Page 63 of Kiss of Smoke

The air itself shuddered, and several snowflakes swirled by my face. I caught one on the tip of my tongue, then turned to find Jack and Robin staring at me, the frost Fae gripping Robin’s sleeve with a white-knuckled hand.

“You’re back,” Jack said, sounding just as disbelieving as Gwyn had looked. He let go of Robin, striding towards me to grab me in a massive hug.

“See? It’s no dream. I’m here.” I kissed Jack too, hugging him so tightly my arms hurt.

“We can’t both be having the same dream, but… I can see why Gwyn would think that.” Jack looked dazed, doing the same thing Gwyn had done and touching every inch of me as though to confirm that I was there in the flesh.

Robin seemed fixed in place. I held out a hand. “Boss?”

For a moment, doubt cut through my happiness.

What if I’d taken too long to heal, trapped in tree form?

What if Robin had moved on without me… or was he angry that my actions had led to my near-death?

My lungs suddenly didn’t seem to want to work anymore, and my smile wavered, but Robin shattered my doubts.

He didn’t just stride; he tackled me, sending both of us flying into the overgrown grass of the yard.

“Don’t ever leave us again,” he demanded fiercely, kissing me all over my face. Forehead, the bridge of my nose, my eyelids; there was nowhere his lips didn’t touch. “Or, if you do, take us with you.”

I just wrapped my arms around his neck, squeezing my eyes shut before the tears could overflow again.

22

They loopedtheir arms around me to walk me back to Robin’s house—or my house, as I now thought of it. Once they got me in there, I was never going to leave again.

Unless it was to kick ass and take names by their sides, of course.

The outside looked the same, but as Robin pushed the back door open, I caught sight of a lot of very different changes.

Which was immediately obscured as a ball of frantic, shrieking pixie dust blasted right into my face.

“Briallen!”

Sisse flew smack into my forehead, clinging to my hair and screeching incoherent noises.

I reached up to cradle her in one hand, blinking her glittery dust out of my eyes. “Hello again, Sisse.”

I smiled down at her as she wrapped herself around my thumb, hugging me tightly. Then Ceri trotted down the newly expanded hallway, his tail wagging so hard it was just a white blur. I reached down and scratched him behind his pointed crimson ears, letting him lick my palm.

Beans was a little more reticent, since Ceri was winding himself around my legs, but I caught a glimpse of a bright emerald eye and pointed ear around a corner.

The fairy cat didn’t come out until Ceri retreated, and I picked up Beans, scratching his plush belly.

Luckily, I was all cried out, otherwise I would’ve been sobbing just to walk into the house and be surrounded by family again.

When the animals finally allowed me to walk again, I looked around in astonishment. “What have you guys been doing here?”

The house had rearranged itself to accommodate guests before, but the guys had clearly been working while I was asleep in the tree.

Now the front hall was twice as wide, and the kitchen itself had expanded. A small set of stairs led up to the countertops, which had been replaced with a dark marble, and the oven range had expanded by quite a bit.

“We’ve been… well, we’ve been making it into a home for when you woke up,” Robin said, running a hand through his hair. “Thistle demanded a more sophisticated set-up…”

“Your dinky little kitchen wasn’t going to cut it,” Jack said airily.

Despite the massive changes, it was still home. There was still the sink below the window, where I’d washed dishes with Robin, and the same scarred kitchen table where we made plans and recuperated.

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