Page 57 of Collected By the Crow

He closed his arms around her tightly and agreed.

Epilogue

Qadaire

Three Months Later

"Are you sure you want to do this?” Cassandra petted his feathers soothingly. “Rathym said he really wouldn’t mind making the trip.”

“No. I need to watch it burn.”

A few crows, too injured or old to fly on, greeted him like old friends. It was bittersweet. Generations of these birds had been his closest companions, his mentors, his friends, for so many lonely centuries. Without their presence, he would’ve given in to the darkness. It was good to see them again. There was a distinct lack of the clever black birds in the dragon kingdom, which he hoped to remedy somehow, so long as it didn’t disrupt the ecosystem.

The decrepit old mansion was worse for wear than in his memory. He held the jar of dragon’s breath under his lower left arm and slowed his wings, landing them on a sturdy branch of a dead tree. Cassandra clung to him as the branch swayed slightly under their pressure.

“I’ll be with you the whole time.” She kissed his nose.

He rose, dove down with a corkscrew spin, and landed in a run. Cassandra hadn’t been a fan of such acts of flight at first, but she’d kept asking him to do them until she grew to like the rush. She was perfect.

He gently touched her toes to the grass and grasped her hand in his lower right. She swiped her thumb over his and they silently walked until they reached the greenhouse.

His haven. It was full of useful seeds, beautiful seeds, old seeds. But they were tainted with magic from a dark creature, and there was no way to be sure how they would react to the soil without his magic for sustenance. Some might make it, but many would not. There were too many dangerous plants teeming with dark magic to leave it exposed.

He stopped Cassandra a few feet away and approached the building alone. He pressed his upper palms to the glass and thought of how grateful he’d been to find refuge in this place, so many times. Then he tipped a bit of dragon’s breath on the corner.

He was beside Cassandra before the lick of the flames reached him. They stood side by side, her head resting on his chest, his upper left arm around her shoulders and his lower clutching her hand, until the flames claimed every inch.

Their next stop was not as painful. After informing the other crows of their plan and helping secure their homes elsewhere, Qadaire lit the mad king’s mansion on fire. He watched it for a moment, holding his dearest dewdrop against his chest. He watched only long enough to know its contents would never bring harm to anyone again.

“A chapter closes,” he whispered into her hair. He kissed the top of her head. “I’m ready for a new beginning.”

Six months later

Cassandra

Cass awoke to an empty bed for the first time in months. Although Qadaire didn’t require as much sleep, he usually stayed in bed until she drifted off and always snuck back in before she woke.

Not this morning. Her heart thumped, and she wondered if he could hear it from the lab on the first floor of their home. Apparently so, since Qadaire filled her vision the next moment. Zero hopped off the bed just in time. Q was at her side, kissing her knuckles.

“Is everything ready?” she asked.

“Yes, my love.”

“Okay, we’re really doing this.”

He’d moved on to her wrist, where he placed feather-soft kisses. “It’s not too late to change your mind.”

“I want this.” She did. She wanted nothing more than to spend forever with this man. It was a truth that resonated deep in her bones. Still, a breeze of nerves rose the hairs on the back of her neck. “I definitely want this.”

“In that case, yes, we’re really doing this. Come.”

She took his hand and let him twirl her into his arms, sweeping her off her feet with a sure grip. She wanted to be clean and fresh for the transformation, so their first stop was the bath. The whole house had been made for them, so all the doorways, hallways, and bathroom facilities were tall and wide enough for Qadaire’s wings.

Life in the dragon kingdom was exactly as she’d hoped. Q was thriving. He spearheaded a community passionate about sustainability, which was more difficult with so many species needing different accommodations. That didn’t deter him. He had so much time on his hands and so many new things to fill it with that Cass found herself missing him in the lab sometimes. That longing always turned into spicy reunions of their bodies and hearts.

He wasn’t the only one busy. Cass was working side by side with the lead pathologists of the realm. It was a new challenge, one that grew more interesting every day. Between the two of them, the seemingly unlimited knowledge of the realm was wholly conquerable.

The human world would never be fully behind her. Qadaire had found a way to strengthen the technology between the two realms. Ali and Mark were only a few texts, a portal jump, and a short, spicy flight away. As for her old job, well, that wasn’t the best legacy to leave behind. The clinical trials were a success, but her old team hadn’t been able to hide her unethical means of discovering the cure. In time, the public’s outrage was somewhat nullified by gratitude, and she was quickly dismissed as a quack who’d lost her shit in a hard, traumatic case. Qadaire and Dana were still working on his book and would publish it as fiction. Maybe some other couple out there would read it together and realize they weren’t alone.

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