When I fell from the rafters, I ended up landing directly on top of his body.He broke my fall, and I would have walked away had I not inhaled so much smoke.
But after Josephine, the student healer, helped heal my burns with her hands and some of Crane’s poultice, I ended up walking away from Sleepy Hollow Institute feeling better than when I had walked in.
Of course, Crane is a little worse off than I am.I joke that it’s what he deserves for shooting me, since it’s in the same spot as the bullet wound, but I think in a few days he’ll be fine.Hasn’t stopped him from complaining for the last several hours, though, as the three of us ride toward Manhattan, following the Hudson.
“Do you think we’ll make it all the way into Manhattan by nightfall?”Kat asks with an awed smile.She’s on top of Snowdrop, whom they collected from the stables before stopping by Kat’s house where she left Famke—for now.
“If not, we’ll find a nice inn close by,” Crane says, sitting on the buggy that had belonged to Sarah, with Gunpowder pulling it.We needed someplace to store all of our belongings, though we didn’t grab much when we left the school.All of us were too eager to get out of there, especially as more police showed up from Tarrytown and Pleasantville and started poking around.I was certain that they would soon be suspicious of us and want to talk about all the occult paraphernalia, let alone all the dead bodies, so we left before they could.
“With a big bed,” Kat notes.
“The biggest bed,” I confirm.
“Oh, by the way, Brom,” Crane speaks up.“Did I tell you I’m getting married?”
My heart lurches in my chest and I swivel on Daredevil to look at him.Of course he’s grinning like a fool.
“To Kat,” he goes on.“In case that wasn’t clear.Don’t worry, pretty boy, you’re invited to the wedding.”
My fists automatically clench and I glare at him.“I could kill you.”
It’s not even that I’m mad he asked her—I knew he would.It’s that he did it when I wasn’t there.I would have liked to see that moment.
“Boys,” Kat says loudly.“Let’s not fight over me, we still have a long ways to go.”
“Who says we’re fighting overyou?”I tell her, trying not to smile.“Perhaps I wanted Crane to marryme.”
Crane laughs.“Be careful what you wish for, Brom.If you ever find yourself married to me, just know that I’ll never let you go.”
Despite the smile on my face, my heart pinches for a moment, because in some other world, some other lifetime, I would hope to marry Crane.I would hope a marriage between us would be as legally binding as the one he’ll have with Kat.
But though I’m sure that day will never come, in the end it doesn’t matter.
Because they belong to each other and they also belong to me.
And nothing will ever break that bond.
No witches, no demon, not even death.
Epilogue
Kat
Three months later
“Are you nervous?”Crane asks me as he pulls at the laces of my corset, tightening it around my ribs.
“No, but I can’t breathe,” I tell him, looking back at him from the corner of my eye.
He grins at me and places a kiss on my shoulder.“Sorry,” he tells me, finishing tying me up.“You know it’s good luck to have a little bit of pain on your wedding day.”
“Is that so?”I say coyly, turning around and reaching up, hooking my wrists behind his neck.He ducks his head a little since I can barely reach.“I don’t recall you causing me any pain on our wedding day.”
He places his hands on my waist.“I figured you were in such shock at having to marry me to begin with, no additional pain was needed.Though I wouldn’t say there wasn’t any pain on our wedding night.”
I close my eyes to the memory of the three of us on aking-sized bed in our fancy hotel room, my wedding dress torn in half by two very impatient and demanding men.
“But,” Crane goes on with a heated smirk, “since this is Brom you’re marrying now, well, perhaps I’m just a little jealous.”
