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Then I heard Jack laugh and slowed my run. No emergency. Relief.

But this latest scare reminded me that life was short, and I regretted not taking more time to check in with him and reconnect. We’d both been working ourselves to exhaustion every day, never talking about the future.

He’d made no secret that he wanted whatever I was willing to give, was a hundred percent committed to me and Tee.

Jack and I slept in the same bed. We walked the property hand in hand. He was giving it his all. He’d even quit drinking, didn’t want to “dull a single second” he had with us.

Grief held me back.

Yet lately, I’d started to believe I would see Aric again. As Death had promised, he would search for me through the ether and return to my side.

But I didn’t think Jack and I would be so lucky to get another reincarnated life together. We rarely talked about his potentially being a Sword. He seemed to have written it off as either unimportant—or impossible. And even if he was a Minor, we didn’t know that they reincarnated.

So I should savor this time with Jack and my little boy. They would be my present. Aric would be my future in another lifetime.

When we’d buried his ashes and armor on the hill, I’d let the tourniquet go. And I’d decided to give life another try.

As I rounded the corner, I gasped to see Tee toddling toward Jack. Walking! Tee laughed with each wobbling step, and even when he dropped to his bottom into the thick green grass.

As I clapped, bittersweetness coursed through me. I loved seeing this; I wished Aric had lived long enough to experience it with me. I took my locket in hand and rubbed my thumb across the rose.

But I was happy to share the moment with Jack—the man who was ready to raise Tee as his own, but who didn’t want to replace Aric. Jack just needed to be there for us.

Grinning, he said, “Did you see that, peekôn? He’ll be running before we can blink!” As remarkable as Tee’s new accomplishment was the fatherly pride in Jack’s blazing gray eyes.

He is a father. And wasn’t it time to make that official? Somehow I would find the strength to remove Aric’s ring and ask Jack if he was ready to give me his own.

As Aric wanted for us. . . .

Later that night after Jack and I had put our newly minted toddler to bed, we sat on the front porch steps and listened to the night: fish jumping in the river, cicadas, and sighing cane. In the front parlor, Taka cleaned her wings.

I’d never thought I would hear Haven House creak and groan again. I’d never expected to hear the cane whisper me to sleep. Yet here I was.

A lifetime ago, when Jack and I had walked together through these fields on the night before the Flash, I’d soaked up the sultry air, savoring the insect chatter, and the sweet smell of dew.

Now he and I were back. All our wanderings had returned us here.

How strange it was just to be. I’d thought I would either die young or become immortal until the next game; this option—just living—had been a distant dream.

Would my regeneration keep me young-looking, while Jack and Tee aged? Would the Stix and the game lay off long enough for the three of us to build a life here?

I glanced over at Jack and saw none of the restlessness that used to trail him—just contentment. It fed my own, and I stifled my worries. “You told me we’d have these things again, but I was too scared to believe you.”

He looped his arm around my shoulders. “It’s only goan to get better, peekôn.”

“Yeah. I think it will. It already has.”

He slid me his heart-stopping grin. “Smell that honeysuckle, would you?”

I leaned into his warmth. “How is it possible to love you this much?”

He knew what currents swam within that question and answered, “Because your heart is that big. Big enough for two. I loved you first in this life, and Dominija will love you last in the next.” From his pocket Jack pulled out the red ribbon, the one that signified which man I’d chosen. “I’ll keep this for a bit. And you can give it to him in the future.”

I nodded, emotion making my throat tight. When I could speak again, I said, “You once mentioned you wanted to marry me. Still interested?”

He leaned in to press his lips to mine, giving me a bec doux. “Whenever you’re ready, peekôn.”

49

The Empress

Year 5 N.D.

I came downstairs to the sound of a windup gramophone playing an old record—and chaos.

Jack was feeding the kids breakfast.

Tee tended to all of our chickens and ate their eggs each morning. Little Clo, named after her aunt Clotile, refused, wanting only the most exotic fruit Mama could conjure. And baby Kent, named after the Chariot, loved nothing more than avocados.