Siobhan stood a few yards away on the back of the fallen gray demon that had been the first one out.
Leave it to the druid archer to take down a demon single-handedly just so she could relieve her babysitter with minimal overtime.
Ingrid and Sig came over, and it was strange to see his tall body so hunched and damaged. Some of the burns were healing in front of my eyes, but we’d need to get him fed soon.
Sig disengaged from Ingrid and limped slowly towards me. When we were this close, he was over a foot taller than me, even stooped. He took my face in both his huge palms and tipped my chin up so I could meet his exhausted gaze.
“How did I know you would be the one to help us?” He gave me a faint smile. “Even when I have no power over you, you still come for me.”
I returned his smile, wrapping my fingers around his wrist and leaning my cheek into him embrace. Now that the dust had begun to settle, I could let myself feel good about what I’d done here.
We had saved Sig.
“Ingrid did all the hard work. And you know, you could have fought to save yourself, you big idiot.”
His hand twitched. “I didn’t know if there was anything left to fight for.” His gaze darted to Ingrid, and his expression was heavy with both sadness and relief. It felt strange to be able to read his usually stoic face so easily.
“My rule of thumb, and you can borrow it, is that it’s always worth fighting when the fate of the world is in the balance.”
He paused for a moment before speaking. “Someday, Secret, you may live to be old enough to know that there’s only so much someone can give when their reason for living is gone.”
Ingrid had drifted away from us, but the way she lifted her head to stare at him told me she had heard him perfectly well.
“I am glad you saved me though,” he said. “And the world.”
“Me too.”
He went back to Ingrid, and the way they looked at each other, I had to turn away. There was something so incredibly deep and meaningful in there shared connection that it made me feel like I was intruding. And it reminded me of what Desmond had told me earlier that night, about how he would die if anything happened to me. I knew now the same was true for Ingrid and Sig. They were soul mates, like Des and I, even if there was nothing romantic between them.
The rest of the crew were busy checking in on each other and sharing hugs. Shane and Siobhan were already making a quiet Irish exit, heading out of the park together to relieve their sitter. Emilio, who had noticed my bloody leg did some quick, expert triage, bandaging me up with half of his shirt. I’d need to see a real doctor—and soon—but it was enough to keep me from bleeding out for the time being.
As soon as I realized we’d really done it, I sank to the ground next to the top half of Harry’s body and let out a shaky sigh.
“You deserved better than this. I’m so sorry.”
“I’m not,” said a voice from behind me.
When I glanced over and saw a tall, auburn-haired man in a black robe standing above me, I leveled my gun at him as I scrambled to get back to my feet.
“Whoa, whoa.” He raised his hands in a gesture that said Don’t hurt me, and I narrowed my eyes at him, silently demanding he give me a reason not to pull the trigger. “I never really liked that body much, anyway.” He nodded down at the half-a-corpse next to me.
“Harry?”
“Still not crazy about that name, you know.”
And then the lights in New York came back on.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Los Angeles, three weeks later
The sky overhead was a bright orange purple, a multi-tonal sunset unique to Los Angeles. Maybe it was the smog, but I preferred to think of it as that special kind of California magic.
My FBI-issued black SUV was tucked neatly in a back alley, and I was sitting low in the driver’s seat, my sunglasses still on, though soon I wouldn’t need them anymore.
I’d been sitting like this for the last seven hours, and by now my ass was really starting to protest.
My phone buzzed with