“Yes,” David agreed. “And so will you.”
Elizabeth’s eyes narrowed. “What? You don’t… what?”
David chuckled tiredly, one hand coming up to snag a loose lock of silver hair and tuck it behind her ear. “I would like you to join me too.”
“On the Council?” Elizabeth wrinkled her nose at the idea, and David leaned down to kiss it, making her splutter.
“You were right to be so suspicious of the Council before,” he admitted when she frowned at him. “You were right about so many things, Liz.” He kissed her again. “We need to do things differently now. We need your voice on the Council.” He looked over at his best friend. “Bryn’s too. Both of you.”
David leaned back. “The four of us can work together to set up a new structure—a far more democratic one—where members are voted in and reelected every few years. Where it’s impossible for one person to take control over the entire Order.” Despite the exhaustion written across his face, his expression grew even more determined. “The Order needs a new path. Let’s help make it happen.”
“People will resist,” Bryn warned. “But—” He dragged his hand over his rough beard, nodding. “—this is a fresh start for the Council. A fresh start for the Order as a whole. I’ll support you.”
“Elizabeth?” David raised his brows in query. “Will you join us? Please?”
“Well….” Elizabeth paused, but the upward curve of her lips gave her away. “I guess I could. For a while. Someone needs to keep you on your toes, after all.”
“That’s true,” David agreed as Elizabeth softened beside him, looking as if she had always fitted there.
James pressed a kiss to Riley’s hair, letting the joy of the moment fill him. Kay would be their Custodian, Ethan at her side. Zach would sit on the Council, holding the position he’d worked toward for years, supported by the love of his life, Emma. And together, they would do what they’d always promised. Use their Shadows to protect the light.
And as for him—he had his family. Riley was safe. He was safe too. He hadn’t quite believed it would be possible. But everything he’d dreamed of had come true.
He wasn’t lost. He was precisely where he needed—where hewanted—to be.
He dipped his chin to whisper in her ear, too low for anyone else to hear. “I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do with my life,” he confessed quietly.
Riley turned into his body, her Shadows coming up to wrap tightly around him as she looked up at him.
James spread his fingers over her hip. He could feel her heat through her shirt. His Shadows tangled with hers, reassuring him, anchoring him. “But—” He tugged her even closer. “—I do know one thing.”
She tilted her head back to look at him through eyes so clear, he could get lost in them forever. Her jade-and-charcoal Shadows rose around them, and the sense of rightness, of belonging, rose with them.
“What’s that?” she asked softly.
“I know that I want to make things right. That I need to take some time to mend everything Gordon—and I—broke. But more than that, I know that I love you. I know that I want to be wherever you are, to wake up beside you and go to sleep holding your hand. I know that I’ll work every day to earn your love.”
ChapterTwenty-Eight
It was time.
He still didn’t know that she loved him, and Riley had to fix that. Right now.
“Are you ready to go?” she whispered against his ear, waiting until he nodded his agreement.
She stood and James followed, his hand tangling with hers so naturally, it was as if they’d always stood beside each other.
They murmured their goodbyes before slipping through the door, down the stairs, and back to her bedroom.
She closed the door and tugged him into the shaft of golden afternoon light streaming in through the window. Then she wrapped her arms around him, and they swayed together, dancing to the music of their breaths and heartbeats. His hand was warm and firm on her back, and his Shadows swirled, teasing against hers. His eyes were still puffy from his earlier emotion, but she had never seen him look quite so at peace.
James had suffered, but he’d fought against his demons. He’d made mistakes and learned from them. He knew what he valued. Family. Loyalty.Her.
He was the partner she’d wished and hoped and longed for.
She cradled his cheeks with her hands and went up onto her toes to look him in the eye as happiness rose through her like gleaming bubbles. “I love you, too, James.”
“Really?” His voice was threaded with uncertainty. With the vulnerability of a man who knew what it was to love without being loved in return but who hadn’t let it hold him back from offering her everything.
