I’ve always thought it cloaks the people who’ve come close to death, but I wonder now if it remains, hovering and waiting, until it can fully take you as it knows that death’s near, that you cheated it once but won’t do so again.
For now, it’s gone for good.It’ll return, of that I’m sure, but not now.Not for a long time.
Deep down, I know she might change her mind when we leave this place, when she starts to live the life she should’ve always been able to live.But I take my own advice and stop worrying about the what-ifs.
All I need to know is that she’s here now with me, and that’s where she wants to be.
EPILOGUE
HAYAMI
FIVE MONTHS LATER, BELIAL HOUSE
Warm sunlight beatsthrough the window of the library, heating my face and sending a cascade of calm around me.I finish the chapter of the romance book, stuff it down the side of the chair, and close my eyes to soak up the warmth.
I can’t believe how much my life has changed in the past few months.After my father was declared dead, there was this strange stillness, like no one knew how to feel or behave without him pulling the strings.Even the Castros were oddly quiet.No rebellious outbursts or push to take over the city.Were they in shock?Maybe.Mourning?Definitely not.It felt more like a truce, like a new chapter had begun.
My mum has been, well, my mum.The one I got snippets of when I was younger.The mother she’s always been under the fog of drink and pills, which she no longer takes.She’s been here, with me, in the present, helping me get to the end of my degree and looking at options for jobs when I finish.
I want to go into drug research, maybe looking at cures for diseases.Maybe.But underneath all the science, what I really want is to help people like me.People who’ve been coerced for so long that they’ve forgotten who they are.
That’s why I’ve been volunteering with a local charity.They support people who are still trapped in that life—or just finding their way out—because I know what it’s like.I’ve been there and survived.
We’ve not done all this alone.Soon after my father’s death, my mum called her brother and sister, my Aunt Emi and Uncle Michi, both of whom I’d never met.They flew over for the funeral and stayed for weeks to help my mum sort out the businesses.After three weeks, Aunt Emi returned to Japan, but Uncle Michi stayed.He has a good head for business and said he had some lost years to make up for where his sister and niece were concerned.
Together, my mum and Uncle Michi have restructured the Devall empire, ensuring that all the businesses are running legitimately.They also set up a personal security firm called PIP, which stands for Personal Inclusive Protection.It’s headed up by none other than Markus and Willa, who returned to us after taking a month’s maternity leave with Marta and Oscar, their very healthy five-month-old son who grows cuter by the second.
The Hellhounds were redistributed amongst the businesses and put to work in other areas, such as security guards in some of the office buildings, but most of them have been employed within PIP.They now work as security for victims of crime, vulnerable people who don’t feel safe going out alone.Because I won’t lie, the city is still a hotbed of crime.
The Castros may have accepted their new roles, but rival gangs have been moving in to try and take advantage of the changes.They’ve used the breather to stretch their legs and take over the territory that my father held.But I can live with that, as we’re not the cause, and the Hellhounds have been helping people feel safe.
And then there’s him.
As thoughts of Fenrir wash over me, I sink further into the chair.The smell of him.The feel of him.The taste of him.MyHellhound.Mybeast.
He’s remained by my side through everything—counselling sessions, revising for exams, even celebrating my twenty-first birthday with my family.He’d been shocked when I suggested coming back to Belial House for spring break.
My mum wanted to sell it, but I said no.
Whilst my thoughts on the supernatural have changed drastically, I still approach life rationally, and I can’t quite believe that memories can seep into the walls of a building.That said, this house holds some horrendous memories.Noa.My mother.And who knows what stories it holds from before my father bought it?I’ve got my own terrible memories here—though the worst aren’t even mine.They’re the ones from when Noa Devall took over my body and showed me what my father did to her.
But I can’t ignore the amazing things that happened here.
This house is where Fenrir and I were first alone.Where he showed me what my life could feel like.Where he taught me to be the person Iwantto be, not the one I was raised to be.Where I learned what people will do—what they’re willing to sacrifice—when they love someone.
I fell in love whilst in this house.That’s why I couldn’t let my mum sell it.That’s why I brought us here for spring break, and why I’m sitting in this chair now, soaking up the early sun.
Of course, I had reservations about coming here.We both did.But as soon as we stepped through the door, we felt the house breathing, like it had a new lease of life.Because she’s gone.Noa Devall doesn’t roam these halls anymore.She left the night she killed my father because her job was done.
“It’s done.You are free.”
And I hope she’s somewhere bright and full of warmth, where she can smile like she used to before she married my father.That’s my wish for her.
My head lolls to the side, sinking into the cushion.I didn’t hear him come in, didn’t hear his footsteps because he was a soldier, a Hellhound, and would never announce his presence so clumsily, but I’ll let him think I can’t smell him, that I don’t know he’s watching me the way that I watch him when he’s sleeping, the way that I look at him and wonder what I would do without him—and hope I never have to find out.
Behind the darkness of my closed eyes, I feel his stare roaming my skin, his gaze upon my body.A buzz of energy rushes through my core.How does he do this?How can he make me feel these things without me even seeing him?Without him touching me, without him saying a word?
Then I feel him, standing over me, his breath coming closer to my face.
