Across the Vanishing Sky (Starlight Grove, #1)(136)

My breath caught. “You want us to move in with you?”

Dex brushed his lips across mine. “Nothing I want more.”

“Yes.” The word came so easily. No fear, no reticence. Only trust and peace—and hope for our future.

The ringing of a phone cut through my happy haze, and Dex scowled as he pulled his cell from his pocket. A giggle slipped free at the ease with which the cantankerousness returned. The scowl only intensified as he took in Kol’s name on the screen.

He hit a button that put the call on speaker. “You know, you’re really ruining my moment with Brae, Kol.”

“I found her.” Kol’s breaths were coming in short, staccato pants.

“What? Who?” Dex asked, his brows pulling together.

“I found Nova.”

Everything in me stilled.

“Her body?” I barely recognized my voice as I demanded to know, blood roaring in my ears.

“No.” Another harsh breath. “Her. She’s alive. Barely. Medics are on the way. Brae, she’s alive.”





EPILOGUE





BRAEDYN





THREE MONTHS LATER


The fall sun baked the ground as it hung high in the sky over Twisted Oak Ranch, as if it knew it needed to shine a little brighter for the occasion. We may have tipped into October, but the sun brought with it enough warmth that we could be outside, scattered on picnic blankets, to celebrate Dex’s birthday and the completion of the framing on his new house.

Our house.

Shrieks sounded as Skylar and Owen raced around the yard with Yeti and Lucy, Tink the Highland cow, and Pepper the goat racing after them. Mav gave chase with a massive Nerf gun.

God, they were happy. There was nothing better than happy kids. And honestly, Maverick qualified as one.

Waylon stood behind a grill he’d hauled over here, wearing a Bigfoot apron as Blaze critiqued his grill skills. Wylder chatted with Aster, only pausing when she flipped off Mav after he shouted something at her. I wondered if the two of them would ever make nice. But they hadn’t managed to call a truce, even after he rushed to her side in the wake of her attack.

I glanced over my shoulder at the gravel road leading to our property, hoping I’d see a familiar SUV approaching. I didn’t. Cora was keeping her distance these days. Aside from work, where we only shared polite chitchat, she avoided me. All of us. It was clear the guilt that wasn’t hers to assume had made a home inside her.

But she wasn’t the only one I was worried about. My gaze shifted to the fence line, where Nova stood stroking a horse and then scratching behind its ears. She looked better—so much better than when Kol had found her.

The image of her in that hospital bed sent a shudder through me—just like the memory of her screaming when I tried to take her hand did.

But she’d battled her way back to us because our Supernova was pure fighter through and through. Only, I knew she was hiding wounds. And groups like this one today proved challenging for her at times. Then again, she’d lived for an entire year only coming into contact with one person—and a monster at that. She’d had no light, only the exercise of walking back and forth in her prison, little food and water. It made sense that this sort of thing might be too much.

Nova hid it well from most people, though. She smiled and joined in, but I knew there was so much more going on beneath the surface.

Movement caught my eye. Kol shifted ever so slightly, his gaze moving to Nova. I found him doing that often, as if doing a pulse check, making sure she was still there and breathing.

I understood it. He had been the one to find her, after all, nearly starved and dehydrated, more than five miles from Travis’s cabin. I had no idea what Travis had planned to do with her out there. But what I did know was that her ordeal had changed her forever, as much as she tried to hide it.

Lips brushed across my temple. “Worried?”

I leaned into Dex on the quilt spread out over the ground we were making a home. “I think I’ll always worry about her now.”

Dex pulled me tighter against him. “She’s doing really well, all things considered.”

“I know,” I whispered. I pressed a kiss to the underside of his jaw. “I’ll be right back.”

I pushed to my feet, crossing the grass to where Nova stood at the fence. I lifted a hand to stroke the horse’s jaw, even though all I wanted to do was pull my best friend into a hug. But that hadn’t gone well the first time. “Need anything?”

Nova’s gray gaze found mine as the wind lifted her dark, almost-black hair. “All good here.”

I knew that wasn’t the case. But I also knew she would get there. And I was holding tight to that hope. For both of us.

“Supernova, watch me!” Owen yelled as he executed some sort of flip and roll, shooting foam darts at Maverick.

Nova let loose a laugh, one that felt real. Not the kind from our past but one from now—different, huskier. It somehow meant more. “You’re a ninja warrior king, Bubs,” she called out with a grin.

There was something about the laugh. About her smile. It gave my hope wings.

I had so much to be grateful for. Sometimes, it felt impossible to me that I’d gotten every single thing I’d ever dreamed of. My best friend, my sister, returned to me. My son, thriving and safe. A partner I not only loved but trusted. And the family he’d given me by extension.