Page 87 of The Consulate

Max smiled, her eyes watery. “Is it fucked up that I hate the idea of her finding someone else?”

I shook my head, dragging the Maere into my arms. “No. That’s just the way love is. And she knows you love her, even if it can’t be the love you both wish it was.”

Max clung to me, shaking as her tears fell on my shoulder. “Thank you for seeing me, Ember. I haven’t given you enough credit over the years.”

“Shhh,” I breathed. “You don’t have to say nice things just because you’re leaving.”

She pulled away from me, tears still streaming down her cheeks. “I mean it. None of us are perfect, but we all expected you to be and then we were mad when you couldn’t…”

“Hush,” I said, and not because I didn’t believe her, but because it was true. Itwastrue and I had let it go. Ihadto. I needed the room in my heart for whatever was growing inside Hemlock House. “We all made mistakes. That’s immortality, babe.”

Max laughed, wiping tears from her eyes. “Ember, I am going to miss you a lot.” She looked up at the house. “Don’t let her miss me, okay. When she finds someone else, tell her to go for it. Lie and tell her I said I wanted her to be happy.”

I hugged Max again, pressing my forehead to hers. “Someday, youwillbe happy for her. And you will be happy too, in your own way. This is just the hard part.”

Max hugged me tight. “You know a lot about the hard parts, don’t you?”

“Sure do,” I replied before letting her go. “Ride safe, okay?”

She brushed a quick kiss to each of my cheeks as an answer. I sat down on the front steps and watched as she drove away. Ares came out first, sitting behind me on the steps, his arms encircling me. “Cookies are in the oven,” he said, kissing the top of my head.

He was wearing a black and red plaid shirt, rolled up to his elbows, which let me run my fingernails down his tattooed skin. Briony was out next, with mugs of hot chocolate on a tray. She carried one to me then left the tray on a table on the wraparound front porch.

When she’d found a quilt, she curled into one of the wicker rocking chairs on the porch. Calypso came next, with a book in hand. Then Av and Stanley. A few more clouds cleared off andjazzy music drifted out of the house—an old love song from years and years ago.

“Who left the stereo on?” I asked. “I love this song.”

No one answered me, so I turned around. Briony shook her head. Calypso and Av both shrugged. Ares was the only one who didn’t move a muscle. He just hugged me tighter.

“The house is happy,” he whispered. “And so are we.”

I hugged his arms as tightly as I could, a grin spreading over my face. “Yes,” I agreed. “We are.”