Page 91 of Dark Reunion

Home.

“I don’t think it is my home anymore,” she said, and looked up at Wolf. You are. But I will go, as long as you and Waya are coming with me.”

Dean’s lip turned up. “Nothing could keep me away.” He looked around. “Where is Keene?”

“Was he injured?” Wolf asked.

“Shot in the leg.”

“Looks like someone carried him outside from the hallway, there is a streak of blood that only goes a few feet and disappears.”

“Come on then, he can’t get away,” Dean ordered, all business once again.

They stepped into the corridor together—Wolf first, Maeve holding his hand, and Dean at her other side. Ricco was a couple steps ahead. The building exhaled as they left it, like it had been holding a breath for years and could finally let it go.

Down the stairs, past walls that remembered names, faint scratches catching the light just right. Past a streak of old paint and the bodies that had given their life for one side or the other.

As they stepped outside, Maeve turned toward the skeleton of the office windows high above. Her story had begun with violence, but it would end with choice. She had saved Dean, killed Carlos, and finally, she was going to live the life she’d dreamed of. A life built on love, not survival.

She looked at Wolf. He was already watching her, the future written in the way his hand found hers like a promise, not a chain.

Her past lay behind her. Her present stood beside her. And somewhere beyond the smoke waited a future she was ready to fight for.

For the first time since she’d been stolen from the world, Maeve finally felt like she’d taken it back.