Page 141 of An Inheritance of Monsters

“You are perfect.” Rask gave me a fierce look. “Or I would not have chosen you.”

“True.” I giggled. He was literal enough for me to believe it.

In the distance, violet lightning flickered behind a wall of thick black clouds. A Voidstorm was rolling in, the waves frothing into a creamy glow beneath it.

“Looks like it’s going to storm. We should get to the bay.” The spirits would be rising, churned up by the storms and looking for a way to the Beyond.

There is a door below.Zirin crouched down, and I climbed on his back between his wings.

“We’ll be waiting,” Rask growled. “Very impatiently.”

“Don’t take too long, Lady,” Voraal added.

I grinned at them as Zirin dove into the sea, the warm water splashing around me.

There was no such thing as taking too long. Only the duties that needed to be fulfilled, the covenant to be maintained…

And for all of us, an eternity together among the stars.

Epilogue

5Years Later…

Elle Gray staredat the letter in her hand, frowning.

She still wore the black dress from her mother’s funeral that morning. Her cousin Juno had come to Innsmouth to help with the arrangements, and Elle had leaned on her for most of the proceedings, weeping quietly.

Her father had died two years ago, and her mother had finally followed after losing her battle with cancer.

But Juno had wiped her tears and told her it was all going to be fine. That her mother was in another place, a better place, her soul at rest.

When anyone else sold her these empty platitudes, Elle mostly wanted to punch them, or curl up in a ball and cover her ears.

But when Juno said it, it felt…true. Like she somehow knew exactly what she was talking about, and that Elle’s parents were on the other side of something great and good now.

So Elle had only cried a little. She had known it was coming, and now it was a relief to think that her mother’s pain was gone and she could finally rest peacefully.

But after the funeral, as the mourners slowly scattered, Juno had gone to the restroom. She’d smiled ruefully, squeezing Elle’s hand before patting the slight curve of her belly.

She was five months pregnant, practically glowing despite the black she wore. Then she’d called the baby a little monster, one who liked to sit on her bladder at inopportune times.

But it was while she was gone that two strangers had approached Elle.

They were a man and a woman, each in mourning black, but they’d worn strange matching pins on their lapels. Elle was sure the pins had been an image of horns, arranged in a triangle.

The man had spoken for both of them, offering their condolences. They had been old friends with Gillian Marsh, as they’d known her then, having met her back in college.

He’d slipped her the letter before Juno re-emerged from the restroom, taking off quickly, but her cousin had frowned at their backs as they hurried away.

Elle hadn’t opened it until Juno had finally left, returning to her island home.

What she’d read hadn’t entirely surprised her; her mother had always been into strange, peculiar things.

But she’d had no idea her mother had owned a portion of a lodge retreat in an old forest preserve. The heading at the top of the letter readWendigo Society; now that Gillian had passed, her portion of the lodge had apparently been passed to Elle.

They claimed that Gillian spent one month a year there, purifying her soul and communing with her spirit. Elle had always been under the impression her mother had just spent a month in a sauna somewhere.

She read the beginning of the letter, already well-creased, one more time.

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