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Epilogue

P etra

It’s been several months since Shadow and I moved in together. I haven’t slept in my own room since the night of Tyree’s party. And that feeling? The one that I hadn’t realized I’d been having every minute of every day of my whole life? The fear and the pain and the uncertainty? Yeah, that feeling has been gone since the moment it first disappeared.

What I’m filled with now is calm, and yes, I’ll say it, peace. Me, Petra, filled with peace. Imagine that! Shadow and I get stronger as a couple every day. We’re there for each other. I admit I’ve had a few meltdown moments where the old Petra comes back.

The worst is when we’re snuggled in bed and the new Petra loves having Shadow’s heavy arm thrown possessively over me as he sleeps, but the old Petra gets a zing of sheer panic traveling up her spine. But now the two Petras have a talk and calm down and breathe, and I’m over it almost before it begins. Yay me!

It’s been such a joy to watch Shadow grow. He smiles easily now, at me and others. It’s like he’s transformed from dead to alive. He tells me he’s been absent from his own life for a long time and has a lot of catching up to do.

He’s pestered Grace into teaching him a few licks on her instrument. He stalks Maddie in the kitchen and practically forced her to teach him how to bake a cake. He hangs out on the bridge and is especially interested in navigation.

He says he never wanted to be a gladiator, and never wants to fight again. That’s fine with me. When I think of him in that arena on Numa, with that colossal Neanderthal guy pounding him, I’d be glad to never worry about him getting hurt again.

And the bedroom. That gets better and better, which is saying quite a lot since it started out as galaxy-class to begin with. Now we have a menu we can choose from that ranges from soft and sweet to strong and sexy to down and dirty to no-holds-barred. And when we’re really in the mood for something different, we go to the ludus late at night and play with the rope. But that’s a story for another day.

The End