We won.
After everything, when I was so sure we’d fail, we hadn’t.
It made me turn to look around, at the men I loved, at the shades who had risked their lives to help, at my friends who had stood with me, at my parents who supported me in the end.
I’d thought Larkwood had stolen everything from me. I’d said before that they had taken my life, my voice, my future.
Standing there, however, I realized the truth for the first time. Larkwood had cleared everything away for me. It had taken what I had, but as it turned out, nothing I had was worth keeping.
Larkwood might have changed my life, butI’ddecided what to do. I’d picked my own path, decided who I wanted to be, and that was somethingno onecould take away from me.
I stared up at Larkwood, at the building that stretched up and into the night sky, at the monster that had haunted my dreams for the last year.
I knew my path, and I’d make damn sure this place was used for good.
Larkwood belonged to us all now, and we’d make it into the place it should have always been.
Epilogue
Knox
Hera flopped down on the sofa and let out a long sigh. I should have felt bad at just how tired she looked, since I’d had a part in it, but I just couldn’t find it in myself to do so.
“Larkwood never changes, does it?” My voice made her snap her eyes open. “It’s been three months since we took over and yet this place is still exhausting. Or maybe you just need to go to bed earlier.”
She pressed her lips together at my smart-ass comment.“And whose fault is it that I didn’t get enough sleep?”
I shrugged as if it hadn’t been my naked body and eager hands that had made her lose all respect for the coming morning.It was hardly all my fault, not with how tempting she was. Besides, she’d decided to go on a business trip, which had taken her away from Larkwood for four days.
It turned out four days wasfartoo long to go without seeing or touching her, and I’d made up for it last night.
I went over to the coffee maker and grabbed one of the cartridges, then popped it into the machine. “I have the next interview set up for Friday.”
“With who?”
“A morning talk show. I prefer sticking with news programs, but Wade pointed out there are a lot of people who don’t watch traditional news. I figured it would be a good way to reach some of them.”
My own words made me stop. I really had changed over the past months, hadn’t I? I sure hadn’t expected to take over the public relations department of Larkwood, yet here I was.
“This is an uphill battle,” I said after a moment as I added creamer and sugar to the coffee. I handed it over to Hera without a word as an apology for keeping her up so late.
She nodded in thanks and brought the cup to her lips.Damn it, how can she tempt me even with that?
“The footage from that night did a lot, but we can’t expect people to change what they’d believed for centuries in a single night,” I said to get back on topic so I didn’t end up trying to strip her down again. Even my incubus had started to take notice.
Hera met my gaze and nodded to prompt me to keep going. With the coffee in her hands, she couldn’t sign back.
“Don’t get me wrong, it’s working. Six months ago, these people would never even consider speaking to me, and now they’re reaching out. I know it’s for ratings, because we’re the hot topic right now, but if just one person hears the interview and it makes them rethink their stance on shades, it’s worth it.”
Hera stared at me just before a smile crept across her lips. A glint there in her hazel eyes told meexactlywhat she was thinking.
And it once again made me wonder how a man could get this lucky. It was hard to think that it had been less than two years ago I’d felt hopeless, trapped, as if nothing in my world would ever change. I’d accepted that I had no real life, no future, no chance at anything more.
Then, somehow, Hera had come into my world and changed that all. She’d taught me that I wasn’t the monster I’d thought I was, and she faced down my fears right along with me.
Which meant when she stared at me with those lustful eyes of hers, I couldn’t just ignore it.
I lifted my eyebrow and curled my lips into a seductive grin. I dropped my voice to a low, intimate whisper. “Have you forgotten I can smell you, songbird? After not getting enough sleep last night, I would have thought you’d be sated today, but it seems not.”