Page 104 of Marked by the Demigod

Epilogue

* * *

She awakens to his arms tightening around her, and it's still dark out.

Careful not to elbow his wound, she twists to face him. His eyes are screwed tightly shut, and he breathes hard, as if awoken from a nightmare.

"Hey," she whispers, and his eyes fly open, cool and dark in the room.

"Hi," he says, his voice raspy.

They stare at each other in the dim room, and, for some reason she cannot divine, her heart is pounding. "Sorry I killed your brother," she says, almost impulsive.

A line in his face spasms, then smoothes out. "It's...Vanya hasn't been a brother to me for a long time."

"So it was Vanya that I stabbed?"

His eyebrows flash upwards, getting lost in his messy long hair. "You couldn't tell." It's a statement, not a question. "You did that, and you couldn't tell."

"I couldn't tell."

He ducks his head down, then breathes out, hard. "I don't think...I don't think they could do anything now." He marvels, and softly, ever so softly touching her cheek. "Well," he equivocates, "well not in the...ruling the world thing. Pieter...he'll unhinge."

Careful, she leans forward and presses her lips against his. "So all that nightmare, all the running, it's over?"

He leans into the kiss. "I think so," he mumbles against her lips. "I think so."

* * *

He leaves shortly after,with a promise to make sure they are safe and to come back as soon as he could.

She doesn't see him for two weeks, but it's an okay two weeks. Katya gets out of the hospital, and Aimes goes on two separate business trips.

And they're like a breath of fresh air. There's no looming doom, there's no threat from outside forces, and she gets to chat with librarians about technology.

After one small convention in Arizona, she's packing up her presentation supplies and chatting with a grad student volunteer, when the back of her neck starts to prickle. And, of course, she's not one to jump to look up, but she can feel a smile start to spread across her face as she finishes with the volunteer and bids him on his way.

Sure enough, casually leaning in the corner and keeping an eye on the clearing out librarians, Iakov stands. His stance is loose, more relaxed than she's ever seen him outside of his smarmy acting to waitresses.

He glances at her, and matches her smile, as the last librarian leaves. "So," he drawls, hand tracing out a pattern on the small desk. "You busy after this?"

She shakes her head, and her cheeks hurt from grinning so much. "This was my last of the day."

He smiles back at her, then offers her his arm. "Care to go somewhere else?"