Our eyes met across the crowded hall, and he smiled.
Goddess, but I loved that smile.
“Go to him,” Lachlan said, nudging my shoulder. “I’ll be fine. Sophie’s going to yell at you more later anyway, so you might as well enjoy the reprieve.”
I crossed the room, weaving through clusters of people who kept trying to stop me for hugs and congratulations and what seemed like a hundred variations of “you bloody fool.” By the time I reached Graham, I was half laughing, half crying, and completely overwhelmed.
He pulled me down onto the bench beside him and wrapped his arms around me.
“Hi,” he said, brushing a soft kiss across my lips, causing my toes to curl in my soggy shoes at his touch.
“Hi yourself.”
“You broke the curse.”
“Webroke the curse.”
“No, I was very definitely drowning for most of it. You broke the curse. I was just the damsel in distress.”
I laughed, the sound bubbling up from somewhere deep in my chest. “You’re a terrible damsel.”
“Don’t I know it?” He pressed his forehead to mine. “Agnes Wright, soon to be Agnes Kincaid, you are the mostinfuriating, stubborn, reckless, brave woman I have ever met.”
“Is that a compliment?”
“Not even close.” Graham sighed. “And,aye, it’s also a compliment.”
He leaned in, lingering over his kiss this time, and I sighed into it, happiness making me almost dizzy with need.
Around us, cheering erupted. I’d forgotten we had an audience and I broke the kiss to see the entire Order, their partners, various familiars, and what appeared to be a hedgehog honor guard that had formed a circle around us at some point.
“It’s time to celebrate!” Lia shouted.
Sophie was smiling, her earlier anger apparently fading in the face of general celebration. Lachlan had his arm around her shoulders. Willow was crying openly while Ramsay patted her back. Orla and Finlay were holding hands. Faelan was pretending to be annoyed but couldn’t quite hide her smile, even though her face was wreathed in exhaustion. Even Quilliam had stopped trembling on my shoulder and was making small sounds of approval.
Matthew appeared with more whisky and glasses, distributing them with the efficiency of someone who had clearly been a server at some point in his life. Hilda, Lia, and Lottie had taken over a corner of the hall and were organizing food, as Brice kept appearing with trays of toast, platters of sausages, and every conceivable fixing for a full breakfast spread.
“We should have a real party,” Liora announced, appearing beside us. Her eyes looked bright with mischief. “The curse is broken. We need to properly celebrate!”
“What did you have in mind?” Sophie asked, looking around. “I mean, it’s the morning, so…”
“And?” Liora turned to Lachlan. “We need speakers.”
Twenty minutes later, the great hall had been transformed.
Apparently, a breakfast party was properly underway. The tables had been pushed against the walls and Liora had appointed herself the official DJ of the unofficial “Holy hell we actually fulfilled the Order of Caledonia and protected Loren Brae” party.
I supposed I would need to come up with a better title, but I also hoped, for our sake, we never had to attend such a strangely unique party again.
“Is everyone okay with this?” I asked, watching Finlay attempt to teach Orla some kind of line dance. “People nearly died tonight.”
“Which makes it that much more important,” Sophie said, appearing beside me with an espresso martini and an armful of dry clothes. “Go change.”
I looked up and realized that Graham had already been poured into a dry set of clothes, so I followed my orders, sighing in relief as my soggy clothes hit the floor of the bathroom. For a moment, I stopped and stared into the mirror. The color hadn’t returned to my face yet, but the line of tension that had banded my forehead for a while now seemed to have smoothed out a bit.
“We did it, Gran,” I whispered, tapping a finger on the mirror, and swung back out to join the party.
Graham pulled me onto the makeshift dance floor, despite my protests that he needed to rest. Heignored all of it, wrapping his arms around me and swaying to “Sweet Dreams” by the Eurythmics.
