than whatever is in your blood. Whatever calls creatures to you. Because we’re in your heart.” He blew out the last tiny ember of flame, and as he did the sky cleared.
Colton and Thorn continued to chant, but Aaron and Oliver turned away from Erdirg. Aaron stepped closer to me until we were toe to toe, and I could feel Oliver’s heat at my back. He leaned down, kissing my lips softly at the same time Oliver trailed his fingers down my arm and then kissed my neck. “I love you,” he whispered.
I loved them, too. If I’d learned anything in all this, it was how much I needed them. My life wasn’t complete without them.
Nearby, something thumped onto the ground, and I opened my eyes. Colton and Thorn held their hands above their head, fists closed, and then opened them. Flames fell from their hands like raindrops to land on Erdirg. I had a sense of a weight lifting from my shoulders and the film of whatever Erdirg had left on me was washed away.
There was a sound—a whoosh of air—and the world around me spun. But I didn’t. Colton and Thorn stood on either side of me, arms around my waist, embracing each other as they embraced me, and we stood in the eye of the storm.
Their love was a shield, keeping me from the wind and fire and anything that could hurt me, and then it was over.
I opened my eyes, and instead of the dreamscape, I was back where we started. Huddled in a group by a swing set. But we were alone. No demon children. No ghosts. No ancient evil.
Just me and the four men who’d slayed a demon for me.
It was hard to speak, difficult to even swallow, but I had to say something to mark this. “Thank you.”
Two words that I hoped they understood meant everything to me.
I looked around. Where was their father? “Oliver? Aaron? Your dad?”
Oliver nodded. “I sent him to get a sword. I didn’t think we would need it, but I didn’t want him here right now. So yeah, wild errand to take off Erdirg’s head.”
Aaron pulled out his phone. “I’ll text him and tell him not to come back.”
“Can we go home?” I looked between all of them. For the first time in my life, I wanted to be in this small town, where everyone had hated me, and I wanted it because I was here with all of them. Just a decade after we first started here.
In our version of reality. Just as we were.
We’d been quiet in the car, and I opted not to pester the guys about what each of them was thinking. This was an end for them, too. Erdirg was gone, taken care of. And this time, they’d gotten to be the ones to end him.
I’d gotten to face my fear and spoken to the demon that haunted me the long years of my young-ish life. What would the next twenty-eight years be like without the sinking feeling that I had a destiny I hated waiting for me to fulfill?
Finally, when we’d walked in the house, I turned to Thorn. “How did you guys know that chant you did? When did you learn that?”
He smiled, running a hand through his hair. “That’s what we did when you were missing. Honestly, we’d started to figure it out ten years ago. But it developed over time until we were pretty sure it would work.”
“Pretty sure?” I smiled. What would they have done if it hadn’t?
Answering my unasked question, Oliver opened the fridge while he spoke. “Maybe then we really might have needed Dad’s sword.”
Aaron threw his head back laughing. “Poor guy. I promised we would all go to dinner there next week. And by all of us, I mean all of us.” He stared at his brother. “All of us.”
“Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.” Oliver smiled. “I hear you.”
Colton yawned. “Who wants to get in the hot tub?”
Aaron raised his hand. “I do. But only under one condition.”
Thorn put an arm around me. “I can’t wait to hear this. What is the condition?”
“Lacey gets in naked. Totally and completely in the nude.”
I started toward the tub, peeling my shirt over my head. I was in for whatever game they were playing. I’d just survived a demon. Naked in a hot tub? Easy.
There was utter silence behind me until I stopped at the door, undid the button on my pants and pushed them off so I was standing