my brave friend. We’re all together.” She laid her head on Camden’s shoulder and Scarlett rested too.
EPILOGUE
In the Aftermath
Haddie smiled, running her hand over the cat as it arched its back and rubbed itself against her leg. “Good boy,” she said, scratching his head until he purred. After a moment, Haddie stood, squinting off into the distance, hoping to see Alonzo at the edge of the woods. The light shifted, but it was only the trees swaying in the autumn breeze. Alonzo had come to live with her, her mommy, her new daddy, and Millie too, but the big, gentle man spent as much time in the forest as he did at Lilith House with them. Haddie knew it was because he had been raised there and it was where he felt most at home, but Haddie still missed him when he was gone. Her heart would always leap with joy when she saw him step from the woods, often with a hurt baby in his hands, his compassionate eyes filled with concern as he handed it over. “Hat hep bobby,” he would say. Haddie help baby.
And then together, they’d take the tiny thing to her mommy, whose eyes still widened as she brought her hand to her chest and laughed that laugh that meant you have got to be kidding me. Then she would sigh and say, “Well then. Let’s see what we can do.”
Or if she was in the middle of baking or decorating one of her cakes, or getting ready for a bridal party to arrive, she would call Camden and he’d take the creature to the pretty little shed at the edge of the woods that he and Haddie and Millie had painted together. She and Millie even made a sign that they proudly hung on the front: Ruby Sugar Baby Animal Rescue Center.
Her mommy’s business had opened the year after they escaped the men in the forest and had become very busy over the last few months. Her mommy said it was because all her advertising was finally paying off, but her daddy said it was because her mommy was the most talented person he knew, and she’d made Lilith House into a magical place any bride with good taste would fall in love with. Haddie agreed with her daddy. Her mommy’s cakes were so pretty they made Haddie gasp every time she saw one. And Lilith House was beautiful with all its new paint and floors and balconies, and shimmery lights. Every time a bride entered, her eyes got big and she’d look around like she’d never seen a place like it before.
Haddie loved the brides. She loved their dresses made of white lace and shiny satin. She loved the way sparkles glittered around them and their grooms the same way they did around her mommy and daddy. She and Millie—who was her sister now—would peek at the brides from around doorways and out windows as they took photographs in the gazebo and walked through the flowers and trees, holding hands and smiling at each other.
Lilith House must love them too. The screams in the walls had faded. The rooms felt light. The house was happy that love lived there.
Haddie knew that there was lots of dark in Farrow. She’d felt it that first day. But now, many places felt light, as if the darkness had been swept away. Mommy said that her new daddy had become the biggest sheriff, and that he was finding all the bad and making them leave Farrow. Her new daddy was very tall, so that’s maybe how he did that.
A man appeared at the edge of the forest, large and horned, and Haddie’s face broke into a grin. “Alonzo!” she called, grasping the hem of her dress and rushing toward him as he whooped with joy and ran toward her.
**********
Camden grinned as he watched Alonzo race toward Haddie, that deep, snorty laugh filling the air as he picked her up and twirled her around, her yellow dress flying out around her. They were close. Even closer than he and Alonzo, but that was because Haddie understood him on a level no one else did. Haddie had a gift that surpassed his understanding. She confounded him. And awed him. He couldn’t wait until she was old enough to explain the things that went on inside her extraordinary mind. She didn’t have the words yet, but perhaps, in the same way she’d learned to speak to Alonzo, that was a