“We did it,” I corrected. “All of us.”
I looked at Zane, still lying on the floor. He turned his head, met my eyes.
“We are who we choose to be,” he said.
I smiled. “Yeah,” I said. “That’s right.”
27
KATE
The silence after a battle is its own kind of loud.
We sat in the ruins of our common room and tried to remember how to breathe. The demons were gone. The portal was closed. Samarek was banished.
We’d won.
It didn’t feel like winning.
Eric was beside me on the couch, his shoulder bandaged. The wound was deep but clean—it would heal. Everything would heal, eventually. That’s what I kept telling myself.
Allie was curled up in one of the armchairs, Jared perched on the arm beside her, his hand resting on her shoulder like he was afraid she’d disappear if he let go. She hadn’t said much since we’d come up from the basement. None of us had.
Zane sat apart from the group, near the window, staring out at the darkness. He’d barely spoken since the portal closed.
“And Timmy?”
Laura’s voice broke through my fog. She was standing in the doorway, phone in hand.
“Mrs. Micari just checked in. They made it to Eddie’s shop. Timmy’s asleep.” She managed a tired smile. “Apparently he thinks the whole thing was a very exciting game.”
Something in my chest unclenched. My baby was safe. Whatever else had happened tonight, my baby was safe.
“Mindy?”
“Shaken but fine. They’ll be back soon. And Eliza’s got the students outside. No major casualties. They’re helping her do some sort of blessing for the house.”
I nodded. “Good.”
“Sophie had a panic attack, but she’s breathing again.” Laura crossed the room, picking her way through the debris, and sank down onto the floor beside the couch. “We lost some furniture. Some windows. A truly impressive amount of drywall.” She paused. “We didn’t lose anyone.”
We didn’t lose anyone.
And yet Trevor was still dead. Antonio was still dead. But tonight—this battle, this apocalypse that had been building since before I’d even known it was coming—we’d survived. All of us.
“It’s over,” Eric said quietly.
“The portal’s gone.” I leaned into him, let his arm wrap around me. “Samarek’s back in whatever hell he crawled out of.”
“So it’s over.”
“This part is.”
Because that was the truth of this life, wasn’t it? There was always another demon. Another threat. Another door that needed closing. But right now, in this moment, we had won. And that had to be enough.
I pushed myself up from the couch, crossed the room to where Zane was still sitting by the window. He didn’t look up when I approached, but I saw his shoulders tense.I sat down on the windowsill beside him. Outside, the first hints of dawn were starting to lighten the sky. We’d been fighting all night.
“You hanging in there?”
