Page 123 of No Charm Done
He couldn’t believe it. There had been a reconciliation. There had been forgiveness. Apparently there had even been . . .
He swallowed hard. “Are you saying that we, um. Did we . . . ?”
“We did.”
“Did I . . . I mean, did I . . . comport myself well?”
Luna let out a broken, incredulous laugh. “Elias!”
“That’s not an answer.”
“You did very well.”
“That’s a relief, anyway.”
“I’m sorry, Elias. I’ve known that you were out here, probably thinking I hated you. That everyone was dead or angry or . . . I’m so sorry it took this long.”
“My God, you don’t have to apologize to me!”
“But I do.” She was crying now, too. “Witches don’t permit time travel lightly. It took Mama creating the MW-T&RC for me to find an excuse to come get you. I knew you were here, probably torturing yourself. But I couldn’t get to you until now and I just—”
He kissed her. He’d meant it to be gentle. A thank you. A confirmation. An I understand. But Luna kissed him back like she’d been drowning and he was air, and gentle went out the window. Her hands fisted in his shirt. His arms tightened around her waist.
“Elias!”
They both turned.
Vivi was standing at the corner of the alley, holding his jacket. She gaped at the portal, which was still open, still humming with impossible light. And then at Luna, and then at Elias, and her expression cycled through confusion and shock and something that might have been understanding. “You forgot your jacket,” she said faintly.
He looked at her, this dear old friend who’d taken him in with no explanation required, who’d tried to understand him, who represented everything he’d been before the Void.
“I’m sorry,” he said, and meant it. “But I have to go.”
“Where?”
“Forward.”
Vivi stared at him. “On with it, then,” she said gently. “Whoever she is . . . get on with it.”
He nodded once, grateful.
Luna squeezed his hand. “Ready to go?”
“Sweetheart, I’ve been ready to go since the minute I left.”
“Good. Because we’ve got about thirty seconds before this portal collapses.”
“Luna.”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you.”
She gazed up at him, her smile bright enough to hurt. “Thank me later, sweetheart.” Then she pulled him into the portal, into the impossible light.
The last thing he saw before the city dissolved was Vivi standing in the alley, raising her hand in a small gesture of goodbye. Then the light took everything, and he and Luna were falling forward together into whatever came next. And for the first time in months . . . no, for the first time in a century . . . he knew he wasn’t alone.
Epilogue
