Zai gave one shaky nod.
It said:
I know.
Love you back.
Love you more.
And the shyest, happiest smile spread slowly across Sin’s generous mouth, until it stretched into the wide, beatific, cocky grin that Zai knew so well.
Zai knew then, without a doubt, that whatever might come, they would be all right. Because they would always be together. Because nothing and no one would ever part them again.
And he also knew, much later on when they finally saw fit to get up and go, that one day, they would meet their friends again.
Because while Zai had lost his dragon shift for the time being, the magic was still within him, dormant and waiting.
One day, when the Dragon King called, he would be there.
Him and Sin.
For, the greatest test was yet to come.
Epilogue
Light
“I remember you.”
Ere paused to take a breath in his excited, happy gabbing and looked at Ben across the wide, wooden table in the gathering hall of the Tiger King’s stronghold.
They were all here for Sunday brunch—animal spirits, Dark and Pure Ones, humans alike. Ben’s closest family and friends.
Goya’s enclave was the only place big enough where all of them could gather in whatever forms they chose. There were Beasts and Lesser Beasts, full-on animals and the in-betweens. There were humanoids of all shapes and sizes, with each and every one of the male Immortals standing at well over six-feet tall, and the females, Immortal and human alike, coming in smaller packages but no less powerful for their size.
Ben was looking at Sorin when he blurted this epiphany, like a light bulb had suddenly clicked on in his head.
“Of course, you remember him,” Ere said, looking between them, an amused smile tilting his lips.
He’d been smiling a lot since returning home with Sorin. He couldn’t seem to stop smiling. And anyone who saw him couldn’t help but smile along.
His joy was that contagious.
“You’ve known him for ten years, Benjamin,” Ere pointed out.
Ben shook his head.
“No, I mean, I remember him from before. Even as a boy, when he first came here, when none of us knew him, I remembered him then.”
Ben squinted his eyes as he stared at Sorin, digging into his memories.
“I remember seeing him at my school, standing just outside the main doors. I recognized him…from before. The memories then aren’t as sharp and clear as now, after just returning from the past, but I remembered. I knew him.”
He looked at his “friend.”
“I knew what he meant to you, Ere. I knew I had to help you see it too.”
Ere blinked rapidly as his own epiphany dawned.