Page 89 of From the Edge

“So am I.” She smiled. “I have to go to bed. Tomorrow, I am going to the bank, and then I am going shopping. Only having two dresses and no underwear is getting annoying. Edric kept stroking the opening of my dress. It was okay, but I am hella ticklish where the wings come out.”

Rowan chuckled. “We have a lot to talk about.”

“We have time, and I need sleep, and so do you. Your doctor just came to get you.” Hope smiled, took her loot, and walked through the doorway. “G’night, Rowan, Ren.”

Her wings emerged, and she flew through the house toward her room.

Ren smiled. “There’s another room on the third floor.”

Rowan got up. “This house is too smart for its own good. Come on. I can’t skip more time because I was worried about my cousin gambling. She won by the way. She won a lot.”

He put his arm around her. “I didn’t doubt it for a moment. I am glad this will help stabilize her.”

Rowan leaned on him. “Me, too. I thought my new life started when Aspen woke up, but I think it is starting now. She was the missing piece.”

“It is good that you are looking.”

They were outside his room and heading toward hers. “I am not looking anymore. She’s here. She told me today that there are bloodline calls. I understand that. I also understand that she was with me during far more disasters than I actually remember.”

Ren smiled. “Anything else?”

“The curse that they used on the ladies? It came from six-year-old Hope. A foster family sold her blood, and then they died for it.”

“The mages might want to analyze her blood a little. That is a hellish curse.”

“It takes your power, gives it to someone else, and makes people forget you. Yes, it is a hellish curse, but she survived it, and no one had to rescue her; we just had to look for her.”

A voice from above them filtered down. “Thank you for looking.”

Rowan teared up, and Ren kissed her to stop her from being overwhelmed. It was very effective.

Epilogue

Hope kept wrangling the grill and kept bumping into someone.

“Edric, if you don’t get out of my way, I am going to grab those ears and make a wish.”

He chuckled. “Try it, I dare you.”

She settled everything, turned, popped her wings, and flitted over him, landing with her knees on his shoulders, and she grabbed his ears.

He looked up at her. “What did you wish for?”

She blinked. “I didn’t get that far.”

He laughed. “You do realize that for me it is the equivalent of you just grabbing my cock?”

She let go so fast she fell backward, and her wings hummed and pulled her upright. He grabbed her ankle and pulled her down against him. He kissed her quickly. “It is a nice outfit.”

“Thank you. It is a lot more comfortable than the dresses.”

She was wearing boots, leggings, and a long tunic that had a split down the back that sealed with magnets when the wings receded.

The pixies were there with their mates, and they had been forthcoming on the whole obscuring spell. They had also told her about her grandfather, based on her wing form. There had only been one butterfly-winged pixie, and he had been soft and sweet and waiting for the right woman. He had apparently found her, but she died before their daughter was old enough to survive on her own. Their daughter was her mother. Her mother had left her in the hospital, and she had never seen her again.

Hope had sought and found her mother when she turned eighteen. Dead of a heart defect created when she gave birth to baby Hope. Her mother had never left the hospital.

Hope shook her head and kept her eye on the grill. She started taking burgers up and putting them on the tray. She finished them, held up her hand, and a bun snapped into her fist. “Thank you, house.”