Val didn’t say anything, but when Danube turned and started down the hall toward the rest of the people in the house, Valentine drifted at his side, close, but not touching.
“You know,” Ricky said, “that was pretty inspired.”
“Don’t start.”
“I mean, I might have taken a run at it eventually, but you cut right through that crap and got them thinking. You ever consider doing this for a living?”
I scoffed and started down the hall.
“Plenty of room here for you and Lu, and it’s not like I don’t have a million repair projects I’ve been meaning to get to. Put those big shoulders of yours to use. Take out your rage on some sixteen-penny nails and that shop I’ve been meaning to frame.”
“Who says I have rage?”
“Oh, Brogan,” she said quietly from where she walked behind me. “That weapon I gave you? The rod?”
I didn’t answer, not sure I was ready to hear what she was going to say.
“It isn’t just will that calls magic into it. It’s brutal, raging fury.”
“You couldn’t have told me that?” I asked.
“I was pretty sure I didn’t need to, because I was pretty sure you had more than enough rage—at the Hush, at the gods, at the world—to fuel it. Was I right?”
I stopped before we exited the hall to the rest of the house and turned to face her. “It wasn’t rage,” I said. “Or, it wasn’t just rage. It was more than that.”
She waited, brown jasper eyes calm.
“It was love.” I wanted to look away, but she touched my arm, and I didn’t flinch, didn’t feel the need to pull away from her warm, steady contact. “My love,” I said, “and well, all of ours. Together.”
Her smile was crooked, and she looked pleased with me. “Yep,” she said, “it was all that too.”
Chapter Nineteen
The wolves sprawled in skin or fur across the lawn, the two packs separated but more comfortable in each other’s space than they had been even a day ago.
The binds that Ricky had given us had left their mark. We had gone to battle together, had saved the Moon Rabbit and Shadow together. In some ways, we would always be a part of each other.
The trio of hunters stood to one side below the porch. Every now and then a wolf would call something out to them, there would be an answer, and everyone would laugh.
I shook my head. Hunters were not friends. Not to monsters like werewolves, not to monsters like Lu and me.
Still, I couldn’t help but be grateful that Elmer, Pamela, and Josie had thrown their lot in with us, at least this once, against the Hush.
I didn’t know if I could count on them in the future, but I was glad to know them in this now.
Lu shifted next to me on Silver’s tailgate. Lorde had abandoned us to sit with the Riggs, her tongue lolling as she got all the petting and scratching she could desire.
Abbi and her panther also lounged in the grass. Ricky remained sitting on the top step of her porch. A flicker of light near her resolved into Valentine, who sat on the top step too.
“All right, Abbi,” Danube said, strolling out onto the grass to sit with the Riggs. “We’re all here. Drop the bomb.”
She smiled, and even after all we’d been through, that smile was pure and sweet.
“I know you all love me,” she said. A couple of the weres grumbled their disagreement, and she wrinkled her nose. “You do,” she laughed. “I’m a part of the moon, and you lovelovethe moon.
“Also, you helped me find Hado. That was…” Her voice fell out from under her, and suddenly she looked much, much older, and much, much sadder. “…that was everything to me. You didn’t have to help me, but you did. Thank you.” The last came out as a whisper.
Hado wrapped his fluffy tail closer around her, and even from our distance, I could hear his purr.
