Page 115 of Last Rites

“About?”

I drew in a breath of the crisp autumn air and let it out slowly. “About how, without the Bone Men, I wouldn’t have any of this.” I tipped my head toward the gathering. “I never would have met you. Or Thoma and Rosie and Isla… or Levitt. I would have had no reason to leave Willowvale and settle in Forstford. I wouldn’t have learned how to farm from Delmer.”

Penny hummed and pressed closer, reaching up with his free hand to cup my cheek and turn me to face him. He rested his forehead against mine.

“You might have,” he said softly. “I like to think we were always meant to be together.”

I chuckled and leaned more heavily against him. Even with everything we’d been through, he’d never lost his unfailing optimism. I loved that about him.

“So do I,” I murmured. “But if I had to go through everything I’ve been through just to get the chance to be here with you right now, to have this family and this life, I would gladly do it all over again. You are worth every hardship, every struggle, every⁠—”

He surged forward and pressed his lips to mine in a kiss as earnest as it was fierce. Because he knew. And he felt the same.

He pulled back a moment later, pushed out his chair, and stood while tugging me to my feet.

“Let’s get some air.”

We snuck away unnoticed and walked the edge of the nearest field hand in hand. I brushed my thumb over the leather cord wound around his wrist, then gave the knotted end a tug.

“I’ve been waiting two years to make you my husband, you know,” he said, looking out over the stubble of recently harvested wheat that stretched across the land beside us.

A smile curled my lips. “That long, huh?”

“Obviously.” He flicked a glance at me, fighting a smirk of his own, before returning his focus to the field. “I knew I was going to marry you the moment you threatened me with a kitchen knife.”

I snickered and squeezed his hand. “When you know, you know.”

At his amused look, I drew us to a stop so I could wind my arms around his waist and pull him close. He slid his arms over my shoulders and laced his fingers together at the back of my head as I rubbed my nose against his.

“You’ve changed my whole life, Pen. Every facet of it. And I couldn’t be more grateful for that.”

“You changed mine, too, in case you didn’t notice.” His smile was watery, but sure. “Thank you.”

For a long time after that day in the cave, I hadn’t felt like I was owed any kind of thanks. We wiped out the Bone Men, but it had felt like solving a problem I’d helped create in the first place. Over the months that followed, Penny helped me realize that they would have grown to those heights even without my involvement. I couldn’t shoulder the blame for my father or the Right Hands who came before him. I wasn’t responsible for the horrors they’d wrought on the province.

And though we’d both suffered to bring about the end of those horrors, I could accept his gratitude now. Because every one of those moments led us here.

We soaked in the peace for a long time before we broke apart. Penny tucked himself under my arm with his looped around my waist, and we watched the sun dip toward the western horizon. The gauzy clouds gathering there shifted from cream to gold to orange and pink as if they were putting on a show for us.

After a while, Thoma came up on my free side and bumped his shoulder against mine.

“Congratulations, Mister Mosel,” he said through a grin.

“Oliver,” I corrected, and both he and Penny swiveled to face me.

“But your mom,” Penny said quietly. “I thought…”

So had I, for months now. I’d hardly stopped thinking about it. I’d taken her name as a way to honor her memory, and as a way to distance myself from my father’s. It had felt like coming home at the time, like building a bridge to the family I lost when she died. But it didn’t feel like me anymore. I outgrew it, and I knew she would want me to move on. To embrace the future I’d fought so hard for.

“I’ve hid behind her long enough,” I said. “I’m not the same man I was when I gave myself that name, so it’s time to let it go. You’re my family now. And I’m proud to share your name.”

Penny’s lip wobbled, and Thoma clapped me on the back.

“Well, then congratulations to both of you, Misters Oliver.”

While Penny crowded in close to my chest and buried his face in my shoulder, I grinned over at our friend.

“So, when is it your turn?” I asked.