Page 129 of Monsters in Love

“Talos!” Joy swept over her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his ruff. His arms closed around her and she felt them change direction. Her stomach dipped, but this time due to movement as they shot into the sky. Away from the remains of Windhaven and all the lies hidden beneath its streets. “Oh, thank the gods. I was so afraid you were dead.”

“I’m never leaving you again.” His lips closed over hers.

“Thank the gods,” she breathed when he pulled away.

She looked down to see the entire town—the whole world she’d known—was fire and smoke and night. She’d mapped every road, every twist and turn of Windhaven, and she couldn’t tell which street led to the market, and which to the blacksmith. She couldn’t even identify her cottage. All she could point out was the belfry, right in the center of the flame.

“The monsters are burning,” Talos said, voice a soft rumble against her cheek.

“As is our home,” she whispered.

He pulled her closer. “I’m sorry.”

“I should be, but I’m not.” She tipped her head up to meet his gaze—that kind brown that had always melted her heart. “That town was fed by lies for too long. Twisted into a demon’s garden. It is time it all ended.” She brushed her mouth across his, a silent promise of what she intended to enjoy with him later. “Let’s find Emmi and Tarn and leave this place.”

His massive wings beat the air as he stared at her. Hope and triumph and love burning brighter in his gaze than the fires below. “You still wish to make a life with me?”

“Always,” she said. “You have me. Forever.”

Isabelle stood beside Talos in the shadow of their cart, watching as the convoy of survivors hitched up beasts to carts in the late afternoon sun. They had salvaged what they could from the remains of Windhaven, and now she and the survivors were almost ready to begin their new lives. They had saved what animals they could. Had searched the rubble for survivors and supplies.

It was strange, to begin a new life within the ashes of the old, yet somehow beautiful. As was her ability to stand beside her love in the fields he’d once tended, facing the remains of their past.

He had his hand at her waist.

And love filled her heart.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

“In a moment.” She kissed his cheek, and leaned against his side for a moment. The steady beat of his heart, the rise and fall of his chest, gave her the strength to face what came next.

She straightened and sent him a strained smile. “Emmi and I have to do this. Then we’ll be ready to leave.”

Clutching a woven wreath of fir branches and winter berries, she walked to where Emmi was waiting for her at the base of the stone arch that had somehow survived the flames.

Her sister held a matching wreath in one hand. She reached out with the other, and Isabelle gripped it tight. Without a word, they walked into the remains of the town. Even now, weeks after the fire, ashes swirled around their feet and charred scraps of wood crunched underfoot. After the fires had died down and the cries of monsters had faded, until nothing remained but the soft crackle of dying embers, she and Emmi had looked for their mother.

She couldn’t say whether they truly wanted to find her, but they never had the chance to discover otherwise.

Cateline DuNorde was nowhere to be found.

That hadn’t surprised Belle.

Their mother had committed her life to the bishop’s lies, had consigned her own children to the tunnels rather than question the acts of a monster. At the end, she likely chose to burn for those lies rather than face the truth. In the wake of the fire, she and Emmi mourned the mother they’d wanted.

But they still had to lay the one they’d known to rest.

“This way,” Isabelle said quietly, leading her sister over a pile of burnt wood and brick to where a massive clay oven still stood. That oven was all that remained of their home, and the only reason she’d been able to identify it.

Together, they laid their wreaths in the opening.

“I hope you find peace, Mama,” Isabelle said quietly. “I want you to know that Emmi and I are well. We are safe with those who love us.” She glanced at her sister, and her lips curved into a smile. “We are starting a new life today. And we are never going to look back.”

Her sister grinned. “We’re going to see the world, Mama. And I’m going to bake buns with sugar and smile the whole time.”

Isabelle wrapped an arm around her sister’s shoulders. “Yes, we are.”

Together they returned to the edge of town, where the line of carts waited to roll onto the road. Snow was falling, and the forest was coated in white, as if the gods had shaken powdered sugar across the world in celebration. Perhaps it was an odd time to set out on a journey with no set destination, but to Isabelle, it made perfect sense.

---