Theresa, Myla, and Derrick were the first to come out of the flames. Their clothes singed and full of smoke, but their eyes were clear.

  “I’m sorry we didn’t realize what was going on sooner.” Derrick bowed his head.

  “You couldn’t have known you could trust me.” Reese shook her head, her hands twisted in her lap as she spoke. “Don’t apologizing for protecting those you love.”

  “Is that your justification for what you did back there?” Cillian hobbled out into the clearing. He was limping, but he favored a wicked grin. “Because that was bad ass.”

  His smile fell when he caught sight of Theresa, but he said nothing else.

  That was everyone.

  Raya had fallen.

  So had Flynn.

  Hazel might be wandering around the flames somewhere, but Reese wasn’t too inclined to wait around for her.

  She dreaded what the woman might do once she found out her family had fallen at the wrong end of a blade.

  “Little sparrow, it is time to go.” Luca tried to push himself to his feet, but he barely made it a few inches off the ground before the strain forced him to give up.

  “You’re in no position to be walking around. Especially not when there are likely still guards out.” Reese shook her head. “We wait here.”

  “If we wait here, we are nothing more than sitting ducks.” Luca argued.

  “I hate to say it;” Theresa sighed. “but he’s right. We need to move.”

  The others nodded their heads in agreement.

  “Oh, alright.” Reese hooked her arm under one of Luca’s and started to haul him to his feet.

  She could hear his sharp wince of pain and fought to tamp down the instinct to put him down, to lessen the pain.

  Cillian helped support Luca’s other side. “They did a number on you, didn’t they, brother.”

  Luca winced again. “Too soon.”

  Cillian chuckled. “Let’s get out of here. I have a family to get back to.” He glanced back at Theresa, uncertainty flickering in his eyes.

  “We all do.” Theresa replied curtly.

  “I don’t,” Luca said.

  “Neither do I.” Wrenly’s voice was quiet and small.

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  She had been so brave in getting this far, but with the adrenaline fading, she was left with the hole her sister had left behind.

  It had to have been worse than what Reese had felt when they’d ripped her away from Luca.

  At least then, there had been a chance she could get him back.

  But Wrenly knew Raya wasn’t coming back.

  “You’ll come with me. I have sisters that would adore to have a better little sister than me.” Reese smiled.

  Wrenly tried for a smile, but Reese knew her offer couldn’t even begin to fill the emptiness Wrenly was feeling.

  “What about me?” Luca asked with one of his most charming smiles.

  “Oh, I suppose you can come too.” Reese could feel the color rising to her cheeks again

  Cillian laughed.

  “What?” Reese demanded.

  “You only defied the laws of physics for this man, but you suppose he can come home with you?” Cillian asked.

  “It’s not as if he wants to. I’m sure he’s eager to be rid of me.” Reese shook her head.

  “How blind can one be?” Cillian shook his head with a blissful smile. “I only wish someday to find someone who looks at me the way he looks at you.”

  “Wh-what are you talking about?” Reese sputtered.

  “He’s telling you I love you, when I should be the one doing it.” Luca whispered in her ear.

  Her entire face was on fire.

  “You were the one who wanted to leave, let’s get going.” Reese started forward as her thoughts began to race.

  He had made it clear on countless occasions that he only wanted her because Lyonell did. He’d wanted her to leave him.

  But now Lyonell was dead, there was no one to make envious.

  There was no one to answer to.

  What he was saying now, he meant it.

  “You’re delirious from blood loss. They didn’t treat you properly because you weren’t supposed to live this long.” Reese muttered.

  “You’re the one who saved me,” Luca said. “You cannot deny the connection that has pulled you to me since we met. I feel it too.”

  Reese’s heart pounded in her chest.

  It hadn’t been just her.

  It had never been just her.

  “Fate pulled us together, little sparrow, a little fire cannot sever that.”

  Fate.

  There it was again.

  That funny little word that Reese couldn’t decide if she loved or hated.

  Fate had pulled her to Luca.

  That much was undeniably true.

  But fate had also ripped her away from him and forced her into near powerlessness before it had shown her a path back.

  Until she had forged her own path back.

  Fate could be rewritten.

  She had proved that much.

  Unless that was how it had always been meant to go.

  Perhaps she had played right into its hands.

  There was no way to tell if any of it had been real. If any of it had been her. Or if it had all just been written in stone and she’d been the hands of an unseeable force.

  She would never know if what Luca was saying was real.

  If what she felt was real or if it was all just the aftereffects of the adrenaline and star dust that laced her veins.

  It could all be nothing but what was written.

  But Reese had chosen this.

  She wanted to believe that she had chosen this for herself.

  She wanted to believe Luca had chosen it too.

  That he had chosen her.

  She didn’t know if he had, or if he even had the same suspicions she did about fate. She didn’t know if he even knew what he was saying or what she’d done. They were all coming down from the same hellish high.

  Flames and smoke had set the wheels in motion.

  But she did know she liked the high.