Page 202 of After the Burn

So, I did.

Wren stepped forward and crouched near the fence to look at Lila. “Do you think there’s an afterlife?”

“I hope so.”

Wren nodded. “Me too.”

After a few minutes, Colson bent down and pulled Wren to her feet wrapping her back in his arms.

I looked down at my wrist, at the bracelet matching the one Lila wore.

My fingers trembled. “We should bury her.”

“We will,” Beck murmured.

“All of them,” I added.

My men looked toward the other women lying dead in the enclosure.

Adrian nodded first. “All of them.”

Ben’s voice came quietly from behind us. “My people will help.’

I turned toward him. There were a thousand questions I wanted to ask: Where were you? How are you alive? How did you find me?

But none of those questions belonged beside Lila’s body.

Not yet.

Ben seemed to understand my unspoken thoughts and gave me a small nod.

We’d talk later.

I looked back at Lila.

I’d come to bring my friend home but failed. I could still offer her peace, though. I could also grant the women hiding inside that warehouse their freedom.

And when the sun rose again, I could finally deal with the impossible fact that my father had come back from the dead.

I slipped my hand into Lucas’s. Beck pressed against my other side; Adrian squeezed me into his body.

Behind us stood Ben, Colson, and Wren.

Ahead of us lay whatever life we could make for ourselves in this new world.

And at my feet, Lila was finally free.

Even though the path was unclear, I embraced the journey, comforted by the unwavering love of my three men.

EPILOGUE

TARYN

In the parking lot, two riders met us, bows resting across their saddles and swords strapped to their backs, as if we’d somehow ridden through the apocalypse and straight into the Middle Ages.

Wren stared wide-eyed. “Oh, I’m going to love this place.”

Colson rode beside her, nodding. “I bet you are, darlin’.”