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Champagne and sparkling cider was brought out, congratulations and hugs exchanged, and through it all, Von never left my side. He held tight to my hand even when Mariang practically leapt into his arms with excitement. She attacked me with the same fervor. “Now you’re legally my sister! We’re really sisters! I have a sister on paper! Like, a true sibling!”
“Oh, babe,” I grinned as I hugged her. “You were my sister the first day I met you.”
I warned Danny with a silent threat in my look not to be a jerk to Von, but when he stuck his hand out to his brother, there was no note of animosity to be found. His shoulders were relaxed, his face – well, he still looked a little monster of Frankenstein-ish, but there was no aggression that surfaced. He shook Von’s hand politely and then pulled me in for an awkward hug, as if he’d only observed the social norm from afar. “It’s about time you caved and joined our family. You’re already one of us, October Grace Vandershot.”
And just like that, I belonged. After being displaced so many times, I couldn’t put this powerful feeling on a shelf to examine later. It flowed out of my tear ducts, brimming over with happiness I had not been prepared for. Von was giving me himself, which was gift enough, but he was also giving me a family with a real mama and more brothers than I could ever dream of. I would get to keep Mariang and Ezra, which was a bigger treasure than the crazy square-shaped diamond on my finger.
The awkward pat on the back shrug-hug Danny had started mutated into an actual embrace as my tears dotted his shoulder. I released Von’s hand and clung to Danny, knowing my surly big brother wouldn’t lie to me and tell me this was forever if it would all implode in a day.
“It’s alright,” Danny promised me. “No need to cry. You’re really so distraught over becoming one of us?”
I laughed through my tears. “I never dreamed I’d get this lucky.”
“It’s got nothing to do with luck. It’s you we love.” Danny’s declaration rang in my chest and made September do a little roll that even Danny felt. “Wicked! Did you feel that? Did she just kick me?”
I took his hand and placed it right on the money spot so he could feel her again. His smile couldn’t be contained or tucked away when September punched him square in the center of his hand, like a miniature high-five. The others were still clapping Von on the back and teasing him about the disco ball he’d bought me, but Danny and I were having a solid brother-sister moment. Danny had emotion in his eyes – real, consuming emotion as he leaned down to whisper in my ear. “I promise you, I’ll watch over September. I’ll help Von keep her safe. I’m by your side through it all.”
Danny’s declaration was fierce and unexpected, drawing me tighter into his arms. I don’t know when it was that we became friends who swore oaths of loyalty to each other, but here we were. “Luckiest cousins in the world, right here,” I said, pointing to Mariang’s barely-there belly and my bulbous one.
Danny lowered me onto the couch and lifted my feet to rest on the ottoman, being careful with me, as if I was precious and breakable. He sat on the arm of the couch, holding my hand to pull for me until Von flopped down on my other side to take his place. “My fiancée,” Von breathed, enraptured by the word itself. “Isn’t she beautiful, Danny?”
Danny drained his champagne. “It’s no surprise you married up.”
Ezra noticed my discomfort as I shifted on the couch, trying to find a spot that didn’t make my back hurt. “Where’s my head? This isn’t bedrest. Up the stairs with you, young lady. If the doctor said bedrest, this couch hardly counts as a suitable mattress.”
Ezra and Danny helped me to stand, leading me out of the living room and into the foyer. My eyes passed over the small table that usually had flowers on it, or someone’s keys resting there. I was walking so slow that at first no one noticed I’d stopped.
Amidst the joy and bliss of the moment, the only sound I heard was my heartbeat thrumming in my ears. My mouth went dry as the vast expanse of the mansion felt like it was closing in around me on all sides.
There it was – the black box from my dreams. As big as a shoe box, and bound with hard, black leather. I’d never seen a box like that apart from when Philip presented me with the weed inside. “What... I... What is that?” I asked, not bothering to hide my fear. It was one thing when Von and I conceived after having dreamy dream sex. It was quite another when a completely fictitious man gave me a pretend present that showed up in real life.
Ezra straightened, leaving me to retrieve the box, and letting Von take his place on my other side. “This came from Captain Finn while you were out.”
“It’s... I... Um, it’s not supposed to be here.”
Von squeezed my hand in a threat. “I swear, if there’s a ring inside that box, he’s too late. You’re already spoken for.”
“It’s not a ring inside,” I mumbled, unable to take my eyes off the box. “It’s a himila weed.”
The entire room gasped as one. Ezra stepped back, confused. “How can you possibly know that? I left the box sealed. Did Captain Finn tell you he was going to bring you one? How did he even acquire it?”
I shook my head, unable to make sense of how the box got here, how Finn got his hands on it, and how a fake weed in a fake box was somehow real. “If there’s a weed inside, I want Finn here right now. I mean, before anything else happens in the world. Before the next person breathes, I need Finn here to answer for this.”
Ezra’s furrowed eyebrows told me he didn’t take me as seriously as he should. “How do you even know what the himila weed is? I’ve never known a woman in my lifetime who’s taken it. It’s reserved for queens, and impossible to find. How did Captain Finn get his hands on something thought to be extinct at best, or dismissed entirely as a myth?”
Danny was tensed as if readying for an attack. “Just open it. It’s probably another book. You’re getting yourself worked up about something that doesn’t exist anymore.”
I gripped Von as Ezra presented me with the box like a jewelry salesman. I released both brothers and reached forward, unbuckling the leather latch without breathing, without blinking and without any answers.