“Oh, wow, I did not remember you being so blunt!” Riza gasped.

Tamara laughed lightly. “Not to worry. I appreciate straightforwardness more than anything,” she said to Riza, then turned to Amelia. “I will stay on as Lady of the Lamias for as long as I live. I might find another Druid, someday, with whom to produce an heir, because I don’t want to put any more pressure on Eva.”

“What if you don’t find anyone?” Lumi asked. “The Druid population is still recovering.”

“Then I will have to groom a successor among my Lamias. You’ve already taken a good candidate under your wing, I’m afraid,” Tamara replied, winking at Nethissis. “But I’ll manage, eventually. I’ve spent too much time worrying about this. No more.”

Fallon took the black honey nectar pitcher from Herakles and offered Tamara a refill. “Would you like another one?” he asked, wearing a charming and confident smile. He’d had a lot to recover from as well, after Kabbah’s possession, but I could barely recognize him tonight. I had a feeling he’d had plenty of spiced rose water before coming to the party.

“Why, thank you!” Tamara replied, switching on her devastating charm.

The two seemed to click almost instantly. It made Eva smirk. “Well, I don’t know about you and the Druids, Mother, but I can definitely see you bagging a vampire-fae in the near future,” she said.

We all burst into laughter—except Fallon. He was too busy sinking into Tamara’s eyes to even notice us. But it didn’t matter. Whatever happened, going forward, didn’t matter. We would live through it, much like we’d lived through everything else.

We’d survived the apocalypse, and we’d become stronger together. Tamara was back in Eva’s life, and we had plenty of missions to look forward to. Peace reigned across The Shade, the In-Between, and the Supernatural Dimension. The threat to our existence had been eliminated, and we were smack in the middle of celebrating an engagement we’d already dreamed about six months ago.

Whatever came next, I welcomed it. We all did, fearless and eager to live, to love, another day.

Derek

Seeing everyone here tonight filled my heart with much-needed joy. Sofia and I had taken our own time away from it all to recover after the ritual. We’d needed a two-week break, which we’d spent in New Zealand, surrounded by rolling hills and colorful volcanic lakes. We’d come back somewhat refreshed, and we’d spent a lot of our time strengthening our family bonds.

The Novaks had grown tighter than ever, and the whole of GASP had grown with us, in a way.

We were looking at a whole new world, and even a new life, in a certain sense. I felt good, in general, but tonight that feeling had escalated to “amazing,” as I’d just seen Tamara reunite with her daughter—proof that, unlike the ritual-supporting Hermessi and the spiteful Spirit Bender, we, the living, could still change for the better, if given the right opportunity. Perhaps that was what had saved us. Our ability to change, to adapt… to evolve.

“What’s on your mind?” Sofia asked. We’d settled at a table close to Eva and Varga’s, joined by the rest of our family. Corrine and Ibrahim had offered to stay back at our treehouse and look after the Novak babies, claiming they’d had enough gatherings to last them a lifetime. They were old and tranquil souls, by nature.

“Nothing in particular. Just looking back at everything that happened to bring us to this point,” I said. A couple of tables away, Sherus and Nuriya were inseparable, lovingly gazing at each other, whispering and giggling, mostly unaware of the world around them. I was always overjoyed to see them, thankful that the fae king had survived.

“Technically speaking, the ritual wasn’t our first rodeo,” Sofia replied, her hand resting over mine on the table.

River, Ben, and the others were deep in conversation over the Earthly Dimension exploration missions, while the Lamia artists played their lyra instruments in the background. I found myself fascinated by the musical notes produced by the silky, tightly wound strings. Tamara had joined Eva and Varga at what was commonly referred to as the Death Crew’s table. Laughter rippled across the room, occasionally followed by cheers and the clinking of spiced rose water glasses.

“It was our biggest one yet, though,” I said to her, my nose bumping hers, softly. She sighed deeply.

“Yeah, you’re right about that. But we made it,” she replied, glancing to the side for a moment, before she set her sights on me again. “Maybe it’s time we address the adoption thing again, Derek. Not that I’m putting pressure on you, not at all… but are we still for it? Yea? Nay?”

We’d been so busy with the ritual’s physical and psychological fallout that we hadn’t had a moment left to discuss our initial plans of adopting a child from the human world. Having our original family back had been intense enough, for all the right reasons. But Sofia was right. It was time to address our plans, indeed. Only, I didn’t have the right answer for her, and she somehow guessed it before I could even think of what I might say.

“You want to wait a little while longer?” she asked. The question was more or less rhetorical, but I was still impressed by her finesse. Every day that went by, I loved this woman more. I wondered how much more I could love her, given my physical limitations. My heart might give out.

“I don’t want us to rush into it,” I replied gently. “We’ve been through hell, Sofia. I felt differently after Strava, for example. I was more than ready to go ahead with it when the first fae started to fall under the Hermessi’s influence. But we nearly lost our worlds. All of them. It could’ve all been gone in the blink of an eye. We did lose our son and a good chunk of our family, for a little while. Remember how that felt?”

Sofia’s smile faded. She gave me a brief nod. “I do.”

“I’m still reeling from that. Let’s… Let’s just take a few more months, okay? Just enough to look over our shoulders and wholeheartedly say that yeah, we’re ready.”

“I get it, Derek. The ritual drained us emotionally. We’d be rushing into it now. Had the ritual not happened, we’d have brought home a human baby already,” she said, relieving the pressure that had begun to gather in my temples. “But the ritual did happen. And it took its toll.”

I pulled her close, my lips pressing over hers in a sweet, heartfelt kiss. It was the best way to thank her for being so kind and understanding. I was truly the luckiest guy alive to have found her, all those years ago.

Lucas leaned in from my right, grinning like the devil. “So, no baby yet, huh?”

“You jerk. You’ve been eavesdropping?” I retorted, slightly irritated.

He laughed. “You’re at a table with your entire family. Did you not think we’d hear you?!”

Only then did I realize that the conversation at our table had died down a while ago. Our children, our grandchildren, our great-grandchildren, my brother, my sister, and each of their respective spouses had been watching and listening to us the whole time. Awkward silence reigned supreme for about a minute, until Rose broke it.

“You know what, Mom, Dad? You do what you want, when you both feel ready. We’re all behind you on this. You know that, right? Whatever you decide, there will be no support lacking from us.”

“And baby clothes. Chantal is already growing out of hers,” Vita replied.

“Who says they want a baby girl?” Lucas asked. “What if they get a strapping little boy?”

“Jericho’s growing out of his,” Caia said, smiling.

“Right. So there are options for baby clothes. Glad to see our evening devolve to this point,” Vivienne replied, slightly amused. “From exploring the neighboring galaxies to onesies. My, oh my, how we’ve fallen!”

The whole table exploded in a wave of laughter, drawing everyone’s attention. Riding the wave, Lucas cheered and raised his spiced rose water glass in the air, diverting the entire party back to its original purpose. “Cheers to the engaged couple, Eva and Varga!” he shouted. “Long may you two live!”

Naturally, it got everybody else applauding and cheering, as the young couple smiled and nodded and mouthed thank yous all around. I was so lost in the moment that I failed to see Amane and Amal get up from their table and walk toward ours, until Sofia drew my attention.

“The genius twins, our twelve o’clock.”

I smiled at them, though the looks on their faces were pretty enigmatic and rather difficult to read. Or maybe I’d relaxed too much from the spiced rose water. It did tend to disarm me, sometimes completely.

“Derek, Sofia, can we speak with you in private?” Amal asked.

Glancing around at the table, curious looks abounded. I gave Amal a brief smile. “Sure.” I got up, joined by Sofia, and we followed them outside and out of the party area. Moments later, we were surrounded by giant redwoods, the music barely a murmur somewhere behind us.

Amal and Amane had continued their research work on my blood, and I hoped they’d come up with something soon. Naturally, my heart was already in my throat, as both Sofia and I waited for them to tell us if they’d made any progress. I figured they must have, since we were out here.

“What’s up?” I asked, after watching the twins exchange encouraging glances, yet neither of them had spoken.

“We wanted to tell you this, first, and let you decide whether you’ll go public with it or not, given the delicate nature of the subject,” Amane said.

I blinked rapidly, trying to process. “Are you talking about the day-walker thing? You’re talking about the day-walker thing, right?” I’d asked the same question twice. Oh, how nervous I was, already, my mind practically glitching.

“Yes. And our recent discovery warrants your counsel,” Amal replied.

“Okay. Shoot,” I breathed, unaware that I was gripping Sofia’s hand a little too tightly until she squeezed back to warn me.

“We managed to isolate the day-walking protein,” Amane explained. “In a controlled environment, as an entity of its own. It doesn’t come from any known sources in the In-Between or the Supernatural Dimension. We did two trial tracking sessions, and they both came up empty.”

“Tracking sessions?” Sofia asked, her brow furrowed.