Ah. All this time, after everything I’d been through, he still needed something from me. Well, this might very well be the last thing, and then good riddance.
“That’s fine. Let me know what he’s asking for, and I’ll see it done.”
Once the conversation was over, I didn’t feel all that hungry anymore. Putting off breakfast for later, I headed up to Dad’s office to get this last task over with as quickly as possible.
Even after so many months, stepping into the space that had always been his domain sent a pang like homesickness through me. Homesickness for a sense of home that had always been somewhat false. All the times I’d come in here as a child to seek reassurance or guidance, all the comfort I’d taken from the shelves of books and the smell of aged leather, I’d been hearing lies.
However much my father had actually cared about me, he’d cared more about how he could use me to gain more power for himself and his faction. He’d hugged me and joked with me and praised me while seeing me as little more than a vessel for his ambition.
Even though I never intended to let him back onto the estate, I hadn’t touched his office. I hadn’t wanted to think about him and his work for the time it’d take to deal with the contents. It looked exactly the same as it had a year ago when I’d first stumbled onto his treachery.
The books Lady Northcott had mentioned I was familiar with. Not much with pages escaped my attention. I picked those off the shelves and set them on the broad desk. The file folders Dad had asked for would take a little more digging. I hesitated, debating between starting with the storage cabinet or the desk drawers.
Kyler poked his head past the door. “We missed you at breakfast. What are you up to in here?”
“My dad’s moving to house arrest, so he’s going to be working again,” I said. “I’m supposed to send a few things to the Assembly so they can check them over and then pass them on to him.”
“I can help with that if you want.” The slimmer twin eased into the room. “I went through everything in here searching for additional evidence after we took over the house. Whatever you need, I’d bet I can remember where it is.”
“That would be wonderful,” I said with a rush of gratitude. Just having company in the room forced its ghosts to retreat.
True to his word, Ky produced the folders of records that Dad had wanted in a matter of minutes. As I added the last one to the stack on the desk, a sudden resolve filled my chest. I made a sweeping gesture toward the whole room.
“You know what? I’ll set aside the things he specifically asked for, but I think it’s time to clear the whole room out. I’ll hire a moving van and pack everything up, and the Assembly can decide what they toss and what they pass on to my dad.” Maybe getting his things out of the house for good would settle down my own memories.
Kyler grinned. “I fully support that plan.” He glanced around. “But before you start making calls, I think there was something Seth and Jin wanted to show you. Something good,” he added quickly when the panic that flashed through me must have shown on my face.
The other four guys were all waiting by the base of the stairs when we came down. Even if Ky hadn’t told me not to worry, the way Jin was beaming would have revealed I had nothing to be afraid of. Seth looked more serious, but in a hesitantly hopeful sort of way that made me even more curious.
“Jin and I have been working on something over the last week,” he said. “We managed to get the finishing touches done just now.”
And they’d have wanted to show me quickly with Jin leaving for his L.A. exhibition tomorrow. Anticipation bubbled through me as Seth led us all out the back, through the garden, and along a winding trek through the forest.
After about ten minutes in the warm, piney air, a glint of rich yellow caught my eye between the leaves. Seth picked up the pace, and I hurried along with the other guys. When the trees thinned to reveal our destination, my breath halted in my chest.
The little clearing there held a gazebo, perfectly structured within the open space. Perfectly painted too, to fit the sunlight that streamed through the gaps in the leaves overhead. The creams, yellows, golds, and oranges Jin must have applied caught every bit of warmth in that light and radiated it out as if the structure were a miniature sun here on the ground.
Tears crept into my eyes at the beauty of the building and the thought that they’d created that beauty for me. My vision blurred. As I blinked the moisture away, I made out the finer details within the glow.
Jin had carved witching glyphs into the beams that held up the roof: truth, devotion, strength, passion, and more. When I stepped closer to peer inside, I saw that wasn’t all. He’d painted a facsimile of the sketches I’d found in the old tower at the edge of our property: a woman with the flame of a spark in her chest and five unsparked figures surrounding her. My eyes welled up all over again.
“I know I should probably have asked before building anything on the property,” Seth was saying. “I was hoping you’d like it enough that it’d be a good surprise…Doyou like it?”
A laugh spilled out of me. “Are you kidding me?” I spun, grasping his arm, and tugged him into an emphatic kiss. Then I planted a matching one on Jin’s lips. “It’s spectacular. You two are amazing.”
Jin beamed even brighter, and Seth flushed adorably pink. “I also wanted to keep it a good distance from the house and the other areas we’ve normally used a lot so it doesn’t interfere with whatever memories you’re holding onto,” the brawny guy added. “Something new for us in this future we’re making without needing to write over the past.”
A lump rose in my throat. He’d taken the comments I’d made the other day to heart, clearly. But now, thinking of the decision I’d made about my father’s office, about what Damon had said last night about working through the last pieces of trauma before we moved on to better things, I was even less sure than before what I’d been hanging onto.
The friendship the six of us had shared as kids had been amazing, but what we had now, what each of us was doing and bringing to this place, was even better. Had I been too focused on where we’d started to really appreciate that? Maybe my uneasy feelings had been seeping out and affecting my consorts, drawing them back into the past rather than pointing them toward the future too.
I didn’t want to live like that. I wanted our relationship to be about who and where we were now—and what we could continue building together. I wanted ourhometo be ours as we were now, not a shrine to shreds of past happiness.
We had more than bits of joy now. We had bucketfuls. The life we were leading and the place we were leading it should reflect that.
“Thank you,” I said to Seth. “But you know… I think you were right. The estate is ours now, and we should make it what we’d want it to be going forward.” I took in the gazebo for another dazzling moment, but an eager urge had gripped me. I spun toward the house. “Let’s see what else we can do.”
Seth chuckled as the guys all fell into stride around me. Damon shot me a look I couldn’t read, but he didn’t say anything.