and erased the D’Ingur Order from the map, the gods granted Devon one wish, and he had chosen to become human and live his life with me.
His wish couldn’t have been more perfect.
We had moved to a bigger house in Misty Hill and started the adoption process for Sabrina and Kevin. Cecilia continued to work at the library, and I had passed my GED and been accepted to a university—I had chosen to major in social work and do the entire course online so we didn’t have to move again.
Devon continued with his life of the hottest and richest orphan in Misty Hill, who sponsored library events. Though now he wasn’t the most eligible bachelor anymore.
Now he was hitched to me.
Sometimes we talked about a real marriage, but I had turned nineteen only a couple of months ago. I was still too young. Besides, we didn’t need a signed paper to confirm our relationship. Our feelings. We had been in love for centuries. Nothing would change that.
I stared at the Christmas tree again. At the little snowman and the nutcracker on top of the fireplace’s mantel, and the stockings with our initials. It all looked beautiful, I knew that, but it still felt like something was missing.
This feeling had started a couple of weeks ago, as our new life settled, and it wouldn’t let go of me.
Noises from the kitchen sparked in my ears, and I joined Devon and Cecilia in taking the groceries out of the bags and placing each item in the right place. It didn’t take thirty seconds for Sabrina and Kevin to join us—to eat. These two were always eating.
“What are we having for dinner?” Kevin asked, his mouth already stuffed with popcorn he had taken out of the microwave a second ago.
Cecilia gaped at him. “Do you only think about food?”
Devon snickered. “I thought that was a fact.”
“What?” Kevin asked, after swallowing. “I like eating!”
“Speaking of which, what are we having for dinner?” Sabrina asked as she placed bottles of juice in the fridge.
Cecilia rolled her eyes. “You guys only think about food!”
“We’re growing.” Kevin’s words were muffled by all the popcorn in his mouth.
The faint beep on the keypad sounded from the foyer, and a moment later, we all heard the front door opening and closing.
A few seconds passed and Carol entered the kitchen. She held up two large brown bags. “Who ordered lattes and yummy scones?”
“Oh my gods,” Cecilia muttered. “There goes our dinner.”
Carol frowned. “What dinner? This is snack. We can have dinner later.”
Cecilia groaned and busied herself with taking the brown bags from Carol and distributing the lattes and scones. Though Carol had moved two a bigger town with a nice college two hours from here, she often came on weekends and holidays and probably spent more time at our house than at hers—especially because her parents were always busy at the hospital.
In the end, we never told her about what had happened to us. Not the truth anyway. We told her as much as we thought was enough—the kidnapping, the man after Cecilia and me, about Devon helping us, and us adopting the kids because we wanted them. We never told her about powers, magic, divine warriors, gods, and demons.
That would have been too much for her.
The moment Carol had arrived for winter break from college a couple of days ago, she had come to our house, and she had spent at least eighty percent of her time here.
With a smile, she pointed to the tree. “I like what you’re doing there.”
I narrowed my eyes at the tree. “I like it, but I think it’s still missing something.”
“Nothing is missing.” Cecilia gestured to the new kitchen towels hanging from the oven door handle and the red cookie jar on top of the counter, also Christmas themed. “Soon, it’ll look like Santa Claus lives here.”
“Can’t I go a little overboard with our first real Christmas?” I joked, but it was true. This was the first Christmas we would spend free and together, with a real family. I wanted to go as overboard as I could.
“Of course you can,” Devon said, nudging me with his elbow.
“You know what we can do?” Sabrina asked, her eyes wide. “Christmas cookies.”
“We did those last week,” Cecilia reminded her.
Kevin swallowed the handful of popcorn in his mouth and said, “And they didn’t last two days.”
Cecilia snorted. “Jeez, I wonder why.”
“Here.” Carol pulled out her phone from her pocket. “Let’s find a different Christmas cookie recipe. Like,