Apparently, her morning sickness issues had started to pass—so much so, in fact, that in the early morning hours, Artek had packed up his things and left for his home. Apparently, the Shaman could only take so much company for so long.

I leaned deeper into Corin's embrace and smiled. "I think this is the best idea. He's going to love exploring the world. He's acting so much like a dog. We used to have a big Saint Bernard when I was little; he reminds me of him." Corin didn't know what kind of dog I was talking about, but Vera did, and it made her laugh and shake her head. It was a bizarre comparison. There was nothing dopey or sweet about Triff's new appearance, but he was acting that way, and that was all that mattered.

"I love you, Corin," I said to my mate, a little louder than was strictly necessary, but I wanted everyone to know that we were officially a couple. Corin's smirk said it all. He was on the same page and eagerly dipped his head to stake his claim with a kiss.

"And I love you, mate." There were some sad and envious looks from our single males at the campfire, but most people weren't surprised. Joxra was beaming a smile at me, holding his adopted Naga youngling in his arms as he fed her. Ekkire, the Water Weaver, had returned this morning and seemed completely fine with having missed out on a mate as well. He was more interested in Triff's antics.

I did wonder what would happen next. Would the aspirants leave now that there were no single females? Would they stay for the company? Try to steal a female? I didn't know. Whatever was going to happen, I knew I'd be facing it with Corin and Triff at my side.

Of course, such thoughts seemed to herald a change I couldn't have predicted. The noise that streaked from the sky was deafening, sending us all ducking for cover. A ship soared overhead, huge and black, with smoking engines as it careened into a crash landing farther down the mountain.

Nothing was ever boring on Serant, and this ship was bigger than any I'd seen fall from the sky or spotted the wreckage of. This ship wasn't completely out of control either, though it was in dire straits. Wherever it was going to hit Serant, it wasn't going to be in pieces when it did so. Which meant… whoever was on that ship, they were going to survive.

THE END

Can't wait for the next one? Dying to find out what happened to that ship or to Reid?

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