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I stared at all of them, a rush of emotion coming to the surface that I couldn’t even stop. It felt like this was the moment in movies where the music started picking up with a dangerous yet triumphant tune. This was the part where the heroes made all the right choices and basked in their glory. This was the part where I looked around and realized how much I would lose if this didn’t go well, and I couldn’t stop the love I had for them all brimming to the surface until my heart felt ten times its normal size. Heat gathered behind my eyes, but at the same time, my will cemented into my body.

I didn’t give a fuck about what Granny said, or Walter. I was supposed to be here. I would do anything to be in this moment right now because that’s where being with them led to.

Randy pulled up to the wharf where people were already starting to gather. I looked up and met his eyes in the rearview mirror. “Let’s go kick some demon ass.”

He smiled at me and each of us took a second to look at one another. Who would have thought that all those weeks ago when I just showed up at Randy’s birthday party that we’d be here right now? It wasn’t what I would call full circle. Nothing should end in a demon showdown, but I guessed that this could be the beginning. Nothing was going to end here. Nothing.

We got out of the Jeep and were met first with Murphy and Anna, then Ren, then others I recognized who’d helped at the store earlier. All around, I noticed all of them were wearing their bracelets. One woman with red curly hair had a bag of them hanging off her wrist. She gestured down to it. “In case someone shows up who doesn’t have one.”

“Good,” I said. “I know for a fact that this wards off the demon’s familiar.”

Her eyes rounded, and maybe it could’ve been better to ease people into the idea, but we didn’t have time for that. “I’ll make sure everyone gets one,” she said. I smiled at her. She started to walk away and then turned back around. “No more fires in the area. The news is dying down. I’d like to think we had something to do with that.”

I swallowed the emotion gathering in my throat. “We did. We all did.”

She nodded once, then turned back around, shouting about having all-seeing-eye bracelets that would help us as people started to gather near the wharf.

We walked toward the center of the grassy area. To the right out on the dock was the ship called Friendship. Yet another tourist thing I hadn’t had the time to go through, but who knew? Maybe tomorrow?

Down the street to the left where even more people were coming, there was the Nathaniel Hawthorn house and a customer once told me about a nice chocolate shop down that way too. To think that we were here to help with a demon problem when there was so much positivity around.

Actually, that could only help.

Travis rubbed his forehead.

“He’ll come,” Jennie said.

We’d given her a brief update on the way here and she agreed with the plan. The demon wanted to make a spectacle out of all this. The bigger the crowd the better.

It looked like he was going to get that.

Beyond the wharf, the ocean rippled with small waves. I could hear them breaking against the shore and even that soothed me.

Randy came up behind me and put his hands on my shoulders. “I love you, Baby Girl.”

I dropped my head back and kissed him on the lips upside down. He soothed his hands up and down my arms as we waited.

In front of us, I saw Jennie lean over to Travis. She stared back at us, then ahead. It was pretty loud all around us, but for some reason, I could pick out exactly what she said. “Doesn’t it bother you when the others touch her?”

Travis stiffened. “No. They love her as much as I do.”

“But you must get jealous, right? I mean, what if she spends more time with someone else than you?”

He raised one shoulder. “It’s happened, but I feel like we all think that about the others too.”

She tsked into his ear, her lips curving into a smile. “I don’t know. If you ask me, I think she has a thing more for Liam. You heard them in the bathroom that one morning.”

Travis turned to her. His jaw tightened. “Just stop, Jennie.”

I glared at her, and she caught my gaze for a second before shifting away. “Suit yourself. Did you tell her about Sarah?”

“What the fuck Jennie?” Travis said, his voice rising, gathering looks from those around us.

My stomach curdled. I knew there’d been someone before me, but I hadn’t known her name.

“Sorry?” she said, posing a question but in a way that meant she didn’t mean it to be a question either. “I saw you with Sarah, so I know, Travis. I know you don’t love Norah as much as you say you do.”

My hands turned to fists. That little bitch.