Page 168 of Piece You Saved

“You saw our pain,” Dariel says quietly. “You saw our smiles were false, and we were all wearing masks.”

I snap my gaze toward him as my eyes widen in surprise until I realize how he would know. “Aden told you.”

He shakes his head. “No, he didn’t.”

When he falls silent, I ask him a question that’s been growing louder and louder in my mind since my grandparents left. “What happens now?”

“Now?” He gets up. “Now that Rylan is dead, you have my full attention.”

He’s nearly at the door when I call after him, “What does it mean to have your full attention?”

He peers over his shoulder, his emerald-green eyes holding mine. “You’ll see.”

And he walks out, leaving me more confused than ever.

CHAPTER 43

SAIGE

For three days, something new happens.

Nothing bad.

Only good things.

My grandparents come to the house, and we talk—about Mom, Ireland, and a family I never knew I had. About afutureI never believed I’d ever have, and it is… surreal, that this is my life now.

It still doesn’t feel real that my life is… well… normal. As normal as it can be for a girl who’s descended from Fae and who has four shifter lovers.

I wondered at my love of wild growing things, and thinking it might have something to do with what I am, I asked my new grandparents. They weren’t surprised when I told them I felt like I could breathe better out in the overgrown, wild garden than I ever had in the city.

Mom was the same. At the end, just before she died, she loved to be out in the forest, at the cabin we spent so many happy summers together. I thought it was the memories that made her feel good. Now, I think it was more than that. I think it was her connection with nature that gave her a little more strength to fight the cancer ravaging her body.

Kade spoke of things going back to normal, of reopening the Cerberus, only it doesn’t happen. We stay at the house, and Harley comes over often. He stays in my bed, and it’s just us, talking, laughing, and figuring out this thing we have. I thought it was something special, something that might be forever, and the more time I spend with him, the more I’m sure I’m right. It is.

Sometimes I’m with Aden, Kade, or both, but I’m never with Dariel.

Small things start appearing in my room.

Things I know are because of Dariel.

A box of truffles.

A rose on my pillow.

Slippers beside my bed.

A candle on the edge of my bath.

Things that make me smile.

He never admits to leaving them, but I know it’s him. If I enter the kitchen and he’s already there sipping a mug of strong black coffee I can smell from the door, he nods. “Good morning.”

“Is it?” I ask him.

And he will always say, “You tell me.”

But I never do.

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