“And don’t wait up—” Grams says with a wink, and dear god they’re not just like us—they’re worse.
“Bring her home before curfew!” I mock-shout before falling back on the couch, feeling Gil’s arms pull around me.
“I guess we have some double dates in our future, hm?” Gil says with a laugh. “Maybe even a double wedding…”
That’s a future I certainly wouldn’t say no to. But Magnus huffs, flopping onto the seat next to us.
“I suppose I will have to practice catching a bouquet.” He chuckles, Gil gives me a look, and I wonder if Grams and I are going to get roped into being unofficial advisors to his otherworldly problems…
Gil squeezes my hand, Clawrece nuzzles up to my leg, and after waiting my whole life, I’m home.
Chapter 39
Marina
One Year Later
In this past year, I’ve seen magical places, castles, and kingdoms that are bigger and brighter than anything I could have imagined.
Nothing, however, is quite as vibrant as the atomic orange shade that coats my fingers as Gil and I rest on the edge of a lily pad at the Festival of the Four Sisters.
With a giant canister of cheeseballs between us, we gaze across the water at a firework show in the sky, the comforts from my world and the whimsy of his all in the palm of our hands.
His confidence has really bloomed on the theremin.
It’s strange to think it was something he was ever embarrassed of when he plays it so effortlessly.
Tonight’s concert was right in time for our first album “Scale Mail—Love Letters from The Marsh.” Most of the melodies were written in our time apart, letters from those cracked messages in a bottle combined with notes from my journal, which Gil has bound into its own scrapbook.
I’d say there’s no better feeling than being on stage together, but that’s not true. Every moment with Gil is its own kind of music.
I reach my hand into the cheeseball container—but it’s not the styrofoam-like texture of cheese balls that hits my fingers as Ireach to the bottom of the jar, there’s something else in here—something hard, and shaped like—
A clamshell.
Glittering pink with a hinge on the side.
“What is this?” I ask. “Last I checked, canisters of cheeseballs don’t have prizes inside.”
“Better open it and find out,” Gil says, holding me closer. I stroke along the grooves of the shell before opening it. There in the center is a shining pearl on a gold band.
My throat tightens, and my eyes fill with tears.
“Will you…?”
He can’t even finish the sentence before I shout the words.
“Yes!” His webbed hands shake as he slips the ring onto my finger, and I pull him into a kiss.
A kiss that soon has an audience.
Dozens of people pop up from around us and cheer—and not just Gil’s family. Heather and Moth are here hovering in the air with their twins in their arms. Then off in the distance there’s Magnus slinking low in the water. Gil’s siblings and Rainbow look on with glee—Angel cheers the loudest. Well second loudest, Grams and Grampy win by a mile in terms of excitement.
Sisters.
Brothers.
Friends.
