Page 29 of Unbroken (Rath & Rune #4)

“I still feel bad for Victoria,” Ves said several days later, as they strolled across the grounds of what had been the Fuller estate.

The Endicotts were in the midst of quietly making arrangements to purchase it, though how he didn’t know, considering they’d burned Fuller’s body in the incinerator and the man was still alive as far as the rest of the town knew.

Magic or forgery, or magical forgery, he assumed.

Either way, as soon as they’d learned there was an unoccupied mansion with a Dark Young planted on the property, Rupert had put plans in motion to acquire it for the family.

As for what that meant for his half-sibling in the garden…well, that did worry him. He’d already set himself the task of visiting at least once a week to make certain they were treating it well.

Sebastian walked with his arm linked through Ves’s. “I love you,” he said, “and I love your compassion. But she tried to kill you—she nearly succeeded! I have no regrets for destroying her.”

“I know, and I don’t want you to. You saved my life.” He’d never fought another Dark Young, never imagined he’d have to. The match had been close, but he hadn’t been prepared to kill her, even though she had no such qualms of her own.

They reached the entrance to the maze and started inside.

“What Fuller and the others did to her…it was terrible,” Ves went on, trying to sort through his own feelings.

“She wasn’t like me, she wasn’t born a Dark Young.

She lost control of her own body, had to see it twisted into something not only alien to her, but that other humans found terrifying as well. Of course she lashed out.”

They reached a dead end and went back to try again. “I know,” Sebastian said. “And I understand. The WHS used her, then turned their backs on her. I’d want revenge, too, in her case. But I draw the line at trying to murder you, especially because you wanted only to help her.”

Almost dying hadn’t been fun by any stretch of the imagination.

Still… “I represented the nightmare scenario—that she would have to live with this horrible thing that had been done to her. That it couldn’t be reversed, couldn’t be healed.

And yes, my circumstances are wildly different from hers, but I do understand why she felt as she did.

I was born this way, and I still wanted to change. To be normal.”

Sebastian tightened his grip on Ves’s arm. “I remember. I hope…I hope you’ve changed your mind?”

Ves looked up into his hazel eyes, saw the concern there. The love.

Where would he be without Sebastian and the rest of the Rath family? Still miserable, still hating himself, still longing to be something he wasn’t?

Victoria had no one to support her. The WHS members could have taken her into their homes, shown her compassion, dedicated themselves to undoing what they’d wrought.

Instead, they’d done the opposite. Left her to flee to the shadows, to grapple with her new body, with no one on her side.

Even now, the thought made his heart ache.

“Yes,” he said, returning Sebastian’s loving gaze. “It’s been a journey, but yes. You, Bonnie, the children…you’ve given me so much. More than I can ever say.”

“We love you, angel.” Sebastian leaned down and gave him a soft kiss. They held each other for a long moment, then finished the maze in silence, holding hands.

The burned oleanders in the central circle had been trimmed back, probably by one of the Endicotts.

The twisted wood that was all which remained of Victoria had taken root, and new leaves sprouted from her reaching fingers and the curl of horn.

Just a tree now…or so he hoped. It didn’t seem possible any human consciousness could remain, but stranger things had happened.

Either way, she was far beyond his help now.

Rupert sat on one of the benches, while Irene and Noct stood by the tree. Noct’s tentacles were entwined with its tentacle-like branches, and Ves smiled at the sight. At least this good had come of everything: they had a new sibling, and it had them.

“It does seem to be a lovely entity,” Sebastian observed. “Tree? Person?”

“Person,” Ves agreed. “And tree, of course.”

Rupert turned at the sound of their voices. “So, the last of the Books is safely tucked away in the library,” he said.

The Endicotts and Noct were scouring every forbidden tome they could get their hands on for some way to destroy the Books.

They’d find something eventually. For now, with the Books newly Bound and stored away safely, there was no more urgency.

The frantic race to find them before they could unleash some new horror was over.

With the School of Night defeated, Sebastian had casually suggested to Ves that they start looking for an apartment of their own, away from Bonnie and the children.

Bonnie and Clara were no worse the wear from the spell, and the truth had been kept from Helen for now.

She’d have to know eventually, but in the meantime, there was talk of one of the Endicotts taking over her sorcerous training, since she clearly had an aptitude.

Mother and Grandfather were still out there somewhere. Ves tried not to worry about them, tried not to lie awake at night wondering why Mother had intervened, and what she would ask of him in return.

As for Mr. Tubbs, learning Penelope wasn’t the paragon of all goodness had shaken him.

He hadn’t returned to the library after they let him know Victoria was dead and Penelope avenged, but he had sent a brief letter of thanks.

He was joining his widowed brother on a European tour, far away from Widdershins and its bad memories.

He’d be back, though. According to Sebastian, few people left Widdershins for long.

Irene’s delighted shriek distracted Ves from his thoughts. She had her hands clasped to her chest, her eyes wide as she nodded frantically at Noct, who was holding something out to her.

“Yes!” she yelled, seeming to recover her breath. “Yes, I’ll marry you!”

They embraced, and Sebastian began to clap. Rupert smiled and said, “Oh, good. I had thought this estate would make a perfect wedding present.”

His heart full of joy, Ves went to embrace his brother and sister-in-law-to-be. The dark days were finally behind them, and the future shone bright as a sunrise and as filled with promise.

* * *

That night, held close in Ves’s tentacles and arms, Sebastian fell into dreams he would not remember.

From the corner of the stone room, he watched as Quincy entered and took the last empty chair among his siblings. A bloody thread connected him to the figure lying on the sheet-covered altar.

“At last,” Filomena said. “We’re together again.”

“At last,” Quincy agreed, but rather than look at her, he met Sebastian’s gaze and grinned. “And this time, things will turn out right.”

Then he began to fade away, along with all of his siblings. The strings glowed with light, growing stronger as the Hollowells became more and more transparent, until they were gone and the chairs empty once again.

The figure under the sheet began to stir.

The adventures of Sebastian, Ves, and their friends will conclude in Unbound, Rath & Rune 5.