Page 167 of Piece You Saved

After Kade leaves us in the kitchen, closing the door behind him, we don’t talk about everything. It would be way too overwhelming to do that. I tell them about what Mom was like, and how Dad was an amazing carpenter who couldn’t cope after she died. They tell me I have a family waiting to meet me. A big one.

Not only do they intend to stay in the city for the next two weeks, but when they return to Ireland, they want to return with a promise that I’ll visit them soon.

They were offering to pay for tickets when Kade, Aden, and Dariel returned to say there was no need for them to buy any plane tickets for me. They would take care of everything.

Soon after my grandparents leave, I focus on Dariel, who’s back to studying me through serious eyes. “Did you have something to do with this?”

He shakes his head. “It was all Kade.”

Kade releases a heavy sigh and says, “As much as I would love to take all the credit, the only reason this worked out was becausehetold me to go see a cop. Told me it would help.”

I glance at Kade. “And did it?”

He raises a brow. “You tell me, angel. Did you or did you not just make plans to go visit Ireland to see family you never knew existed until now?” He snorts. “Faerie family.”

Faerie family… what am I supposed to do with that knowledge?

They said I didn’t have magic, but do the rest of the family in Ireland?

“I’m a magical being who doesn’t feel the least bit magical,” I mutter. “It’s kind of disappointing not to have wings.”

Aden snorts a laugh. “You’re a lot more magical than you think. No one else could have brought us together the way you have.”

“Not even Monica?” I ask quietly.

Dariel catches my eye. “Monica picked and chose which parts of us she liked best and tried to ignore the others. You see it all and accept us as we are.”

I raise my brow. “I don’t know about that.”

“I do,” Dariel says with such certainty, it’s hard not to believe him.

“Oh, and, angel?” Kade says, rising to his feet. “We couldn’t have saved you from Rylan if Dariel hadn’t put himself between me and the fucker. It’s the only reason both of us are still breathing.”

“Where are you going?” Because he’s not the only one leaving. Aden is too.

“You two need to iron out some things.”

As if my gaze were attached to an invisible string I have no control over, it returns to Dariel. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

He half shrugs. “It wasn’t important.”

“You saved me from Rylan. I’d say that was very important.”

After a long stare, he crosses over to me and sits opposite me at the table. For several seconds, he doesn’t speak. “I didn’t want your forgiveness to be because you felt like you owed me. I wanted—want—to earn it.”

I sit back in my seat. “So instead, you just let me keep on thinking the worst of you?”

He pauses. “Andwereyou thinking the worst of me?”

I fold my arms across my chest and look away. “Not all the time.”

“Like the time you hugged me?” he says.

“There’s a photo in Aden’s apartment,” I say as I stare out of the window. “Old apartment, I guess, if he’s now living here. Do you know it?”

“I do.”

“When I first saw that photo, I felt… You’re going to think I’m nuts,” I mutter.

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