by Apollo Surge
"I owe a great debt to you," the King said, his voice solemn and grave as the end. "You have harbored the soul of my Hart and returned it to me. You have freed me, and given me a hunt such as I have never seen. For the rest of your days, Black Wolf, you and yours will be under my protection. And when the time comes, you will ride with honor beside me in the hunting grounds beyond."
"Thanks," Sawyer said, too weak and overwhelmed to say much more.
The Erlking frowned, and tapped Sawyer on the nose with a long finger.
"Never thank the Fae," he scolded, then returned to the back of his mount and galloped into the sky, where the last of the Seelie and Unseelie armies were being chased over the horizon by the Erlking's spectral hounds.
Sawyer watched him go, then looked down at the newborn wolf, squirming and crying in his arms, deeply upset by all the chaos, but looking otherwise unharmed, for which Sawyer was unbelievably grateful.
"Are you all right?" Elliot asked, hurrying toward him. "The baby?"
"We're fine," Sawyer said. "Everything's fine."
"What can I do? Can I get you anything?"
"Pants," Sawyer replied. "And a nap."
Rita and Mike, who had been hiding behind a rock since Goldenrod landed, crept closer to Sawyer, shaking with mixed terror and excitement.
"That was the most awesome thing I've ever seen," Rita whispered. Mike nodded silently, eyes like dinner plates.
"You finally got to see a sword fight," Sawyer said. "Hope that makes up for the trauma. Sorry."
"Don't worry," Rita said, grinning. "I won't tell anyone you fought naked."
Sawyer sighed, knowing that was a promise she was very unlikely to keep.
"Thank you for letting me borrow this, by the way," he said, offering Mike the fire poker back, but Mike shook his head.
"Keep it."
Sawyer didn't argue. He was too tired to even lift the thing.
"Let's get the two of you home," Alicia said as the rest of the pack gathered themselves. "After Sawyer gets some rest, I think we're all looking forward to a thorough explanation of what the fuck just happened."
"Language," Sawyer murmured, already dozing off. His baby was safe in his arms, his family was alive and all around him. The world would not end today. Everything else could wait.
***
Everything else waited, approximately, a few hours. Sawyer was asleep, the baby curled up beside him, Elliot on the other side. The Erlking's cloak lay draped over the foot of his bed for now, later to be stuffed awkwardly into a dry cleaning bag and hung up somewhere safe. It didn't have any magical properties that they'd noticed yet, but it still seemed wise to treat it respectfully.
Sawyer became aware of the dream as he was standing in a meadow on the mountain and for a moment he tensed with fear. But then he realized the grass was the silver gray of late autumn, and the trees were bare, and it was not Goldenrod stepping out of the shadow of the trees.
"Nicholas," he said, surprised. "You lived!"
"Just," Nicholas confirmed. "You unleashed the Court's worst fear on them today. It was madness. I have not seen the Unseelie in such disarray in all my years. It will take them a very long time to recover. Thank you."
"You're welcome," Sawyer said with a small, wary smile. "Does this mean you don't want to kill me anymore?"
"The Unseelie have retreated from the mountain," Nicholas said with a nod. "They are no longer invested in forcing shifters into service at the moment. You have no interest to them. And so I have no standing order to harm you."
"That's a relief," Sawyer said, and chuckled.
"I am glad you did not take my offer," Nicholas said as a chill wind stirred the grass, making silver waves. "This is a much less bitter victory."
"I wasn't sure it would be a victory, right up to the last minute," Sawyer admitted. "Taking your offer would have been a safer gamble."
"It was no gamble," Nicholas said, shaking his head. "It was a trap. At least the part where I asked you to open the wards."
"I figured," Sawyer said, nodding. "So what happens next for you?"
"The world has not ended," Nicholas replied. "And so I still belong to the Unseelie. I will continue to serve, and suffer."
"That doesn't seem fair," Sawyer said, frowning.
"Few things in life are fair, if we do not strive to make them that way ourselves," Nicholas replied.
Sawyer thought for a long moment.
"Hey, I still know your true name," Sawyer pointed out. "You said the first thing I asked you to do, you'd have to do it, no matter what, right?"
"Yes," Nicholas confirmed.
"What if it's something impossible?"
"Then I must still try, and keep trying, until it becomes possible."
"…is it possible to leave the Unseelie Court? To become Wild Fae?"
Nicholas hesitated, blinked.
"It is," he said. "On my own, it would be impossible to sever such bonds. But true name magic is known for breaking such things. Especially when the name is called by one who truly cares for the afflicted."
"It's not true love," Sawyer said. "But I want you to be happy. Is that enough?"
"We shall see," Nicholas said, like he was resisting getting his hopes up.
Sawyer licked his lips, feeling like this needed more fanfare than he could give it.
"Will I ever see you again?" Sawyer asked, hesitating.
"You named me, Black Wolf," Nicholas replied. "And now you intend to set me free. Our destinies are joined, absolutely. I will see you again someday, never doubt it."
"Good," Sawyer said. "Nicholas Nuckelavee, I command you to leave the Unseelie court, to shake off all contracts and debts and magical bonds, and be free."
A wind rushed through the meadow and threw Sawyer's hair into his face. He saw Nicholas tilt his head back to look at the sky, and smile, real and true. He released the iron bar from his hands, and when it fell the whole earth shook.
When the wind abated, he was gone.
Sawyer woke, just for a moment, smiled at the sleeping faces of his mate and his child, and then closed his eyes and went back to sleep, hoping this time for no interruptions. He was incredibly tired.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Three months later, Sawyer was still tired, but he was starting to get used to it.
September sunlight fell warm through the living room windows to where Sawyer lay dozing on the couch, Penny curled up asleep on his chest. He'd barely put her down since the Erlking had handed her back to him. Even though Goldenrod was quite definitely dead, Sawyer couldn't shake the feeling that if he looked away for one second something would run off with his daughter. He was starting to think it might just be part of being a parent.
Penny was human at the moment, the sun shining on her glossy black curls. She went back and forth between shapes seemingly at a whim, which Alicia had told them was normal and would happen less as she grew. Sawyer found her wolf shape as beautiful as her human shape, but there was something special about looking at her face when she was human and being able to see both himself and Elliot there.
A quiet knock on the living room archway woke him from his half-nap and he looked up as Elliot snuck closer, leaning down to kiss him, then Penny. Sawyer tipped his head to let Elliot kiss the white bonding scar on his neck. When the Golden Hart left him, it took the scar on his chest with it. Elliot had been only too happy to replace it.
"Dinner is just about ready," Elliot whispered.
"Give me a minute to wake up the princess," Sawyer said with a yawn.
"We could just put her upstairs and let her sleep," Elliot suggested, but Sawyer shook his head.
"No way. If she naps too long she'll be up all night again. If I don't get at least one full night of sleep this week I'm going to go live in the zoo."
Elliot chuckled and waited while Sawyer coaxed Penny awake, soothing the fussing that ensued. A few minutes later they wandered into the dining room just as everyone was sitting down. Jacob and M
ateo sat next to one another at one end, Elliot at the opposite, Alicia and Paul on the far side. Sawyer took a moment to appreciate the sight, since it might be a while before he saw it again.
"Morning Sleeping Beauty," Alicia teased. "How's the little monster?"
Penny babbled happily and waved her chubby little arms at Alicia until she came around the dining table to pick Penny up.
"She's going to riot when you leave," Sawyer said, leaning on his elbow, still barely awake, though the smell of Jacob's cooking was doing a lot to make him feel more alert. "Are you all packed?"
"Just about," Alicia confirmed, bouncing Penny in her arms. "A few more things to box up. Serena is coming by with the truck tomorrow."
"I'm really proud of you," Sawyer said sincerely. "It's a big step. Especially so soon after…"
He gestured ambiguously at basically the past year.
"It's what I've always wanted to do," Alicia said with a nervous grin. "And I think the change will be good for me. Getting away from this place and all the memories for a while."
Sawyer nodded in understanding.
"Just remember you can come back any time," Elliot said, frowning. "The campus is only a few hours away, right? So if you start overdoing it or stressing yourself too much-"
"We can, and will, show up to force you to take a day off," Mateo finished for Elliot with a grin. Alicia rolled her eyes.
"I'll have Serena there to make sure I don't get in too deep," she said. "This move is going to be really good for her too. The Council is still putting itself back together and they've been relying on her for a lot. It turns out she's way stronger than we've been giving her credit for."
"I called that," Sawyer said.
"The apartment is really close to a local nexus," Alicia continued. "She'll be able to teleport in whenever they need her. That nice wizard from Delhi we met back at New Years is talking about mentoring her officially. She could end up with a serious career here."
"I'm just glad the Council managed to pull its shit together enough to cover up everything that happened with the Fae," Sawyer said, taking Penny back as Alicia handed her over and went to sit down again. "Even if they were no help actually stopping it."
"Honestly, all the mind wipes and non-magical cover ups were a pretty impressive bit of work regardless," Alicia said with a shrug. "It worked out."
Jacob cleared his throat as he began serving the food.
"In light of Alicia's departure tomorrow, I have an announcement of my own," he said. "Now that the Fae are dealt with and the restored Wild Hunt is keeping things more in balance, some of the issues with the Far Northern territory have been resolved. But there is still a great deal of work to be done. And with Alicia's shifter database going online," he paused to nod in her direction and she smiled proudly, "I think it's perhaps time I returned home to help rebuild."
"The database isn't perfect yet," Alicia pointed out. "In fact, I'm kind of counting on your brothers to spread it around Africa and Asia. It's going to take a while before it's a comprehensive resource."
"My brothers will continue to travel. They've taken a shine to it, and to the concept of your database. They're excited to have new quest. It will just be me returning."
"Still…"
"I have faith in you," Jacob said with a small smile. "But it's time. As Sawyer made clear, there is a time to run away, to seek your own peace. And there is a time to return to responsibility. I found peace here, and a sense of belonging that I never expected. But it's time I returned, for now at least. Besides, someone needs to show my father how to use the internet if you intend to have content from the Far Northern pack."
Alicia laughed quietly, but Sawyer just held Penny close, his chest tight.
"Perhaps it's time I started thinking about going home as well," Mateo said thoughtfully. "I have been long neglecting some responsibilities of my own. Though I am still not certain how to deal with them."
"May I offer a suggestion?" Jacob said, looking carefully down at his plate and not at Mateo. "Come north with me. Help me rebuild. And in time we'll return to your pack together, with a force of Northern wolves behind us."
"I told you, I cannot win this with an outsider's army," Mateo said, shaking his head.
"It wouldn't be an outsider's army," Jacob replied, choosing his words very carefully. "It would be yours. Because you would be the mate of the Northern Alpha."
Mateo froze with his fork halfway to his mouth. Everyone at the table stared at Jacob like he'd just grown a second head. After a moment, Mateo cleared his throat and put down his fork.
"I'll consider it," he said stiffly, but when he saw Jacob's reserved expression break into a grin he started laughing and couldn't stop. It was a while before things quieted down again.
"I'm leaving too," Paul spoke up, when there was finally a break.
"What? Where to?" Alicia asked in a mild panic. Paul just shrugged and smiled.
"Europe first, maybe? Or India. Anywhere. Penny, I mean, my Penny, wanted to travel. I wanted to travel with her. Even if it's not the same, I want to do it. There's still a part of her in me that wants to see the world."
"But you'd be alone," Sawyer pointed out.
Paul just smiled, silver eyes shining.
"I'm never alone, remember?"
Sawyer was a bit quiet through dinner, contemplating the future. The next day, they helped Alicia load the last of her things into the moving truck and stood on the step waving goodbye as she headed off to med school. Sawyer and Elliot stayed there in the door, Penny in Sawyer's arms, for a long while after the truck had disappeared down the long drive. Sawyer looked out at the yard, once full of tents, now empty. The cottages stood by, and beyond them the doublewide, the travel trailers, the barn, all empty. The gators had returned to the everglades. Russell's family back to the suburb in New York. All the various other shifters and near fae, filtering away back to their old or new lives. The last had left only last week. And more were sure to come eventually. They'd decided to embrace the sanctuary reputation. They had the space and infrastructure now, so why not? Alicia loved the idea, and Serena had pitched it to the Council, who were talking about sponsoring the endeavor with a permanent grant, once the Council itself was not so much in shambles. They'd made an official post on the shifter website (as well as a link to Alicia's growing database), and Mateo said it was spreading quickly. A safe place for any shifter or displaced near fae to get back on their feet. It was going to be a lot of work, but Sawyer thought it was worth it. If he could make sure one person never had to live the way he had, anything was worth it.
Elliot put an arm around Sawyer and squeezed his shoulder.
"What are you thinking about?" he asked.
"How empty this place is going to be," Sawyer answered. "It's going to be just you and me and the baby for a while."
"Sounds nice," Elliot said with a small smile, brushing Sawyer's hair back from his face. "I love the pack and having a big noisy house full of people we love. But I think it'll be great to spend some time just focusing on being a family, the three of us."
Sawyer smiled back at him.
"It does sound nice," he agreed.
"Of course," Elliot said with a grin. "With an Omega around I doubt the house will be empty for long. The Moon is going to see how small the pack has become and start drowning us in new shifters, you wait."
"If She tries anything I will rob NASA in order to go up there and personally kick Her ass," Sawyer replied in a perfect deadpan. Elliot laughed so loudly Mateo and Jacob came out to see what the joke was. They sat on the step until the sun went down, telling dumb jokes and talking about the future.
That night, Sawyer lay in bed beside Elliot, listening to the quiet house as he fell asleep. He could hear Elliot's heartbeat under his ear. Penny was breathing peacefully nearby. The restless, frantic fear that had haunted him all his life was gone, carried away with the Hart. He was afraid, often. Still insecure. He still waited, from time to time, for every
thing to be taken away. But even those feelings were slowly fading, in the face of a life that no longer needed them.
After so many long years of wandering, Sawyer was finally home.