Page 202 of The Devils of Raven's Gate

“Enough!” Riot roars. “Just fucking stop. Don’t you see? He already has won. Not because his nightmare man tempted your daughter. Not because Maureen was born from it. No. The devil won the second he succeeded in ripping apart your family. The instant you turned your back on them. I bet he’s laughing at you from hell right now.”

She presses a button on her desk and the library doors burst open. Six armed guards file in, pointing guns at our heads. “I will not listen to this blasphemy any longer. Get out of my house and don’t ever come back.”

The guys form a circle around me, each of them ready to take a bullet for me. A part of me wants to call on my sigils, on the ravens, and show these assholes their guns can’t hurt me. A darker, more devious part of me wants to call on the devil himself. My true father.

The nightmare man is just an extension of him. That’s what terrifies her the most. I feel sorry for my mother now. It doesn’t excuse how she treated me. But I do pity her. I wonder if she’s been plagued by the nightmare all these years or if he went away after she gave in.

Maybe someday I’ll ask her.

I hold up my hands. “Thank you for telling me the truth, Grandmother,” I say to piss her off. “I just have one more question and then you’ll never see me again.”

She nods at her security detail and they lower their guns. “Fine. Then I want you gone. I have set up a trust for you and you’ll continue to receive shares of the Blackwell Gin Company. It’s the least I can do since I know you did not choose this.”

I grit my teeth. How fucking sweet of you. “Why aren’t there any ravens in Ever Graves?”

She snickers. “Because the devil sent them all to Raven’s Gate. They watch over the ones he didn’t curse. They watch over you.”

Fuck.

I am the devils daughter.

“Goodbye, Penny.”

She looks back toward the fire. “Good riddance,” she whispers.

Draven, Bones, and Aries wait for us by the SUV—one final escort to ensure we leave their town. I keep quiet as they say their goodbyes. I don’t have the energy to speak, still processing what just transpired. To my own surprise, I don’t feel shame or disgust, just relief. I finally know who I am and where I come from. And it makes me love the father who raised me even more. Sherrif Mason Gray loves me like I’m his own. There’s true honor in that.

I look around the group, noticing Bones and Felix’s tense exchange, their defensive stances while they argue about him joining Nocturnus. I catch a snippet of the conversation between Atlas and his cousin Aries—they still haven’t heard from Libra and they’re concerned.

Fuck. I hope she’s okay.

Riot and Val stand on either side of me like bodyguards, their gazes trained on the heathens of Ever Graves. This fucking town. Fuck. I’m grateful I wasn’t born here. I never would have met Bailey if I had been. My sorry excuse for a grandmother did do me a favor.

More relief fills me as we climb into Atlas’s SUV and drive away. It’s done. There’s no more secrets, no more enemies to face. It’s just us now—me and my devils of Raven’s Gate.

“I think I’m going to change my major,” I announce.

“To what, pretty girl?” Atlas asks.

I look at Felix. “I want to be a psychologist at Tenebrose. It’s odd that they don’t have one. Maybe I can help students who are like us.”

“I think that’s an excellent idea, Little Raven.” He plants a soft kiss on my temple. “They’ll be lucky to have you.”

Riot squeezes my hand. “Are you okay, Firecracker?”

I feel calm and steady, like a weight has been lifted off of me. “I actually am. We won. No one can break us. Ever.”

“We can only break each other… in the best possible way, of course,” Val teases.

As we laugh together, the love between us is palpable, our bonds—unbreakable.

And now we get to go home and live our lives in peace.

We can drink, fuck, read poetry under the stars, fall deeper in love…

Ruina nostra salus.

They are my ruin and my salvation. And I am theirs.

Over and over again until the ground opens up and swallows us whole. Because any other fate would be worse than death.

Because no other fate exists.

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