Azazil was close by, his hand on Asmodeus’s shoulder in a rare show of comfort.

Sensing her gaze on him, Asmodeus lifted his eyes to her and the fear she felt was immediate. His eyes weren’t blank; they were filled with calculation and spiteful intent. “I told you I would not let you die out there. That would be much too easy on you. I think your punishment should fit the crime, don’t you?”

She heard Red growl in warning but it did nothing to slow her racing heartbeat. More unnerving was the amused smirk on Azazil’s face.

That was not good.

“If we are done here, I’d like to leave and assess the damage done to my Guild.” The Gilder King stood, his demeanor completely casual, as though the past few days hadn’t happened.

“Yes, you all are free to leave.”

Azazil waved a weary hand at them.

Gilder and Lucky left first, quickly followed by Gleaming and Shadow. White stared at his father for a moment and Ari finally saw some truth in his expression. He was trying to mask his grief—not only of the loss of his mother but of his belief in her. Whether Azazil noticed wasn’t apparent to Ari.

Azazil chuckled at his son. “Are you and I at peace now, Son?”

In response the White King quirked his eyebrow and replied, “Did the world end?”

Azazil looked entertained as he watched White disappear into the Peripatos. “Well, I think I will finally rest. Asmodeus, why do you not visit that lovely harem of yours? They shall cheer you up.” Leading his lieutenant out of the room, Azazil gave Ari one last sinister smile before the doors slammed behind them.

Ari, Glass, and Red gathered together in the middle of the room. Red’s brow furrowed as he stared at the door. “I did not like Asmodeus’s threat.”

“Nor I,” Glass agreed.

“Uh, me, neither,” Ari added.

Turning conversationally to Glass, the Red King’s lips twitched in amusement. “Did you know Ari attempted to save my life?”

Seeming equally amused by this, Glass replied, “Did she now?”

“Mmm,” Red mused and flashed Ari a smile. “It would appear she quite likes me.”

Ari shook her head at him, rolling her eyes, but her chest seemed to expand with the warm feeling his teasing gave her. Ari did care about her Uncle Red and she’d been scared that after her mother, Sala, had died, Red would want nothing to do with her again.

Gazing up into his face, she saw affection and realized that after everything, after all the crap and all the loss, she’d still managed to scrape out of this with her own ramshackle family: Jai, Trey, the Roes, Red, and Glass.

An odd but loveable mix.

But it was family.

Something she’d spent her entire childhood looking for.

PART THREE

20

Free

It had all happened so fast. A whirlwind of shades of gray, of choosing sides, of principle versus faith, of careless power and abuse of power, of life and death. A lifetime had happened to Ari in less than a year. She’d fought monsters and friends, she’d saved both, and either directly or indirectly she’d killed both. For years unknowingly and knowingly, she’d been haunted by Lilif, the haunting escalating these last few short weeks.

Only a week had passed since

Asmodeus destroyed Lilif once and for all.

It may as well have been a year.

Christmas had come and gone and the New Year was dawning in twenty-four hours. It would dawn with fewer Roes in tow—unfortunately, Lilif had wiped out two entire families within the Roe Guild. Red said The White King, who had unwillingly played a part in those deaths, was spending his days avoiding a very unhappy Gilder.

As for the Roe Guild, the rest returned to Burlington to mourn and try to move on with their lives. Michael as always led the way, and in doing so he made sure the deaths of those in their fold were not laid at Ari’s feet. She was one of them and thus not to be blamed. That brought her, Jai, and Trey no small amount of relief as they settled back into their home a street away from the Roes and Fallon, who Ari was getting to know again.

For Ari, the most difficult part had been transporting Charlie, Mrs. Creagh, and Mikey back to Sandford. They were happy to be returning home, free and safe. But Ari once again found herself having to say goodbye to her best friend, and found it even harder this time since this Charlie resembled the old Charlie so much.

She’d hugged Mikey and Mrs. Creagh goodbye, who, although kind and polite, also looked a little relieved to see Ari go. Then she’d walked Charlie to the backyard where she had some privacy to take the Peripatos back to Burlington.

The moment had been filled with awkwardness, and when she’d turned to smile with sad amusement at her friend, she found him rubbing the back of his neck in discomfort.

“I want to thank you for helping me and my family,” he told her quietly.

“It was my fault you were caught up in this in the first place.”

“No, don’t do that.” Charlie stepped toward her, appearing solemn. “I know I don’t remember you, and in this moment, saying goodbye, I know somewhere deep down I should be heartbroken. I know if I remembered you, I would be. I know this because I only got to be around you for a few days. But I learned that you’re the kind of person who would die for someone she loves. We all think we’d be that person, but you never know until the situation is put before you. I know you damned the consequences to save me and the people I love. You changed a reality for me, Ari, and although I know I can’t be a part of that world, of your world, I want you to know that I won’t forget you. I don’t want you to feel sad that you lost your friend. I want you to feel proud that you helped a friend who’d lost himself. I didn’t know that Charlie, and thanks to you, I’ll never have to go through the pain of getting to know him.”

There wasn’t anything more perfect Charlie Creagh could’ve said to Ari in that moment, and smiling despite the tear tracks on her cheeks, she wrapped her arms around him and held him tight for a few seconds. When she stepped back, she knew Charlie had read the silent promise in her eyes to not disrupt his life again.

This was goodbye for good.

She held up her hand in a frozen wave and watched him mirror the action, and with one last smile, she stepped back into the Peripatos.

Once again, Jai stepped in to soothe the pain of losing Charlie Creagh all over again.

***

“I thought I’d seen the last of you people,” Charlie kept his voice teasing but his eyes were questioning. He’d turned his gaze from watching Mikey and his friends keep warm in the cold December air by playing basketball at Ben’s Park. Charlie sat on a bench, huddled in his thick jacket, sipping hot coffee out of a Styrofoam cup.