TENN
Tenn stood in silence, Aidan at his side, staring at the place Devon and the Dark Lady had been.
Seconds had turned to minutes, and he still wasn’t certain what he’d seen.
Fire on the horizon, brilliant and bright.
And then, Devon before them, the air around him rippling like water on a lake. Staring down the Dark Lady. Before—
“Are they dead?” Aidan asked.
“I don’t know.”
One moment the Dark Lady and Devon had been standing there. The next, they were gone. Only space and silence.
He and Aidan didn’t move. Moving felt like it would shatter a dream. Only Tenn couldn’t decide if it was a dream or a nightmare. The Dark Lady was gone, but so was his friend.
Dreya and Kianna appeared later in a swirl of magic.
They were holding hands.
“Did he—?” Dreya asked.
“He undid her,” Tenn replied. “They both vanished.”
“Of course,” Dreya whispered. She paused and looked at the emptiness. “All Spheres have a price. A blowback for their use. Maya’s must have been one of balance. Any act would require an equal and opposite payment. That is why the Dark Lady did not kill with Maya. To do so would have destroyed herself. She had the greatest power in existence, but could not herself wield it to kill.” She sniffed. A single tear traced her cheek. “Devon gave his life to end hers.”
Light and power flared above Outer Chicago, and moments later, Jarrett stood in their midst.
“Is it over?” His face was bloodied and scratched, and despite everything, Tenn wanted nothing more than to reach out and heal those cuts. “The Dark Lady and the Wight—”
“They’re gone,” Tenn said. “Along with Devon. He...he was the one who destroyed the Dark Lady.”
“And I,” Kianna said, stepping forward with a bow, “killed the Wight.” She winked at Aidan. “May not be the first person in history to kill a Kin, but I’m definitely the first to shoot a Wight between the eyes. Suck on that.”
Aidan rolled his eyes.
Jarrett took a step closer to Tenn. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but there was nothing to say.
It felt like this should have been a triumph. Surely, somewhere, other Hunters were celebrating.
But here, in this circle, they bowed their heads, paying tribute to the one who gave his life to save all of theirs.
“I don’t get it,” Aidan said.
They sat alone in one of the remaining rooms. The others had all gone off on their own. Dreya and Kianna, still holding hands. And Jarrett, to find Cassandra and deliver the news.
The Dark Lady was gone.
The threat was over. For good.
“What don’t you get?” Tenn asked.
“I thought...” Aidan flicked a small flame around his fingertips. “I thought that it was supposed to be us. Or one of us. You know. Who killed her.”
Tenn nodded.
“Me, too. But I guess... When I was with the Violet Sage, she told me it wasn’t about being the Chosen One. It was about choosing to take up the call. It was about all of us. I guess it didn’t matter who decided to attune to Maya. It just mattered that someone did.”
“Yeah, but. That still doesn’t explain why you were sent to find me.”
It made Tenn think about what Jarrett had said. Or, a variation of it. “Some people think they know what the gods want. But I don’t think it’s possible. We worked together to find the runes to truly attune to Maya. If we hadn’t found each other, we never would have been able to do that. Maybe that was why—we needed to see the light and the dark in order to end things.”
“Maybe,” Aidan said. He watched the flames dance. Tenn thought maybe that was the last of their conversation. He found it strange that he’d spent so much time around this guy, and this was the first time they’d truly talked. At least, as equals, and not as enemies. “Do you miss him?”
“Who?” He knew.
“Tomás.”
Tenn sighed. He tried not to think of the Kin. After all, Tomás was gone, and there was no changing the past—besides, he was a monster. Even if the monster had treated him like a prince. He had Jarrett; Jarrett, who had apologized, who had asked to start over. He’d also lied to and imprisoned Tenn. Tenn still wasn’t certain what that meant for the two of them. With Tomás, he had always been the prey, had always been the one toyed with. At least with Tomás he always knew where he stood.
He hated to admit it, but there would always be a part of him in love with Tomás. Or, at least, in lust. Tomás was the embodiment of all his darkest desires, the ones even Tenn hadn’t known he’d harbored. It was hard to ignore just how powerful that was, even when it had been used against him.
“I do,” Tenn said. “He made me feel—”
“Alive.”
“Yeah. Alive. Do you?”
“Bastard tried to kill me,” Aidan said. Emotions flickered over his face. Not one of them was anger. “But yeah. I do. I probably shouldn’t have, you know, killed him like that.”
“I don’t know. It was dramatic. I think he would have appreciated that at the very least.”
Aidan watched the flame a bit longer, sighed, and let the sparks die.
“What happens now?” he asked. “I doubt that was all the Howls in existence, and you heard Kianna—so long as we have magic, there will be people out there who will abuse it. Before long, another Dark Lady or, I don’t know, Dark Lord, will show up, and it will be hell all over again.”
“You almost sound sad about that. I thought you liked killing?”
“It just means none of us are out of a job yet. Besides, there’s still the Church to contend with. I don’t think they’re going to be happy to learn their little secret’s out. Can’t imagine they’ll have many followers when the world realizes the Dark Lady was one of them. And that they’d made a deal with the Kin.”
A knock on the door. Tenn knew who it was even before he opened his senses to the runes that bound them. He opened the door with a pulse of Earth, and Jarrett stepped in.
Jarrett paused when he realized it was the two of them. He looked younger then, awkward. The cuts on his face had been cleaned up and healed. With a pang, Tenn realized he was jealous he hadn’t been the one to do it.
“Sorry.” Jarrett looked to his feet. He actually seemed sorry. “Didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“You weren’t,” Aidan said. He stretched and took a step to the door. “I was just leaving.”
“Leaving?” Tenn asked. His heart fell. They were finally on good terms. Could finally start pooling their knowledge.
When he saw the resolve in Aidan’s eyes, however, he knew better than to push. There was still a gravity between them. Aidan could go to the ends of the earth, and they would still find themselves back within each other’s orbit.
“I’m back in America. I can finally go find my family. Or, you know—”
“Yeah,” Tenn said, remembering his own parents, trying to remember them as they would want, and not as corpses or toys of the Dark Lady. “I know.”
“Do you think Kianna will go with you?” Tenn asked.
“Nah. I think she’s finally found a reason to stick around.”
“And you?”
“I don’t stick around.” He grinned. “But I’ll be back. Haven’t you realized? We’re the chosen ones. We’re bound to be together.”
He patted Jarrett on the shoulder and walked out the door.
Jarrett watched him go. Tenn didn’t know what to expect from his former lover. But then Jarrett chuckled.
“I can’t pretend I’m sad to see him go,” he said when Aidan was out of earshot.
“I heard that!” Aidan yelled from down the hall.
Well, almost out of earshot.
Tenn laughed.
“I don’t think that’s the last we’ll see of him.”
“Of course not. I wouldn’t be so lucky.”
Jarrett went silent. An awkward, heavy silence that hung between them.
Jarrett had asked if they could start over. This felt like starting over. It felt like they had never seen each other before. And maybe they hadn’t. Tenn had always been the chosen one in Jarrett’s eyes. Now, he was just another human. Just like Jarrett.
“Can I sit down?” Jarrett asked.
Tenn scooted over on the bed and patted the cover. Jarrett sat awkwardly.
Neither of them spoke. Tenn had no idea what to say.
It was Jarrett who broke the silence.
“You may have gotten your wish.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s over. We can have a normal life now.”
“This will never be over.” Tenn’s voice was more bitter than he meant it to be. He tried to soften it. “And we’ll never be normal.”
Jarrett nodded.
“But I’m okay with that. It will keep things interesting.”
“That it will,” Jarrett said. He put his hand on top of Tenn’s. “That it will.”
Despite the last few days, Tenn didn’t flinch away. Jarrett’s hand was heavy and warm on his. Comfortable. Tenn leaned his head on Jarrett’s shoulder. Closed his eyes. Tried to imagine a new future. And then, when he realized it was futile, he let the thought go.
They sat in silence, listening to each other’s breath, letting the future unfold on its own.
For once, that was enough.
That was enough.