I can’t believe I thought they betrayed me.
All this time, I’ve been so worried that they weren’t trulyinthis, that they were holding on to the broken shards of their old lives. But they’re willing to raze their futures to the ground for me, and from the ashes something new and fierce and brilliant will emerge.
I topple forward and they catch me, pulling me into their arms, laying their kisses on my skin, linking their hands around me to hold me upright, to keep me strong. Tears scratch my eyes.I needed you, and you came through for me. You always come through for me.
“I’m sorry,” I sniff, burying my face in Gabriel’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have sprung the Gabriel wedding thing on you without discussing it first. I was in problem-solving mode. I didn’t think that it might impact all of you. I know I’ve been acting like I’m in this alone, like nothing I do is above scrutiny, but I’m just so fuckingscared. And I’m the one who’s supposed to be strong. I have to hold it together but… Mackenzie came into ourhouse. She was right there in the room with us. It could have been any of you bleeding out on the floor, and the thought of that makes me ill—”
“It could have beenyou,” Noah growls, brushing his lips across my forehead. “You’re not the only one who feels trapped or afraid. That’s why we have to stick together. Because all we have now is each other. And if we have to marry you off to Nero and Constantine at Lupercalia, we won’t even have that—”
“I told you, I’m making a plan to get out of that.”
“Then you need totell us the plan, Claws.” Noah sighs. It’s the same sigh he uses when he tutors me and he thinks I’m being really fucking dim. “You’re not alone anymore.”
You’re not alone anymore.
Fuck, if any four words could break me, those are the ones.
The tears I’ve been holding back spill over. I’m so used to being alone, first when my father hid me away from the world to protect his legacy, and then for four long years in this big, silent house while life went on outside the walls. I’m not used to letting people in. I’m supposed to be strong enough to survive on my own.
But I don’t have to. Not anymore.
I start crying harder as Eli adds, “We’re here to help you. And if you truly think it’s the right thing to do, we’ll help you marry Gabe now—”
“I was wrong about that plan,” I smile sadly. “As it turns out, it’s a fucking moot point, since Cleo and her demon child are going to swipe Blackwich Castle out from under us.”
“Wait, Cleo’s pregnant?” Eli’s brows knit together. “With Gabe’s father’s kid? She’s going to be Gabe’sstepmother?”
Noah makes a gagging noise.
“Maybe that’s for the best,” Gabe says quickly. He leans against me, snuggling his head into the crook of my arm. He feels so tiny, so vulnerable like this. “Nothing good has ever come out of that castle. We don’t need my legacy – we’re building our own right here.”
I gather them to me again, holding them so tight I hear Gabe’s spine crack. I’ve been such an idiot. I’ve been like a tiny bird pecking at the bars of my cage, completely oblivious to the fact I’ve got three lovers who’ll help me smash down the door.
I love that they have our future mapped out. That’s adorable. But their plans are small. They’re right – I can’t run this family on my own, especially not once I dethrone Constantine and Nero. I’ll need my own Triumvirate in place. Gabriel will run the entertainment side of the business, and Noah will be in charge of Dio’s assassins. Eli shall remain by my side as my advisor, although I do like the idea of arming him with a thorough knowledge of the law.
But for now, I keep my plans to myself. This isn’t a time for plotting, it’s a time for kissing my loves and feeling their still-beating hearts in their chests and remembering that today, this day, we’re still alive. We’re together. And we are invincible.
* * *
A while later,Yara barges into the ballroom (thankfully, we’re all buttoned and zipped up by then), with a damp t-shirt of her own, a grease stain across her brow, and a self-satisfied smirk on her pretty face. “All fixed.”
“You’re a genius.” I pat the sofa beside me, where only fifteen minutes earlier, Eli had thrust inside me so hard he jerked the sofa leg across the marble, leaving behind a permanent scratch. Yara dumps her toolbox on the table and drops into the pile of cushions.
“I know,” she grins. “What the fuck were you trying to do to the wall, anyway?”
“I thought the treasure might be hidden there.” George follows her into the room, her head in her hands. “But I give up. I’ve scanned and measured every inch of this house. Unless Malloy Manor is secretly on Ash Tree Lane and is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside, there’s no hidden treasure room or secret stash.”
“Points for theHouse of Leavesreference,” Yara nods to her. They’re both huge horror geeks.
George slumps further into the sofa cushions, looking sorry for herself. Queen Boudica, the lap-seeking missile, leaps up and makes herself a comfortable nest between George’s thighs.
“We’re missing something,” I say. “We know the treasure is in this house.”
“I’m telling you, I’ve measured every wall in this house against Howard’s schematics. There are no other secret passages apart from the one Mackenzie used to escape,” George says. “Maybe Ainsley moved the treasure before she was killed? Or maybe we’re wrong, and Mackenzie really does have it already?”
I shake my head. “Mackenzie thinks it’s here. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be on my ass about the house. There are no other clues in the diary?”
“I’ve scoured that thing from cover to cover. All that the last entry tells us is that the treasure is in this house. But I’m telling you, it’s not here.”
