She recognized it as a room very similar to the one she stayed in with the Weavers. It was elegant and had a spice of danger to it. Gentry liked it.
“Gentry, are you awake, baby?” a familiar, masculine voice asked.
A big smile broke across her face, and she turned to see Kit at her bedside. The tall, lean witch looked awful, his usually clean-shaven face scraggly with dark facial hair and deep shadows underneath his eyes.
“You look terrible,” she croaked, and she was a bit mortified that she had a shaky, pathetic coughing fit right after making her joke.
Kit didn’t laugh as his jaw tightened with emotion. He looked pissed. “You don’t get to make jokes after what you did. How could you do something so…verifiably insane? TheWeaversare impressed with you, that’s how fucking out of touch you were.”
Gentry flinched. “That isn’t quite fair,” she began, “I mean technically I was at risk anyway, which is the only reason—”
“—Do not justify it. For the love of god, don’t. Just”—Kit placed his head in his hands—“don’t give me a heart attack again, please, andneverrisk your life for mine again. Your life is worth more than mine. If you hadn’t also saved Amelia, I think I’d have to get you committed again.”
This time Gentry laughed, which hurt an insane amount. “Now who’s making jokes?” She sobered a bit. “I’m so glad I’m alive,” she said earnestly, “I’m not quite surehow, but I’m so glad.”
Her man smiled at last. “Well, we’re going to have to write a shit ton of thank you notes is how. It was two weeks of non-stop work. The healer brought you back with CPR and the Weavers got you the best cross-disciplinary team I’d ever seen. When they weren’t pumping you full of drugs, they were using what magic your body could handle. But then we noticed you weren’t gettingbetter — it was because that bond to that dead fucking Netherton was dragging you down. Wren spent hours excising his shitty soul out of you. Now mind”—Kit held a finger up—“I don’t think we necessarily owe theWeaversa thank you note, but definitely to Wren and your doctors.”
Gentry laughed again and stopped.Fuck, that hurt.Then she shut her eyes. She could already feel her energy depleting to nil. It was almost time for her first un-medicated sleep. But there was something she had to ask first. “Mom and Beckett, did you get a hold of them? Tell them I’m okay?”
Her witch smiled at her. “They’re in town as we speak. I only called them once we were sure you’d wake up.”
Tears stung her eyes at that. “Thank you, they’ve worried enough about me for a lifetime.” From now until the day she died, she swore she’d find a way to make it up to them. But that gave her one extra thought. “Kit, I’m not sure if the whole ‘me-almost-dying-for-you’ didn’t tell you this, but I love you too.”
Kit swiped her tears away and kissed her so tenderly that Gentry never wanted it to stop.
sixty-one
Gentry
Skadra’s smallest park proved a lovely place for Maxwell Greenbriar’s celebration of life. For being surrounded by desert, it had all the trees, bushes, and grass that reminded Gentry of the places her father preferred to run his cons. He’d proclaimed a hatred against the desert, a speech he’d given Gentry many times before about it being an unnatural place for humans to flock, even those with magic.
“It’s just asking for something bad to happen,” he’d persisted in the car one day on one of their cross-country road trips.
Gentry had rolled her eyes, but sighed, “Oh, c’mon, Dad, it can’t be that bad.”
“Walk in the desert, hon. Walk in the desert for one mile, and tell me that again.”
They’d both started laughing at that.
More and more memories like those were returning for Gentry, and she’d taken to journaling their adventures together with the intention of sharing them with Beckett or maybe even her mother. In a way, it felt like she was getting to know her dad again.
Gentry sat a basket full of buttered rolls down at the picnic table, grinning when Wren immediately reached for two. The attendance for the celebration of life was small — just her, her mother and sister, Kit and his siblings, and Adrienne and Wren. Her father hadn’t left any friends behind, but she didn’t think that particularly mattered when she knew he’d just cared about their family. She’d been sure to spread his pictures of their family on a cardboard display, and she’d caught a peek of her mom looking at the pictures and dabbing her eyes.
“Hey cutie”—Kit dragged her down to sit between him and her mom—“care to share any more stories about being the first witch coven cyber expert? I don’t think your mom’s convinced that you’re actually legit now.”
“Hey,” her mother pointed a fork sternly in Kit’s direction as she said, “I didn’t say it like that. I said that Gentrybetterbe legitimate or I’m kicking her ass.”
Everyone laughed, Gentry included, although she knew her mother wasn’t joking in the least. From the shit-eating grin on Beckett’s face, she’d wager that her baby sister knew that too.
“My job is legit,” she said calmly, “at least in Skadra.” Skadra, as she had learned, operated on the Weavers’ rules and so she took special care to mind their boundaries and to stay in Luke’s good graces — calling her awitch covencyber expert was really a misnomer. Almost all of her jobs were for the enforcers under Luke’s jurisdiction. She was really theWeavercyber expert who was very occasionally rented out to other covens.
Kit threw an arm over her shoulders and tucked her to him, his body completely relaxed. Her man had been his happy and relaxed self ever since he’d officially left the Jumpers and turned to freelance bodyguard work, which he was really overqualified for. Gentry knew Luke wanted him to join the enforcers, but knew that the deep hatred between Kit and Clea would prevent that from ever happening. The ruthless woman had taken herrightful place as Luke’s right-hand, and the entire city feared her.
But Gentry put work far out of mind as she laughed and spent time with her family. There’d be time for the other stuff.
The next day, Gentry thanked Kit for flying her to work and pushed back her guilt about what she was hiding from him. It wasn’t anything major, but it was sensitive, and it did involve Clea, whom he’d hated with all his heart. If she wasn’t worried for her best friend, then she certainly wouldn’t be doing it.
Whining until one of the most powerful Weavers in the city agreed to an additional favor wasn’t exactly smart, but it was what Gentry had done. Quite successfully, in fact.
