“Just remember, I nudge because I love, and because sometimes you need it to reach your true potential.”

“This is not the time!”

“Good call. Chat later. Bye.”

What’d she think, we were on a call?

Mr. Tom handed me a pen. I reached down and checked “yes.”

The body disappeared.

Elliot Graves was ten times more advanced than I was. More experienced. If he’d employed Sebastian as a peon, then he was probably leagues above him in terms of magical ability.

I gritted my teeth. I didn’t care. I would take him on, and I would end his meddling in my life.

Epilogue

“It’s been an enlightening visit, to say the least,” Kingsley said, standing with Austin and me in the front yard of Ivy House. The rest of my people were in the house, flying around the woods, or tending to the flowers. Hollace had a green thumb, it turned out, and an eye for how a garden should look. He was quickly becoming Edgar’s best friend. He didn’t seem excited about that prospect.

It was a week after we’d ended the threat of Kinsella, although we still had no idea what had happened to the mage. Austin’s territory was as buttoned up as it needed to be, and Kingsley was anxious to get back to his family and his own territory.

“I haven’t taken orders from anyone but my wife in a long time,” Kingsley said, his eyes twinkling and a grin on his lips. He was usually only this free with facial expressions at Austin’s house, but clearly he was making an exception. “Not to mention I got to see some fabled creatures, including a female gargoyle and a freaking basajaun.” He shook his head. “That thing was ruthless. I’m glad I got off his mountain alive. I would rather not tango with one of those.”

“I hear that,” Austin said.

“Can you handle it if I hug her?” Kingsley asked Austin.

“Yeah.”

They weren’t teasing.

Kingsley stepped closer and wrapped me in a bear hug, lifting me up and shaking me a little. I groaned as the air was squeezed out of me. He set me down and backed away, laughing.

“It was good meeting you, Jessie Ironheart,” he said. “Thank you for pushing my brother back to his family. We’ve missed him. Maybe now he’ll visit once in a while. And sorry about…” He pointed at the grass. “I don’t tend to like mages, but he was all right.”

I nodded, my guilt over Sebastian’s death still fresh. “Thanks for coming,” I said. “We couldn’t have done it without you.”

He clapped Austin on the back. “I figured I’d tell you here, in front of Jess. The people I brought knew going in that they’d have a choice to stay here and join your pack at the end of all this. I brought the guys and gals who never wanted you to leave in the first place, plus some newbies who need more room to advance than is available right now in my pack. All but a couple of them are going to stay.”

Austin’s eyes widened. “I can’t let you do that.”

“It’s done. Consider it a territory-warming present. Once you get everything official, throw a huge feast for everyone.”

“You’re too good to me, brother.” Austin put out his hand to shake.

Kingsley grabbed it and pulled him in closer, bumping chests and patting him on the back. “We’re family, and families stick together. We want to hear from you. Aurora especially wants to hear from her Uncle Auzzie.”

Austin nodded, his heart warm, his face unreadable. Kingsley nodded as though he knew how much his words meant to Austin, how much Austin had needed to hear them.

Kingsley gave me one last nod. “Take care of him, because he won’t take care of himself. And let him take care of you. It’s his job, and he won’t want to do anything else.”

“Okay.”

To Austin he said, “Don’t let her get into any trouble.”

“Yeah, right, as though I could stop her,” Austin replied with a laugh.

Kingsley looked at Ivy House one last time and then turned toward Austin’s waiting Jeep. Austin gave me a quick kiss.

“Will you be around later?” he asked.

“Of course. I just have to finally sign the papers to make everything official with Ivy House, and then I’m free to leave.”

“My house, then?” He chuckled softly and kissed me again. “I love you. See you tonight.”

He was striding away before I could respond. Which was maybe for the best. My heart fluttered with joy to hear it, but I was still afraid to say it. To feel it. It seemed too soon. It seemed not soon enough.

Shaking my head, I headed into the house, up the stairs, and into the office, the furniture still the same as it had been on my last visit. I sat in the creaking leather chair and took a deep breath, placing my hands on the desk.

“Mr. Tom?”

“You rang?” He stepped into the room.

I rolled my eyes. “The ledger, if you please.”

“Yes, miss,” he said, and I could tell he was almost giddy with excitement and trying not to show it.

He laid a large tome on the desk in front of me, years and years of markings contained within its pages. He opened to the last used pages, the neat scrawl only reaching halfway down the second page. The total number in all the combined accounts stared back at me.

“This is after the winery expenses, right?” I asked.

“Yes, as you will see here.” He traced a line farther up the page. “The cash has been sent to the escrow account. Tomorrow you go in to sign a few more documents and then it is all done.”

“Right.” I blew out a breath. “The blood oath is done, but I have to sign something, right?”

“Yes, for legal purposes.” He brought over a rolled-up parchment, flattening it out in front of me. He held out a fountain pen. “Make your mark at the bottom.”

A large X waited in front of a long line at the bottom of a document that was written in Latin or some other language I couldn’t read. The text was dirty red and looked suspiciously like dried blood.

“It isn’t blood, though, right?” I asked Mr. Tom.

“It is blood,” Ivy House said. “It is your blood, collected from the soil and transferred here after you assumed your power. You have but to sign, and it is done.”

I hadn’t put that much blood in the soil, but I didn’t see the point in saying so. They’d just tell me this could all easily be explained by magic.

I scribbled my name down.

Mr. Tom nodded, collected the paper, and rolled it back up. “Fantastic, miss. You are now officially the rightful heir to Ivy House. Congratulations. The Havercamps no longer have a claim to this house, not that Peggy wanted it anyway after she was denied.”

“Okay, then.” I stared at the ledger. “We’re going to automate this, I hope you know. Get a proper bookkeeping system up and running. Pay things online.”

Mr. Tom pursed his lips. “If you say so.”

“And this money…” I tapped the last number on the right. “I get that I can’t pass it down or anything, but are there rules on what I can spend it on? Can I, like, buy a vacation house?”

“Yes, and Ivy House has several vacation houses and castles already. I haven’t been to any of them, but the documents and details are in the filing cabinet. They probably all need work. Otherwise, you can do anything you like with it, miss, within reason. You can’t give it all away to Austin Steele, or anything like that, for example. You may donate to a reputable charity up to a certain percentage per year. And no, you cannot take it with you when you die. It stays with the house, and will be transferred to the next heir. But you can pay off Jimmy’s school tuition and your debts, and maybe buy yourself a nicer car and better clothes and fix up the furnishings.”

“Yes, yes, I get it.”

“Maybe a haircut and something besides sweats and jeans might be nice—”

“I got it. Fix myself up. Loud and clear.” I shook my head, letting it sink in. “I’m a billionaire.”

“As long as you are living, yes, you are a billionaire. One hundred and sixty times over. Not all liquid, though, let’s be realistic.”

I felt faint. “I might be the richest person in the world.”

“Those things always change, but you’ll certainly be one of them.”

“What a crazy life.”

“Yes, miss, I believe we covered that when you were trying to wrap your head around magic. Now, would you like to make any changes?”

I rubbed my eyes. “Give me some time to look through everything, Mr. Tom. I’m a whiz with a budget, not that I expressly need that skill now, but I need some time to sort through all this handwritten…stuff.”

“Yes, miss. I’ll bring up some coffee and snacks. Anything else?”

My head slid to what happened a week ago. To what would happen next month.

“No, thanks,” I said, because money could fix many things, but it couldn’t help me prepare for what I would be facing. I wasn’t sure anything could. I’d need to learn attack and kill spells, and if I didn’t basically use them before Elliot Graves could open his mouth, I’d be beaten before the duel started.

Because it would be a duel—of that I was certain—and I did not intend to lose.