Page 141 of Ever After

We’re silent for a few minutes, and then I sigh and rest my head on Levi’s shoulder. “I feel sad and I don’t know why.”

He kisses my hair. “Yes, you do.”

I consider that and then shrug. “So I’m sentimental. Sue me.”

“I’ve seen our bank balance. I won’t bother.”

I snort and we sit quietly for a second. The sun is gone again, the wind is getting up, and far off in the distance I can see a cloud break and rain start to pour down.

“There’s a storm coming,” I say softly.

“Isn’t there always?”

I eye him. “Are we talking life or gale force winds?”

“Maybe a bit of both.” He cups my chin in his hand, examining my face to see how sad I am. He’s like an emotional barometer, and I love him deeply and desperately. “There will always be another storm,” he finally says. “We’ll just hold hands tightly, brace our feet, and let it pass over us.”

“Now, I know that’s not the Met Office advice.”

I kiss him and we go back to watching the sky. The wind howls like a cornered animal. Once that would have bothered me, but now I just sit, listening and knowing that behind me is shelter, a big bed, and Levi to share it with.

Eventually, I stir. “Ever after, eh? Do you think that’ll be us?”

He understands me immediately. Of course he does. He’s Levi. His smile is wide and filled with so much tenderness that I don’t know what to do with it. It feels like if I held it in my hands, it would spill over my fingers but never run dry.

“Blue, if I know anything, it’s that it’ll be you and me until the day we die, and if there is anything afterwards and I go first, then I will always wait for you because nothing is as much fun without you.”

I smile at him. “I can’t say for sure there is anything else, but with everything I’ve experienced, I get the sense of something hovering just round the corner like a lovely surprise. Ever after, then,” I say with satisfaction. He kisses my head and I snuggle into him. Then I recall Branok’s casual aside. “Did he say he’d left something for me?”

“He did.”

I get up and dash into the cottage with him on my heels. He nearly knocks me over when I stop suddenly, and he still can’t help but plow into me. “Manners,” I say primly, and then point a shaky finger at the fireplace. Leaning against the log basket is a walking stick, the silver handle carved like a snarling wolf’s head.

I step closer and pick it up. I wave it around a few times enjoying the dramatic swish and then pass it over to Levi when he makes grabby hands.

He examines it. “I saw one like this on Antiques Roadshow.”

“Of course you did,” I say affectionately. “You gigantic nerd.”

He rolls his eyes and looks down at it. He rubs his finger over the handle. “In the programme there was a switch here.” He stops and looks up, an amused gleam in his eyes.

“What?”

He hands it back to me. “Press there,” he says, pointing at a spot on the handle.

I touch the cold silver and exclaim when I find a protrusion. I press it. There’s a click and the handle comes loose from the stick.

“Pull it out,” Levi murmurs.

I wink at him. “Not the first time you’ve said that about a stick.”

He sighs. “For once, just do as I say.”

I obey and then exclaim as I pull a sword from the stick. “Fucking hell,” I squeak.

“It’s a sword stick. Men used to carry them to defend themselves against thieves and cutpurses.”

I swish it around, and he steps smartly back.