“If you don’t quit making googly eyes at him, I’m going to puke,” Doran said, but he was smiling, his eyes laughing.

“You shut up over there or I’ll ship you back to Berget.” The room went very still and I let took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “Let it go, I can freaking well crack a joke about my psycho sister if I want to.”

Doran just shook his head. “Don’t joke about that. I am eternally in your debt, which is a long time for someone like me. She carries not only her own memories, but the abilities and powers of both her adoptive parents. Which is part of the problem. She cannot handle all those memories and all that power. She is not to be trifled with.”

Jack leaned back, contemplative. “What about pied? We could f**king pie her, instead of trifle.”

Doran’s jaw dropped, and I laughed at his expression. “That’s an awful pun, Jack. I like it.”

That night, after making sure Pamela and Alex were settled, I made my way up to the rooftop to spend some time with Eve. I’d not been kind to her and I needed to make amends.

She eyed me warily and I waved her over. “I’m better. I’m sorry for the way I treated you, for pushing you so hard when you were hurt.”

“You didn’t push me, Rylee. I want to help. I just don’t know my own limits yet. When I have a chance, I’d like to train with Eagle again. I think I could still learn much from him.”

“Of course. I think that would be great.” I reached up and touched her wings. “Thank you, Eve. You are the best Harpy I’ve ever known.”

“What happened to you?” She ducked her head so she could look me right in the eye. “Something changed.”

Liam stepped out of the doorway and Eve saw him before I could answer. With a screech, she ran a hopping, wing flapping run over to him, dancing around him. “You’re back! I knew you were strong enough. I just knew it! Anyone who can fall off a Harpy and survive is tough enough to survive anything.”

He made his way over to my side as Eve launched into the air, circling around several times before soaring higher, using the thermals to lift her out of sight and behind the clouds, screeching her excitement into the wind.

“I didn’t think I’d made that much of an impression on your crew,” he said, moving up to stand beside me.

“You’re a part of our family. They’ve missed you. Or maybe just missed the fact that you can get away with yelling at me when they can’t.”

He laughed softly. “Not a family. It’s more than that. A pack.” He slipped an arm around my waist.

“Hmm. A pack.” I wasn’t going to argue with him, not over something like this. I was pretty sure there was going to be a lot to argue about in the future. Sure, things were good now, but we were both too pig-headedly stubborn to back down, even from each other.

“What now?” Liam moved so that he was behind me, his lips against my ear. “What’s the next step?”

Gods, if only I knew the answer to that, I’d be a Reader like Jack or Giselle.

Milly was pregnant, had stolen the violet book—a book Jack hadn’t wanted even me to read.

Faris was as twisted and untrustworthy as any vampire I’d ever known, and he was back on the shit list where he belonged. Where I should have left him from the first moment I’d met him.

Berget … that was where things got confusing. She was still my sister, but I realized now that she was gone outside of my grasp for good. The Child Empress had tried to kill Pamela, had set that f**king Dr. Daniels and her Beast on me, whether or not she meant to. How did I reconcile that with the child I had known? I didn’t. Couldn’t.

There was no way for me to save her. Once and for all, my sister was gone.

“There’s nothing left for us here,” I said softly, knowing in every fiber of my being that it was true.

“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

I smiled up at him and kissed him, my heart heavy with sorrow for all that had been lost, and yet light for all that had been found. “Yes, it’s time to go home.”