“She’s fine. It’s a girl. She named her Skyler. Sky for short.”
“Tell her congratulations, and I forgive her for going into labor while the world was ending. We stopped that from happening, by the way.”
“I’ll be there as soon as possible. Sounds like you have one hell of a story to tell.”
He looked out over the steaming sinkhole that, for all intents and purposes, led directly to hell, and chuckled. “You have no idea.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
It was with some level of disappointment that Silas found himself again in Bojingles Fae Hospital. He’d spent so much time here in recent months the staff addressed him by his first name. Thankfully, this time, it was not him in the bed, although that might be preferable to watching Meredith go through the healing process.
“The doctors say I may always walk with a limp,” she said, her red hair bunching up on the pillow. “Alex broke a vertebra in my back and it compressed my spine. It could have been worse. The fire lily juice has healed the bone and my nervous system, but because it happened when I was in fox form, they couldn’t get the alignment quite right. One hip is slightly off.”
“Will you need a cane?” Silas asked. “Because if you do, I want to get you one with a skull and flames.”
“I won’t need a cane.” The hint of a grin broke through her annoyed facade.
“Well then, I guess you’re not broken enough to replace. I’ll keep you.”
“How kind of you,” she said flatly.
Silas folded his arms and leaned back in the chair next to the bed. “I talked to Manahan. Explained everything. You have your job back.”
She gave him a warm, authentic smile. “I’m your partner again?”
“It seems so. You’re not disappointed, are you? I could convince him to find you another assignment if you’re sick of working with the likes of me.”
“No. I’m good.” She met his gaze and this time her smile came at him at full force.
He cleared his throat. “I had a chance to talk to your mother.”
“She’s awake?”
Silas nodded. “She’s having a procedure done this morning, but I’ll take you to go see her later if you want.”
“Yes, please. What did you find out?”
“She says she was tracking Alex. She wanted her revenge as much as we did. She’d been in a deep depression since your father was killed and felt like she needed to take matters into her own hands when Alex resurfaced. Unfortunately, Alex captured her and infected her with sulfralite. She admitted to stabbing Laina and posing as you to finish Soleil off when she was recovering from her gunshot wounds here in the hospital, although she says she only did so because she was under Alex’s control.”
“Did you ever figure out about Soleil and the heart?”
“Yes. Your mom posed as Grateful and gave Soleil the idea of obtaining the heart for me. Soleil must have figured out it wasn’t the real Grateful. That’s why she was trying to get the heart back. Only, she assumed the shapeshifter who had posed as Grateful was you.”
“I shouldn’t have shot her. That’s what Alex wanted.”
“You didn’t know. And let’s face it, if you’d hesitated, I’d be an extra crispy corpse.” Silas rubbed his chin. “Was it you I chased from your house after Soleil died, or your mom?”
“Me. I’d figured out my mother was the one helping Alex when I saw the remnants of her shifting on the floor of Soleil’s bedroom. I wanted to give you a clue. I left the pictures for you to find, so you’d know what she looked like.”
Silas rested his elbows on his knees. “You know she’ll have to remain in custody until she can be tried. I believe Olivia will be cleared eventually, but the law is the law.”
“I know. I feel lucky she’s still alive. I still have a mother. That’s something to be thankful for.”
Silas could hear the tinge of empathy in her voice. He didn’t have a mother or a father anymore. But he did have a family, and she was absolutely right. “Yes, it is.”
“You’ll behappy to know I saved the world without you,” Silas said, as he walked into Grateful’s maternity room later that day.
His friend opened her eyes and adjusted herself in the bed. “Silas! Thank the Goddess you’re okay. I’m so sorry—”
