Page 248 of What We Become

She laughs and clinks her glass against mine. “Then I’ll keep my phone charged.”

We watch our men—mine have migrated to the food, hers are chatting with Odin, Thor, and Loki. Amy goes quiet beside me, watching Dean gesture with his champagne flute while Drake pretends he isn’t overly focused on Amy.

Her voice goes small. “Do you ever feel weird that this is your life now?”

I let out a little laugh. “Constantly.”

“No, I mean . . .” She worries her bottom lip. “Like, one year ago you were surviving. Now you’re married to five terrifyingly hot men and hosting a wedding where a crime lord officiated in your backyard and none of the guests are regular people.”

“When you say it like that, it sounds sort of unhinged.”

“It is sort of unhinged.”

“It is,” I agree. “But it’s mine.”

Her eyes flick to me then, shiny and fond. “Yeah. It is.”

I bump her shoulder again. “And you’ll have your own weird, unhinged thing too. Maybe less murder-adjacent.”

“Manifesting that, honestly.”

“Hey, Ames?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you. For being here. For all of it. From the shared apartment to this.”

She looks at me. Her eyes fill again, and she wipes at them with the heel of her hand.

“Wouldn’t have missed it,” she says. “Not for anything.”

“Stab sisters?” I say, holding out my fist.

“Stab sisters,” she says, bumping hers against mine as she wipes away yet another tear.

I slide an arm around her shoulders and we drink our champagne, while the fairy lights come on, one string at a time, and the afternoon goes soft at the edges.

Across the yard, Knox has his head bent to Hank’s. Hank says something short. Knox nods once.

Then Hank checks his watch, and Knox catches me looking and lifts his glass, and I lift mine back and forget about it.

FIFTY-NINE

HOLDEN

My wife is bent over the drinks table, and the dress she’s wearing does something criminal from this angle.

I’m about to cross the yard when Odin stops me.

“Holden?”

I turn, giving him a chin lift. “Odin.”

He glances toward Sage. “I don’t want to talk shop on your wedding day, but you should know, Fenrir located the man who delivered those sunflowers. He was also the person who left the barn the night you were taken.”

My shoulders tense. “Kennel?”

He nods, absently swirling the glass in his hand. “He’s been taken care of. Permanently.”