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Lyra’s undying flowers, Des told me when we first set foot in this place.

Temper and Malaki arrive shortly after us, I’ve got to hand it to the two of them—they clean up well considering we gave them such short notice.

Short notice as in, we dropped the news only a few hours ago.

“Well, well, well,” Temper says when she sees me, the train of her misty blue dress dragging along behind her, “there’smy best friend. Did you have fun boning Bat Boy while the rest of us were actually saving the Otherworld?”

I press my lips together to keep from smiling. “I wasn’t just boning Des,” I say. “We partied a little too.”

“Without me?”

“Don’t act like you were being held here against your will.” I found her in Malaki’s room, wrapped up in his sheets.

“Bitch, you don’t know what it’s been like here.” She side-eyes Malaki, who’s busy thumping Des on the shoulder. Temper lowers her voice. “He’s really freaking intense, which is awesome when he’s drilling me, but not so much when it leaves the bedroom. I get the impression that the dude wantscommitment.”

Yeah, I’d gotten that impression too. Too bad Temper’s allergic to it.

She waves the conversation off and pulls me in for a hug. “I seriously never expected this day to come,” she says, holding me close. “You’re giving me faith that even we bad bitches can find love.”

I laugh in her arms.

My friend pulls away to take in my pale, glowing gown. The fabric is made from spun moonlight, the embroidery of it shining just a little bit brighter than the rest of it. At my throat is the necklace Des fashioned for me from moonbeams.

I feel like a fairy queen.

“You look beautiful,” Temper says. There’s no sarcasm, no joke, no usual barb to curb the sweetness of her words.

“Alright, Temper, you can stop being sentimental. It’s freaking me out.”

Malaki comes over then, pulling me in for a hug. “Desmond is a blessed man to be mated to a woman like you. Thank you for making him happy.”

Des’s general and I have never talked much, and to be honest, I always assumed he felt I was just some girl. So to hear him say that …

I don’t have the words to tell him how that makes me feel, so I simply hug Malaki tighter.

He releases me and steps back, placing a heavy hand on the back of Temper’s neck, his fingers idly rubbing her skin. She’s not batting him away, which she’d have no problem doing if she didn’t like the guy.

Hmmm …

A mystery for another day.

Des steps up to me, clad in the same glowing silks as I am, his bronze circlet on his head. He’s almost unbearable to look at; his inhuman beauty is almost painful to look at.

“Callie,” he says, “there’s something I wanted to show you.”

Des takes my hand and leads me away from Temper and Malaki, then away from the ruins themselves. Cool night air whistles through the flowers, and it’s all so very serene.

The Bargainer brings me to a small mound covered with flowers. He kneels in front of it, placing his hands on the earth.

“This might be a bit macabre, but I’ve wanted to bring you here for a long time,” he says. “This is where I laid my mom to rest.”

I start at that.

His mom, the one woman who’d sacrificed everything for him in the end, was buried here?

AndDeslaid her to rest? I try to imagine that—Des carrying his slain mother to this place, digging a grave for her. Had he been alone? The possibility itself is heartbreaking.

“Why here?” I ask.