She held out an arm in invitation. Carter studied the group, wondering if anyone would actually take her up on it. For a few seconds, nobody moved. Then one young man he didn’t recognize stepped forward.
“I want to go,” he said. “I didn’t sign up for fighting. I thought Nosizwe was going to lead us to tolerance. I just want to be accepted for who and what I am. Sounds like this is the place to find that.”
“I agree,” said a young woman from Sean’s side. “I want to go too.”
“Me too,” said another voice, then another. In all, about a third of the remaining group wound up walking over to the two shifters, then following them into the circle of Stones. Carter didn’t need to see what would happen when they stepped through the portal. He’d been there. He’d lived it.
Instead, grasping Ellie’s hand he led her away from the Stones and the gathering of shifters and through the bloody, trampled grass, searching for the one body he needed to find in order to have closure. Ellie followed without questioning. She stood there silently when he found Sean and knelt next to his former boss.
To his shock, Sean’s eyes opened to slits. He wasn’t dead yet. Perhaps he’d been clinging to life, waiting for Carter to arrive. His hand flexed as if he were trying to lift it. Carter took it, grasping it tightly in his own.
“Ja—Jackson.” His boss’s lips barely moved in a whisper, but Carter caught it.
“I’ll take care of him,” he promised.
“You an-d Ellie…” Blood trickled from the side of Sean’s lips.
“We’ll take care of him. You don’t have to worry.” Ellie didn’t take Sean’s hand like Carter did, but she lowered herself to the ground beside him. She didn’t have much use for Sean, but compassion was on her face. “Do either you or Ciara have family that you want Jackson to live with?”
Sean’s head moved in a barely imperceptible nod. “Paper-s,” he whispered. Carter had to lean closer in order to hear him. “Paper-s in my office. Safe. Cia-Ciara’s fam…” He stopped, a burble of blood overtaking the words. His body twitched. His eyes closed, then jerked back open. “Car-Cater. Left busi-ness, house, all…all of that to you to manage for him till he’s of age. Miguel, my lawyer…he has c-copies of everything. Do be-better than I d-did.”
Ellie’s eyebrows shot up and she eyed him across Sean’s body. He was every bit as surprised as her, although he didn’t show it. Instead, he squeezed Sean’s hand, reassuring him. “I’ll do right by Jackson. And you. And our people.”
Again, Sean’s head moved in the tiniest of nods. His eyes rolled to the side, seeking Ellie.
“Sor-ry you g-got caught in…this mess,” he said. “Still th-think…you…good doctor.”
His breath escaped in a sigh, his head sagging to one side. Those were his last words.
Ellie’s eyes were shiny with tears. She’d had her disagreements with Sean, but she valued life. Carter imagined those words had struck a chord with her. Sean hadn’t been perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but he knew worth when he saw it and he was right about Ellie.
Carter placed his mentor’s hand on his chest, letting his linger on it for a moment with a deep sense of regret, then sighed and stood. He stepped over Sean’s body and took Ellie’s hand, lifting her to her feet. She’d lost her glasses during the mayhem, so he wordlessly helped guide her around fallen bodies of both shifters and animals until they were outside the circle of headlights and headed back towards his car.
She was silent as they trudged through the brittle grass, processing everything, giving him space to sort out his own thoughts. They bypassed the two police detectives climbing into their own vehicle. Detective Tozzi looked chagrined. Detective Ewing pinned Carter with a long, hard look. Carter half-smiled to himself.
Wait till she finds out that not only am I the new shifter leader, Sean also left me his business empire to manage for his son. She’ll really be all over my back.
She would, but she wouldn’t have to worry. He had Ellie, and Ellie would insist on rooting out the seamy and polishing up the dirty. They’d run a cleaner enterprise from now on. They’d also repair Sean’s home and keep it open for shifters needing a place of refuge. The Stones would have to be moved there, of course, so he could transport anyone back to Atlantis who wanted to go. The shifters who would rather stay here and figure out how to live a semi-normal life with their unique abilities…well, they’d help them too, exactly like Sean had helped him all those years ago.
And maybe Ellie would decide to become a doctor. Her life, her decision, of course. Whatever she decided, she’d have his support. They were married now, for real. Stuck together for good.
Speaking of Ellie, when they reached the car she stopped, leaning against it, lifting her face to the quiet moon. Carter got comfortable next to her and waited.
“Hard to believe it’s all over,” he said when the silence had stretched a bit. He wasn’t sure how to feel about all the things he’d seen and done tonight, nor the people he’d said goodbye to or the new responsibilities he’d gained. There would be time to process it later. For now, he was content to settle in, his shoulder touching his wife’s, and breathe the night air for a few minutes.
Although he was beginning to wish he had a shirt. It was a little chilly.
“I know,” Ellie agreed. She didn’t say anything else for a minute, and when she did her mind had apparently leapt through multiple topics, because she said, “I still think they’re angels.”
Carter frowned. “What?”
“They smote them with blindness,” she said, sounding like she was quoting something.
“Who did?”
“Vehuel. The Yara-ma-yha-who had me. I couldn’t get away. Then Vehuel showed up and smote him with blindness. He let me go. Vehuel saved my life tonight.”
“Smote him with blindness, huh?” Carter’s lips twitched, hiding a grin. “You know, kid, lots of shifters have unique abilities. It’s not limited to angels.”
Ellie shook her head stubbornly. “He’s not just a shifter. I think he and Seriel are more than that.”
Carter shrugged one shoulder, not wanting to argue, but Ellie didn’t drop the subject.
“After everything we’ve seen and done and been through together, you’re still going to deny even the possibility of angels?”
Carter was trapped and he knew it. He shrugged again. “Maybe.”
Now she smiled, and it was bright and warm and everything he loved about Ellie. “Glad you agree. Because I also think we need to discuss the merits of raising a child in church, at least until his family is able to come get him.”
Internally, Carter groaned. She was teasing him, but beneath the teasing was an absolute layer of insistence. Neither was she finished with demands. She went a step further.
“I also think,” she added, “while we’re on this topic, we could discuss the idea of raising children period.”
Now Carter felt his eyebrows go up. He didn’t want to remind her they couldn’t have children. That seemed cruel. Fortunately, Ellie explained herself with, “I’ve been thinking…I’m not going anywhere. I don’t think you’re going anywhere. Maybe we should discuss fostering. Or adoption. I’m sure there are plenty of kids who have lost parents to this war. Maybe we could help. Maybe we could give something back.”
Ellie’s big heart was one thing he loved about her. Her love for kids—that was what had involved her in his world, his life, to begin with. He wasn’t going to argue. After all, what she said made sense, and he owed her after tonight. Honestly, he owed her everything.
“Do we have to decide that now?” was his only question.
Ellie leaned her face into his shoulder. “Nope. Like I said, I’m not going anywhere. If you’re not either, then we’ve got the rest of our lives to make up our minds.”
The rest of our lives…
Carter liked the sound of that.
“I’m for sure not going anywhere,” he promised, and if his voice sounded gruff it was due t
o tamping down his emotions instead of any anger or resentment.
“Awesome. Glad we agree.”
She seemed content to leave it at that. Carter wanted one thing cleared up first. He’d told her he would never step foot in one again, but…
“I guess you’re right about taking a kid to church. A little church wouldn’t kill me. I do have one favor to ask, though.”
“What’s that?”
“Can we not go to your dad’s church?”
He’d never forget the man’s ire when he’d walked in there like a fool, announcing he was married to his daughter…with Ellie’s father having no idea Ellie was married. Carter had seen a lot during his lifetime, but that—that was the stuff of nightmares.
Ellie laughed, and the sweet, gentle sound touched every nerve, warming him from the inside out, healing the scars and pain and bruises, lifting his spirit, giving him hope for the future.
“I think we can work something out.” She raised on tiptoes to kiss him. “Let’s go home.”
Home.
Mentally, Carter soaked in the word as he climbed into the car with his wife and drove away, refusing to look back. Leaving the past behind and heading into the future, the words of an old song echoing in his head. Something about once being lost and now being found.
He went home.
Chapter Forty
Home.
After all the displacement, the moving around, and the living in hotels, home almost seemed like a foreign concept. But then, I’d moved enough during my dad’s army career to know that home was what you made it and home was the with the people you loved, not necessarily the setting.
And the setting, for now, was Carter’s apartment. Which we might change. Or might not. Sitting on the couch, wrapped in a blanket, I studied the barren walls in the semi-darkness, considering changing the place, redecorating. Or possibly giving it up, finding a new home that the two of us chose together. It was a little strange this idea of togetherness, finally making decisions as a unit rather than individuals or even enemies, like we’d been in the beginning, but there it was.
A noise alerted me, breaking into the lazy drift of my thoughts, but my fuzzy vision told me it was only Carter, coming down the hall, emerging into the living room where I sat. I needed new glasses, but they’d have to wait until tomorrow.
“Couldn’t sleep?”
I shook my head. “Too much to think about.”
He dropped onto the couch next to me. It felt good to snuggle into him. Natural. No worrying about right or wrong moves, no questioning either of our motives, no concerns that it wouldn’t last. This was it. This was forever.
“Can’t get the fight out of your head?”
Some of it had been replaying in my brain, but I honestly felt a strange sense of relief, so far as all that was concerned. It was over. Done. We now had the future to consider, and that’s what I told him.
“More like thinking about the future. What it’s going to entail. What it’s going to hold.”
“As in…”
“Everything. Where we’ll live. How we’ll handle the responsibilities Sean left us. How we’ll tell my parents I’m moving in with you. Where my family will go. What explanations we’ll give them about us. If we’ll ever come clean about the whole story. Them re-starting their lives. Honestly, everything.”
Carter grimaced. “Maybe they’ll decide to stay in Oklahoma City. Or go back to Washington.”
I snickered. “You’re lucky I’m not offended by that.”
“Hey, I have nothing against them personally. It’s just—the whole in-law thing…”
“I know, I know. You and my dad. You two are going to have to figure it out, you know. Wherever they choose to settle, there’s going to be Christmases and holidays and birthdays together. At the very least, you’re going to have to be able to drink beer and watch football games in the living room while Mom and I clean the kitchen.”
“I don’t drink beer and I’d rather help clean.”
“Now you’re trying to kiss up to my mom.”
“I don’t have to. She already likes me.”
He seemed a little too smug about that. “Hmmm. Anyway, you and my dad are going to have to coexist now. We’re family.”
Carter sighed. “Easy for you to say. Your in-laws are an ocean away.”
“Yeah…about that.”
I saw his guard go up. “What is it now? What are you scheming?”
“Not scheming anything,” I chuckled. “Only wondering if—sometime in the future—we should consider going to visit your parents. They may be an ocean away, but airplanes cut ocean travel time nicely these days, I’m told.”
He looked across the room. “I told you I haven’t seen them in twenty years.”
“Exactly. About time to consider changing that, don’t you think?”
At first, I thought I was pushing too hard. He seemed a little annoyed. Then the frown relaxed, the caustic smile returning. “You’re determined to drag me kicking and screaming into being a decent person, aren’t you?”
“Well…” I put a hand on his chest and reached up to offer him a kiss. “Maybe not too decent. Not all the time, anyway.”
“Mmmm.” He picked up my hand, pressing his mouth to the inside of my wrist, making me shiver. “So, what you’re saying is, we should go back to bed.”
“We do have a lot of lost time to make up for,” I whispered. “Planning the future can wait.”
“For the first time we actually can plan the future, and you want to procrastinate.”
“Nope.” I shook my head, even as I pushed closer to him. “I want to start out planning the future by building a foundation on you and me. The way it should have been all along.”
“All along? I seem to remember you being opposed to the idea of marrying me at first.”
“No more than you were me,” I reminded him. “Speaking of which…”
I reached down to unclasp the necklace around my neck, remove it. Something slid off the chain onto the palm of my hand. A ring, the diamonds glowing softly in the lamplight.
“Care to do the honors again?”
He picked it up in two fingers, studying it, turning it this way and that. “I can get you something better,” he finally said. “Anything you want. As big as you want. As expensive as you want.”
I shook my head firmly. “That’s my wedding ring. It’s been there since the beginning. It’ll be there at the end.”
“Are you sure?”
He paused before sliding it onto the third finger of my left hand, and I sensed the question was about far more than a ring.
I didn’t hesitate.
“Would I be here with you talking about forcing you to be nice to our families if I wasn’t sure? I think the better question is, are you sure?”
This time, he didn’t hesitate. He gently pushed the ring past my knuckle and down to the base of my finger.
“Never been surer of anything in my life. I do have a question, though.”
“Another one? I already told you I wouldn’t bug you to attend church with my father.”
“It’s not that.”
“What is then, then?”
“Remember how Ellie St. James went on an exotic honeymoon while I stayed behind in the States?”
His plan at the beginning. Sending my identity out of the country, while I, as Taylor Scott, had moved elsewhere.
“I remember.”
“Do you think I can come with her this time?”
I laughed, putting my arms around his neck, pulling him down onto the couch with me. “Yes,” I whispered, against his mouth. “I definitely think she’d let you come with her this time.”
The future was imminent, but, for now, the future could wait. Strange as it seemed, there was no more sword of Damocles hanging over ours heads. No more living in fear that either one of us would be snatched away at any moment. The future was ours. A strange future, maybe, considering all the things we had to figure out. Little J
ackson. Sean’s business empire. The magic of the Stones. Rebuilding the Costas mansion as a refuge for Carter’s people. Carter’s role as the Repairer. My medical training. Both of our families. It was a lot, but we finally had time. Time to eventually reach out and claim it, shape it to suit ourselves.
And we would.
But later.
Definitely later.
The End
Want more from Sarah Ashwood? Discover Aerisia, a parallel land to Earth’s sunsets, in Sarah Ashwood’s portal fantasy trilogy, the Sunset Lands Beyond. Start with Book 1, Aerisia: Land Beyond the Sunset.
Also check out the companion series, Beyond the Sunset Lands, beginning with Aerisian Refrain.
Acknowledgments
This series, in particular, couldn’t have been completed without the help of my wonderful beta readers, as well as those who lent knowledge of their area of expertise to help me get different details correct. For all their time, their help, their perspectives, and their pointing out of typos, I want to say a huge THANK YOU.
My dad, John Ashwood Sr. (Freelance editor extraordinaire!)
Angie and Hannah (For discussing my characters like they were real people.)
Ginger (For an RN’s perspective.)
Liz (For help with hospital registrar and hospital details.)
Jeremy and Mercy (For help with Fort Worth geography and locations.)
Daniel and Destinee (For perspective on Carter’s weapons.)
Jonathon Pembroke, my uncle, James Ashwood, and my cousin, Josh Velsor (US military vets, who assisted with Ellie’s father.)
My beta readers:
Robyn
AnnaMarie
Nayreeyah
Moriyah
Mary
Rachel
Donamarie
Mary
And to my husband, Steven Blackwell, who gave several noteworthy tips and is always my biggest support.
Stones of Fire Series
Ashes on the Earth
Repairer of the Breach (Stones of Fire Book 4) Page 25