Lottie holds her face. “Stay with me, Mari. It’s almost over.”
She cannot stop screaming. Black smoke spills out of her mouth, making it impossible to take another breath. Choking, she forces herself to sit up and retches the ash out of her lungs. A dark mass falls into her lap with a thud and skitters away like a spider. Lottie crushes it with her fist, powdering it into the earth.
Marigold’s hands cannot stop roaming her own body—is she here? Is she whole? She breathes, and it doesn’t hurt anymore.
And Lottie, her soulmate, her Ash Witch, loves her.
“Mari?”
That voice, her name in Lottie’s mouth, is the sound that pulls her from death itself. It’s too perfect. She reaches for Lottie and holds her with such force, not allowing so much as wind to come between them.
“You saved me,” she says.
“I love you,” Lottie replies, and her eyes well with tears. “Oh, let me say that again. I love you. I. Love. You,” she says, kissing her between every word. “I can say it without pain. I can kiss you without fear. I can love you as hard as I want to.”
“I love you, too. I will always love you, my impossible girl.”
Part Five
It is the end of winter, and Mr. Benny forever rests beside his soulmate. The apiary is alive with new bees, and their honey is ready for the first harvest.
Frankie and August have returned to help rebuild the cottage, but tonight, they rest.
Marigold and Lottie sit beneath the wisteria tree with snowflakes melting between their kisses. Stars shine bright above them, and they have only one wish. Fates—grant them a daughter of honey and ash, a girl with star-shaped freckles and strawberry blond hair. A perfect family in a perfect home where no one ever celebrates birthdays alone.
