I SLICE THROUGH THE WATER, LETTING THE WAVES pull my hair over my head. I sink as low as I can, breathing out the bubbles as I look up at the sun-dappled water.
Home.
My feet touch the sand, and I close my eyes.
No fear. No terror.
Just quiet.
And that’s nice, because there hasn’t been quiet in my life for a long, long while.
The world changed that night. Not just because the curse was broken, and every Vessel, Exposed, and Xanthous turned back into regular humans again. Dean lived, and so did Abel.
And he was wrong. People did care.
The Torch rioted, tearing down the walls and demanding justice. Abel Lassiter will be put on trial later this year, and Evelyn—newly human—is in a hospital, recovering. Vessels who were taking the antidote seem to make the transition back to human a lot more easily than those that didn’t. Probably because their minds were more preserved.
Those who have been declined for a long time . . . they didn’t make it. The curse ended the second I touched the ruby, and they just . . . dropped. I guess they weren’t human enough.
For a few days, I wondered if my parents would come home, looking for us. If they’d been among the ones that Abel reached through Evelyn. But they haven’t shown up yet. And I know, in my bones, that they probably won’t.
But we have a new family. And Dean is alive.
I push off the ocean floor and break the surface.
Seth rests on a surfboard that floats nearby, and I sneak up, tipping him with one mighty shove. He topples into the water next to me, emerging with a laugh as he pulls me close.
“Sailors spend their whole lives hoping to be pulled into the water by someone half as beautiful as you,” he whispers.
My legs wrap around his waist, and I brush my lips across his.
“Don’t those stories always end with the sailor getting eaten?” I whisper.
He shivers under my touch, and I smile against his lips. “If he’s lucky,” Seth growls.
We’re interrupted by the sound of someone calling to us from the beach.
Dean and Harlow jump out of the back of a truck driven by Lucia. Thomas and Rielle pull up alongside on bikes, and by the shouts of triumph, I can tell they were racing. Ragnar and Pollux sprint alongside Rielle—they’ve been by her side since Maddox died.
We’re going to have a bonfire tonight, and then I’m going to fall asleep in Seth’s arms.
This is the life I’ve chosen.
Seth hoists himself up on his board and holds out a hand to me.
“I’ll meet you there,” I say, and he starts paddling back to shore. I dip beneath the surface, eyes looking for her again. It’s a habit, even though I know she’s gone.
At peace.
I still say the words before I swim back to shore.
You will not choose my end.
And sometimes, I swear I hear the ocean whisper back.
For this heart is mine.