CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Elysian
“Smile, and think of your resolutions,” Elysian said, adjusting the position of her camera so the couple in front of the ‘Happy New Year!’ sign were in the center of the frame.
The man frowned. “Who smiles when thinking of their New Year’s resolutions?”
“People who’ve chosen the right ones,” Elysian said. It wasn’t a joke, but the man chuckled anyway, his previously stiff jaw softening to make room for a genuine smile. She snapped the picture.
“Smile,” she said as the next couple stepped into the photo space, then froze at the sight of familiar blonde curls. “Aspen,” she said. “James.”
“Elysian,” James said, giving her a nod. He slipped an arm around his mate’s waist, splaying his hand out on her hip, his thumb stroking the fabric of her Vera Wang dress. “We need to think of our resolutions, right?”
“No,” Elysian said, raising the camera. “Aspen, you think of James. And James, you think of Aspen.”
“Every minute of every day,” James said. Aspen looked up at him, her face lighting up like she had only just realized he was there.
Elysian snapped the picture.
“Where’s Walt tonight?” James asked, cutting her off before she could ask what they were doing in Austin.
Elysian fought to keep the dismay off her face at the mention of Walt. She was here to work, not to mope about her mate. “He’s on shift,” she said. “New Year’s is a big night for accidents, unfortunately, and he hasn’t been on the job long enough to ask for a holiday off.”
She knew it was a little childish to be upset that he wasn’t with her on New Year’s, but she couldn’t help it. It was their anniversary, and them being apart at midnight wasn’t the omen she’d hoped for.
James nodded. “You’ve got to pay your dues,” he said.
“What brings you here?” she asked. She glanced at the waiting area, and saw that Aspen and James were the last couple wanting to be photographed. No wonder, with barely ten minutes to midnight. Most of the guests were in the main gallery, making sure they had a full glass of champagne and someone to kiss.
“You might live away from home right now, but you’re still part of our pack,” Aspen said. “Of course we’re going to be there when a pack member has a gallery show open.”
Elysian blushed. Walt had been talking her up again. “It’s hardly a gallery show. I have one photograph hanging in the gallery I work for.”
“It counts,” James said firmly. “Show us!”
Elysian stashed her camera in the discreet locker next to the backdrop, and then led them across the room to a little alcove. It wasn’t the main gallery, but most people who came through the front door stopped to look, and she knew that her boss wouldn’t give her such a prime space out of pity or friendliness. She’d earned this.
James stood in front of the photograph, arms crossed in front of his chest, and said “Hmmm.” Aspen giggled.
The photograph was one of the best she’d ever taken. She had known it in her heart the minute her finger pressed down on the button, and didn’t need to check the viewfinder. She’d taken it in the golden hour just before sunset, on a day when a storm was rolling in making the light as thick as honey. She’d been lying naked on a blanket in the grass, listening to the sound of a shifted Walt crashing through the woods toward her. She’d snapped it just as he burst into the clearing.
“I’m pretty sure that’s cheating,” James chided, but he clapped a hand on her back. “Well done.”
“You’re very talented,” Aspen added.
“You know,” James said, in the voice of someone who had spent the drive over practicing this speech out loud to try to sound natural, “the Jardin Mountain Resort is looking for a new event photographer.”
“I can certainly recommend several,” Elysian said.
In truth, she and Walt had begun to discuss it. It was a frequent topic of the long, lazy talks they had on Sunday mornings, wrapped naked around each other in the white framed bed in their little apartment. They’d lived in Austin for nearly a year. Walt had proved himself as an EMT, and as an adult. And she knew that he missed home, missed the mountains, missed his brother and his father.
“There was one other reason we came,” Aspen admitted. “This arrived for you. I guess she doesn’t have your address in Austin, so she sent it care of us.” She held out an envelope, the Montana address scrawled on it in familiar handwriting that made Elysian’s heart flip over.
They had left Walt’s address in Montana as their forwarding address with Little Bobby. Everyone in the circle contacted her using texts or social media, so only one person would need to go to Bobby for a forwarding address.
Annette.
She ripped the envelope open. She hated the little flash of disappointment she’d felt at seeing it. The little house in Salem had once fit her perfectly, but now it was a piece with no place in the puzzle of her life. She tried to focus on her happiness that Annette was back, that they would talk soon and Elysian could fill her in on the amazing year they’d had.
Inside was a folded piece of printer paper, an unusual choice for Annette, who sent her rare letters using her floral stationery set. Elysian opened it and gasped. A printout of a Facebook post stared back at her. She didn’t recognize the name of the woman who had posted it, but the format of the post was all too familiar. A grainy ultrasound, captioned with ‘It’s a GIRL!’
Annette’s note was short.
Elysian.
It’s taken fifty-one years, but another girl will finally be born into my family. I’ll deliver the grimoire to her in April, and then my watch over it will come to an end. I would say that I am sorry you won’t have the house to come back to, but I suspect this news is as happy for you as it is for me. I know you, Elysian. I’m sure you’ve built something wonderful while I was gone.
Annette
Elysian pulled her phone out to tell Walt, her heart pounding. To her surprise there was already a message from him on screen. He usually kept his phone off while on the job.
Come outside
Behind her someone shouted “One minute left!”
The street outside was still. It was strange to remember that a year ago they’d been roaring through similarly silent streets with hunters on their tail. Elysian, Walt, and all the wolves and witches they knew had kept their ears to the ground, but no sign of Willa and Doug ever surfaced. Wherever they went, they had stayed there. Elysian hoped it was the bottom of the ocean.
An ambulance turned the corner, its sirens dark, and glided to a stop in front of her. The passenger door opened and Walt jumped out. He grabbed her by the waist and swung her around in a circle. “Did I make it?”
“You did,” she said, throwing her arms around his neck. She knew he still thought she took the New Year’s omen too seriously, but that didn’t matter. He cared because it was important to her.
“I can only stay for a few minutes, and if a call comes over the radio we’re out of here,” he warned. He reached into the pocket of his jumpsuit, and pulled out a small package, inexpertly wrapped in silver paper.
“Did you forget one at Christmas?” she asked, stepping back and accepting the gift.
“No,” he said.
A buzz of nerves came through their mate bond. Elysian tore the paper off, to reveal a familiar blue teacup. For a moment she was confused—had he taken one of their own teacups from the kitchen and wrapped it as a gift?—until she tilted it and the streetlight gleamed off a crack lined in gold.
“You repaired it,” she said in an awed voice.
“Careful,” he said, cupping his hands around hers and stopping her from tilting it further. Nestled inside was a gold ring. “Elysian,” he said, that buzz of nervousness swelling again. “Would you be my mate?”
“I’m already your mate,” Elysian said. She scooped the ring from the cup and slipped it on. It nestled against her grandmother’s ring like they’d been made to be a set.
“Yes, but that was an accident.” Walt lifted her hand and pressed a kiss to the ring. “What I’m asking is if you could choose, would you choose me?”
Elysian laughed, joy bubbling up in her, and judging by the smile blooming on Walt’s face he could feel it through their bond. The question was absurd. “Of course I would choose you,” she said.
Behind them the crowd in the gallery erupted, cheering and blowing horns. They were cheering for the stroke of midnight, for all the changes that a new year promised. For right now, Elysian couldn’t be happier than right where she was.