Page 112 of Last Rites

With a nod at me, he offered Rosie his arm and took her across the square to the empty storefront. Penny was reluctant to go, but one encouraging smile from me was enough to send him scurrying to catch up.

I stalled in the doorway. Everything looked the same. Things were largely where I left them, though it was clear someone had done some work here while I was gone. But it was neat, like I’d just tidied up the evening before and hadn’t been gone for eight months and been through things no person should ever live through.

Stepping fully inside, I took my time rearranging what had been moved and putting everything back to rights. My version of it, anyway. It was almost ritualistic, tweaking and adjusting and re-hanging all my tools until I’d touched everything in the shop and my mind was sufficiently settled. The budding peace I’d felt at the house sunk deeper into my bones here, back into the place it always used to live. But for once, it felt… unburdened. Complete. Safe.

And that was a novel feeling.

There were a handful of items on the repair rack, though none pressing enough to tempt me to light the charcoal in the firepot just yet. As eager as I was to get back to work, there was something more important that I had to do first.

I didn’t have the same assortment of leather here as we’d had in Ashpoint, but there was enough for me to cut four thin strips long enough to replace what Merrick had destroyed. I settled on the stool tucked up under the workbench and took up a carving blade.

It would take time to truly settle back into a normal life. The events in the cavern would undoubtedly haunt me for years, but I knew from experience that time dulled all things. Now that the Bone Men were gone, time was something I had an abundance of.

And Penny helped. Even if he tried to keep it from me so I wouldn’t worry, I knew he was struggling with his own memories from that day. Still, he’d been unfailingly patient with me over the last two weeks, suffering through my near-constant need for reassurance, and never complaining about how often I woke in a panic expecting to find him dead. And when it was his turn to wake, gasping for breath and shivering as if he had been bleeding out, I took my turn as comforter, and we made it through together.

I was thankful that we were still here to recover. We were both grateful to have a life at all left to spend building a home together. We’d very nearly lost that chance.

I was never a devout man before all of this. But now, it felt almost second nature to ask Eeus and Paneus for their blessings while I worked, carving my prayers into the leather in the shape of tiny feathers and ivy vines. Pouring my hopes for the future into every groove. Knitting my life into Penny’s as I wove the strands together and fastened off both ends.

We were permanently intertwined now, he and I. Not even death could keep us apart.

And that night, when Rosie had gone to sleep and Penny and I were tucked back into bed, I offered him the new cord. It wasn’t the same as the one I’d presented to him in Stagcross, but neither was the new future that we faced together. Everything was different, and so were we.

But we’d figure it out as we were always meant to: together.

THE HAPPILY

PENNY

The farm had never been so beautiful.

The land spread out around us, bathed in sunshine and blanketed by a blue sky. People spread around us too. Dozens of our friends and family members gathered, standing in uneven rows and all turned toward Ben, who stood before Kit and me, ready to bind our lives together with words older than any of us.

Behind Ben, the sunflowers were in full bloom. The dense green stalks stretched overhead, topped with bright yellow petals like sunbeams. The perfect backdrop to the picture of my forever.

Kit’s hands curled around mine, his palms clammy with sweat. But I clung on, holding his fingers and his gaze and seeing the promises before he voiced them. Vows he’d already made, devotion he’d given every day since we met. Looking back now, I fancied the thought that he’d always loved me at least a little bit. What other madness would convince a man to abandon his home and life and lead a stranger across the province to certain death?

Kit wanted to do right in all things, but most of all, he wanted to do right by me. And he had. He did. And I knew he would. Confirming as much in front of a crowd of well-wishers was merely a formality. A tradition.

But, gods, I did love weddings.

I bounced on my toes, my heart too full for stillness while I tried—and failed—to school my expression into something suitably solemn while Ben cleared his throat and lifted his hands to begin.

“Before these witnesses and before the gods,” his deep voice rumbled, “we join two souls and bind their fates as one.”

The crowd quieted, the only sound the wind moving through the sunflowers and the chirp of distant birds. Ben’s words fell so steady and sure I was positive he must have practiced them. When we’d asked months ago if he would oversee, he’d been nervous, claiming he’d never done this before, but you wouldn’t know it now.

At his prompting, Kit and I changed our grip, clasping wrists instead of hands. I dragged my thumb over the chain I’d presented to Kit after last year’s harvest, the last bit of silversmithing Warren ever did.

We were already tethered. Already bound. But I would take any chance I could find to make Kit all the more mine.

Ben motioned next to the onlookers, specifically to my mother, who stood near the front in her finest dress.

Tears shone on her cheeks, but she smiled as she came forward with a length of cream ribbon in her hands. When she arrived beside Kit and I, she gripped his elbow and turned him toward her.

“It is an honor to gain a son today, and a blessing to see Penny so cherished.” Her face was somber, but far from sad. Kit’s throat bobbed with a swallow as he looked down at her, his profile aglow in the afternoon sun.

“You are the answer to prayers, Kit,” Mother continued, then nodded to me “His and mine.” She pulled him down and kissed his forehead, then turned to me.