was probably taking residence in the bottom of the swamp now.
Kieran looked for the boat, only to discover she’d taken that, too.
She’d spared him, but now he had another death to look forward to.
Kieran hadn’t meant to fall asleep in the rusted lawn chair. It was the sound of something foreign to the swampland that roused him.
Voices.
Human.
“Kieran! Kieran!”
Kieran looked up, but could see nothing through the unrelenting sunlight. He covered his eyes and strained, but the intrusion was all sound, no sight.
Except he recognized the voice.
“Kelley!” he yelled back, just as he saw the series of boats coming through the canopy of trees. Kelley had brought in an entire cavalry.
Kelley leapt out of the boat, scrambling against the tangle of cypress knees. He ran toward Kieran and wrapped him in his arms before Kieran could ask what he was doing there.
“Thank God. I thought she’d killed you. I thought for sure we were too late, that we’d come here and—”
Kieran pulled back. “She?”
“I saw her, Kieran. Your vampire. That’s how I knew you were in danger.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I had a vision. It’s... it’s not my first, but that’s not what’s important right now. I’ve seen one too. A vampire. I know they’re real. You don’t have to worry, I believe you. But what happened?” Kelley looked around, frowning. “Where did she go?”
“I don’t know,” Kieran said, watching his brother as if he were a stranger. Kelley? A vampire? Had it been the one in Seattle?
“She just... let you live?”
Kieran nodded. He swallowed the lump forming in his throat.
“You’re safe now, that’s all that matters.”
“I can’t believe you found me.”
“Did she want to turn you?”
“Turn me? No. That’s not what she wanted.”
“Mine did.”
This shocked Kieran from his funk. “Come again?”
Kelley embraced him again, this time tighter. “I’ll tell you when we’re away from this place, and safe. And you can tell me about yours.”
“She isn’t mine,” Kieran said, not understanding why he felt such an urge to cry.
Epilogue
Elisabeth waited until the boats unloaded, and the army of Kieran’s loved ones poured out. If she’d stepped closer sooner, Kieran would have detected her, and it was better that he believed she was gone.
She edged nearer, careful to shield herself from view. The collection of great power that emerged from the boats—Deschanels, Sullivans, a whole cavalry of witches—was enough to want to send her scattering, but she needed to see him leave, in safety.
She needed to see him.
Kieran and his brother embraced. She knew it was his brother because she could hardly tell them apart. There was a third, too, Kieran said. He was a triplet. He’d told her this amidst his ramblings designed to provoke her to see him as something real, to spare him.
Had she ever intended to kill him?
She asked herself this a lot. As she drove him away from New Orleans. On the boat ride to the cabin where her grandfather had taken her. As she sat astride him, pushing away the reality that would make their connection nonsensical. Wrong.
It was wrong. And undoubtedly, she would pay for it. So would he, if she didn’t get to Victor first and explain to him why this man was untouchable. Not only because he had Deschanel blood running through his veins, but because he had saved her life.
There was no rule for this among the de Blancheforts, but that was because it had never happened. Now that it had, she would be sure this was precedent. Despite her training, despite her confidence, she was no match for the Rougarou. Kieran’s intervention had saved them both.
Now, she was saving him. In doing so, she hoped she might connect again with the humanity she’d laid aside when she accepted a gift she’d never wanted.
When she’d taken lives that were not hers to take. Even Victor’s food chain argument had never eased her of that guilt.
But when Kieran had looked into her eyes last night, he’d seen something other than a killer. He’d seen through that, to the heart of it. To her.
Elisabeth slipped away from the family reunion, unsure what to make of the strange ache in her chest.
She didn’t allow herself a final glimpse.
As Kieran stepped into the boat, a strong sensation gripped him.
“You all right?” Tristan Sullivan, a cousin, asked as he eased him in. Behind him, Colleen Deschanel nodded his way, smiling. She’d been behind this, he was certain, as she was behind all important happenings in the family.
“Yeah. Fine. Sorry.”
Kelley placed a hand on his back, saying nothing. Maybe