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One of the Spartoi—Theodoros, if my memory served correctly—approached, looking as though he could scarcely believe what he was seeing. He looked like he’d been in a hard fight, judging by the head-to-toe bruises. He wasn’t wearing armor like the Spartoi almost always had—he’d stripped off to just the kilt-type thing they wore underneath all the bronze layers.
“Hey,” I said with a weak attempt at a smile. Fuck, I was exhausted. Aching everywhere. Devastated after seeing Rogue die right in front of my eyes. Terrified for the little girl in Bullet’s arms, who we’d sworn to protect. “Grace?”
“Come,” he replied instantly, eyes wide as he gestured for us to follow.
“Hey, let me carry Quinn,” I said, stopping Bullet with a hand on his arm. “This is about to be a lot for you. Let me look after her.”
Bullet nodded mutely. Quinn was fast asleep, and I held my breath as he carefully deposited her into the cradle of my arms, hoping she didn’t wake up. There was already so much going on, and she was going to be so scared.
She would grow up without Rogue but not without a family. I was going to make sure my little Quinbee had a happy life full of love, and I knew without asking that Grace would want the same thing.
Iknewthat. But at the same time, how the fuck were we going to get through this?
One step at a time, I reminded myself.Just get to Grace.
As terrifying as it was, I doubted there was much we couldn’t get through together.
“Is Wild here?” I asked Theodoros. “Riot?”
He nodded once for each, and I blew out a shaky breath of relief. We were all here. We were all together. At… wherever this place was.
“Is this where we live?” Bullet asked curiously.
“No.” Though we didn’treallylive anywhere, on reflection. Not yet. “This looks to be some kind of campsite, I think. I’ve never been here before.”
Flaming torches had been lit along the paths that led to one larger central building, and what looked to be cabins behind it. A few Spartoi were hanging around outside, bathing in buckets of water. They startled in surprise when they saw us, but based on the noise, it was clear that the majority of them were inside the main building.
Theodoros led us through the open doors, and silence fell almost instantly. The tired collection of soldiers stood, inclining their heads respectfully as they parted to let us through.
“This is… I don’t even know what to say,” Bullet whispered, fidgeting with the toga he was wearing.It was quite the outfit to make an entrance in, I thought wryly.
The final Spartoi moved out of the way, revealing my girl, tucked between an exhausted-looking Wild and Riot. They were huddled together in a pile of blankets at the front of the room, Grace leaning against Wild’s chest with his arms around her waist, both of her hands clutching Riot as she looked at him with eyes full of adoration, murmuring something too low for us to hear. Riot was giving her heart eyes right back, and I did my best to memorize every inch of the picture they made, so happy and content in each other.
She looked different from the last time I’d seen her, and it took me a moment to realize that she’d cut her hair.
“Is that…” Bullet trailed off, sounding suddenly unsure. Right, this wasa lotfor him.
“That’s Grace in the middle,” I told him. “Riot to her left, Wild to her right.”
Grace’s attention snapped to me, her jaw dropping open. Wild and Riot froze, all three of them cycling through too many emotions on their face to identify. I knew how they felt. I was a confusing cocktail of happiness, relief, and sadness, too.
“How…” Grace whispered, disentangling herself from the other two and standing on shaky legs. She walked toward us like she didn’t believe we were really here, reaching out with trembling hands, cupping my cheek with one hand and Bullet’s with another, before looking down at Quinn in confusion.
“I’ve got a story to tell you,” I laughed weakly, trying to break some of the tension. “Uh, this is Quinn.”
“Quinn,” Grace repeated, nodding to herself in a slightly bemused way.
“I’m going to give you two a moment though,” I added, stepping back and giving her a reassuring smile. While there was a lot for Grace to absorb, Bullet had just come back from the almost-dead, and this reunion was a long time coming.
Bullet’s hand came up to cover Grace’s, holding her in place as he stared at her reverently. “You’re so beautiful. Even more beautiful than I imagined. I wish I could remember you.”
I closed my eyes for a moment, the heartbreak on Grace’s face so acute that I couldn’t bring myself to see it. I’d known this was going to be hard, butfuck, it was agony. The usually stoic Wild wasn’t faring much better, and Riot looked devastated.
“You don’t remember me?” Grace rasped.
“Well, no. Not exactly. This is the cost of me being, you know, alive. My brain had to be emptied of all my memories and the things I’d seen.”
Grace went to move back, probably worried that she was touching someone so intimately who didn’t know her, but Bullet held her hand in place almost desperately, eyes wide with panic.
