Page 89 of Finding Closure

I smiled. We were in such a better place than I could ever have thought of before when I used to sneak in here. All the problems and issues we’d tripped over, but we’d still made it.

I went to the rec center and took it in. The classes there and sparring matches—even the ones with Mason that used to bother me. They didn’t anymore.

The mats were still piled the same like the first time Lucca and I had sex. I’d been so sure he wasn’t my mate and it would have just been quickie sex to get our attraction out of our systems.

How wrong I’d been. I didn’t regret that anymore and went to the spot I’d first met him in bear form, chuckling at how terrified I’d been when a huge ass bear had jumped out in front of me.

I hit all the highlights. The vending machine mecca. The lab I used to visit Darby in. The lab where I used to make my potions blow up. The bench Darby and I made up on after our first real fight.

I sat in the cafeteria for a while. Alothad happened there. Good and bad.

I rubbed my chest thinking about when my warning for Izzy had lit up and I’d had to out myself as being able to open portals on the fly to go save her. I didn’t regret that either. All the fights in that room and issues.

Including where my mate used to have dates with other women while he was under black magic. All of it swirled around me. All of it affected me.

And I was glad to leave it all in the past. This place had served its purpose and I could control my magic, never risking hurting someone on accident. But it could have been so much better like the promise.

Hopefully, it would be for the next powerful unknown instead of the crazy I’d been through.

That would be nice and maybe worth all I’d been through if someone else suffered less. Yeah, that would—I just wanted the next time to go better.

22

I found myself standing where I’d found the box Mario had buried on the quad to make the plagues. Someday I wanted to learn how he’d done that. I might have more than enough magic to do anything possible, but that amount of control was awesome.

Even if the evil kind. It was still helpful to know that type of control and weave spells and magic that way.

It was how I’d created magic already like the compasses to find any fair folk on Earth. Which my dad and I had made into demon locators as well. There hadn’t been many who had come back after my dad wiped them all out, but more would come.

Now we had a way to easily send them back as well. The fight we would never win but would help the world if we fought. Which was pretty amazing when it wasn’t our world.

It seemed I wanted to keep going down memory lane. I jumped all around from the Vogel’s castle extension that was now built and had once been the mountain I’d beaten up to different events and places I’d gone with my dad.

Including bad ones like underground gambling halls… Some of which were back in business. Nice, more money to get later.

I blinked and I was at the spot I’d seen my first portal and Julian had stepped out of it that night to find out whose magichad triggered the sensors on the nearest portal. The last thing I expected was to find someone there.

“Hey, cream puff,” he whispered when I appeared. He stood and came over to me, worry in his eyes. “You’ve been bouncing around too fast for your detail. People are worried.”

“Sorry,” I whispered with a frown. “I felt them though.”

“At Artemis, but you lost them after,” he explained.

“Sorry.”

“It’s more than understandable and no one’s mad,” he promised as he cupped my face. “Don’t cry. Please don’t cry when I touch you.”

I sniffled and wiped my eyes. “I was just—your hand is so big and warm. I was thinking how cold my cheek felt after my dad moved away from me before he died. I didn’t think my cheek would ever feel warm again.”

“Oh, Tams,” Lucca rasped as he hugged me to him. “I’ll keep you warm, cream puff.” He kissed my temple. “Come on, I’ve been waiting for a while and I’m starved. A new bakery opened that specializes in cream puffs. We have to check it out. I’m so excited to see if it’s any good.”

I really didn’t want to, but he was excited and I couldn’t deny him, especially when he said Harry wanted one too. I chuckled and went with him. I froze before we entered the bakery. “How did you know to wait for me there?”

His eyes flashed shock, but then he smiled. “Because I pay attention too, Tams. I asked Julian a while ago to show me the spot he first found you.” He gave me a soft kiss when it was clear that wasn’t enough. “If I’d been dropped into this world, I’d probably go back there now and again too. It’s just how our brains work.”

I felt really seen by him feeling that way and saying it to me.

Really seen.

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