Flynn and I couldn't wait. Elijah and Logan did try to hold Flynn back for a moment to remind him that technically, we were required to stay until all the heads of the clans marched out of the regius atrium. It was a tradition of respect and cordiality.
But Flynn only glared at Elijah, held a middle finger to the doors of the atrium, before spurning on his feet and pushing his way through the crowd. Sharing a shrug with Archer, we followed him, Logan, Jasper, and Elijah on our heels (though Elijah's eyeballs had rolled quite the distance into the back of his head).
We bolted to their cars. Archer hopped into Flynn's ride and Logan pushed me into Elijah's while my little brother took a seat besides me. Before I knew it, the boys were racing their way from Drageryian Hall to Riveria Hospital and Treatment Center. Honestly, I was surprised neither of them got a ticket at the speed they were driving.
It was like the Dragons had some dire need to express their power through breaking speed limits and collecting tickets.
In the blink of an eye, Elijah was pulling into the parking lot just as Flynn was scrambling out of his car, Archer at his side, the two rushing into the hospital. Elijah tossed Jasper the keys after he stumbled out and was gone from our sight within seconds. As I climbed out from the car, I made the mistake of placing too much pressure on my sprained ankle, letting out a strangled cry while I slammed the door shut.
Logan paused by my side, placing his hand on my elbow, steadying me, as I sucked in a sharp breath. "Don't push yourself, princess. You shouldn't even be in heels."
"I'm fine, Mother," I scoffed. "I lasted this long, I can last anoth--"
I took a step and yelped again, cursing when my ankle refused to give me the support I needed. Jasper snickered at the irony while Logan heaved an exasperated sigh, shaking his head.
"Always the stubborn one, aren't you?" he asked. In a swift motion that took me by surprise, Logan swept me into his arms, ignoring my outburst of shock.
"Logan James Cross, let me down!" I protested the entire time Logan carried me into the hospital, Jasper laughing as he walked with us. The nurses and doctors gave us stares, mouths wide, some even giggling as Logan marched on past, but he paid them no mind.
"Cross, remember how we're not dating?" I hissed into his ear as we met Elijah by the elevator.
"Cute," my cousin winked. "Very low profile, you two. Hey, Logan, don't you have a girl back at home?"
Logan dropped me gently onto my feet, his hands lingering on my waist before they came up to ruffle my hair. He grinned down at me just as the elevators doors opened.
"She was my best friend when we were little, Elijah," Logan said, loudly enough for the passing nurses to hear. "You can't shame me for wanting to get close to her again."
The metal doors closed, allowing Logan to take my hand for the moment, squeezing it tightly. "You did well, princess," he murmured. "You impressed everyone up on the second floor. Little Eleanor Kingsley couldn't stop saying how she wanted to be just like you when she grew up. You can imagine how well that went with Lord Kingsley."
Jasper beamed at me. "You looked just like the paintings of Alexandra. For a second, it looked like your anxiety and stress never existed." Jasper beamed at me. Returning his smile, I pinched him on the cheeks and drew him close against me.
"Speaking of nobles--what did Fell want with you?" Elijah inquired, raising a brow. "The queen looked about ready to march after him. It too Lancelot and Lady Starkling to calm her down."
"Oh, you know Frederick Fell," I sighed just as the elevator doors opened up for the seventh floor. Logan dropped my hand and I limped out first, my eyes searching for Flynn and Archer. "It was the usual threat on how the Sparrows need to stay in line. 'You're breaking the law,'" I mocked, lowering my voice to a baritone. "'Watch yourselves or I'll make sure you won't get away with it.'"
Up ahead, Flynn and Archer were holding a quiet conversation with a doctor. Flynn's lips were tight as he nodded along to whatever the doctor was saying. His hands were shoved into his black pants and he kept glancing towards the door to Alec's room, his shoe tapping against the linoleum. Archer would nudge Flynn every second so that Flynn's attention would revert back to the doctor, though his eyes kept on straying.
We entered the waiting area, where Minnie and Zen rose to their feet, their faces tired but cheerful.
"Hey," Minnie greeted in a soft voice, taking my hand. "How are you feeling? Do you feel stressed? Do you want to lie down?"
"Minnie, she's not a piece of china," Zen said, making a face. "She's not going to crack every time she faces pressure."
"I'm being a good and concerned friend, Zen, unlike someone here."
"I am a great friend," scoffed Zen, who plopped himself onto the seat next to mine. "How'd the trial go? Did it feel great listening to Abigail admit to all the crimes she's committed? Do you feel better now that she's gone?"
He patted himself on the chest immediately, whispering, "I bring emotional support and attention, Minnie. Beat that."
Minnie flipped him off.
"The trial went fine," I interjected, pushing Minnie's hand down when a mother and her child walked past, both of them staring at me as they made their way.
"Though," added Elijah, "it did get a little strange around the end. I could've sworn from what you've reported to me, Park, that Abigail couldn't have been the one to organize the assassination attempts. We even discussed it during the Court meeting--a lot of people are firm believers that Abigail is protecting someone."
"There's a strong possibility," Logan chimed in. He, Jasper, and Elijah had sat across from us, and Logan had abandoned his normally straight posture to slouch in his seat so that his feet could kick my unharmed ankle. "Nathaniel kept his mouth shut on the details of Halloween and the incidents similar to that one. He wouldn't name anyone, not even Abigail."
"Wait," I spoke up. "Sophia left the country after the afternoon with Vincent, didn't she?" She's with her parents in London. If she's not in the room, Nathaniel doesn't have anything to encourage him to talk."
"I can give it a shot," offered Archer, who arrived before us, a distasteful look about him. "I haven't been in an XYZ interrogation for a while--remind me, future brother-in-law, are physical blows allowed?"
"How is he? Alec?" I asked, trying to stand up, but Minnie yanked me to my seat, her eyes flaring as she glanced down at my sprained ankle. Archer took the seat between Logan and Jasper, grinning at Logan's pink cheeks from Archer's nickname.
"His vitals are fine and his recovery is still on the track the doctors predicted he'd be on, so he's alright. He was kind of freaked out when he woke up, from what Flynn and I heard--there was a lot of screaming and punching until the idiot calmed down. We're giving them a moment." He lowered his voice and looked over to where Flynn had stood earlier, except now his figure was gone. "The two never really got a chance to talk out their differences back in Easkey."
Everyone could tell that Alec was beyond happy to see his brother, judging from the oh-so sweet tones emitting from his hospital room. Everyone within earshot--nurses, doctors, visitors, patients--winced every single time it was Alec's turn to speak. And it wasn't as though his words were discernible. If anything, Alec sounded like an outraged raven squawking at the top of his lungs.
When Sevastian and Iris showed up, Sevastian glared in the direction of the yelling for a good minute before asking, in all seriousness, "Can I knock him back into a coma?"
Our group sat for a while, waiting as the brothers dealt out their issues. The yelling finally did end, and we waited in silence, listening as the news delivered the outcome of the Blackewell v. Cimeria trial. The reporter announced the life-long sentence Abigail would be serving, but there was no coverage on where she would spending it.
I looked to Elijah and he answered, "Russia," in a hushed voice. "It was a unanimous decision. They didn't want anyone to know in case someone wanted to go after her or...help her escape."
Abigail wasn't fully redeemed in my mind. After all that she had done to her family and mine, after abandoning everyone whose loyalty she had manipulated, her redemption wasn't over. But she had tried in the end. I wish you the luck of Cimeria, Abigail Blackewell, I thought.
My mind was starting to take a turn onto a dark road as I began replaying her words over and over in my head, the warnings echoing in my ears. But before any sort of fear could kick in, Flynn joined the waiting room and cleared his throat, snapping my thoughts away from the future and back to the present.
Flynn looked somewhat dejected yet also pissed off. It was a foul gaze that had Minnie and Zen sinking against their chairs while Elijah and Jasper exchanged concerned looks. Archer rose to his feet and gingerly patted Flynn's shoulder, as though Flynn was a poisonous creature that even Archer was too afraid to upset.
"Is...is he okay?" I finally asked. Flynn shrugged half-heartedly.
"He wants to talk to you alone," he said, glancing towards the room he just came from. "Let's go or he'll start throwing a hissy fit about how I'm keeping his friends from him."
Logan saluted me, mouthing a 'good luck' as I got up and walked with Flynn down the hall while he kept a strong grip on my elbow, assisting me with my limp until we stopped by Alec's door. Flynn's shoulders remained slump, his jaw clenched as he played with the Darkwood ring on his finger.
"Hey," I said softly, poking him in the arm. "Did something go wrong?"
Flynn made a noise in the back of his throat. "My brother is a fucking idiot, that's what's wrong."
"Okay, but that's normal. I mean, did something else--"
"I can hear you two!" Alec shouted from within the room. Flynn cast an exaggerated eye roll then shifted us over to the other side of the hall so that our conversation could no longer be heard.
"It's just..." Flynn gave a frustrated sigh and shoved his hands into his pockets. "No matter what I tried to say, he's convinced that I purposely forgot about him and that...that I don't consider him family. He thinks that's why I never made an effort to find him."
There was a gleam in his pale eyes that didn't resemble the happy shine he had back in Drageryian Hall. His eyelids fluttered close and he leaned against the wall, a pained expression about him.
"He's not going to forgive me for a while, is he?" Flynn asked in a strained voice.
"You did leave him without explaining anything," I said. "It hurts when someone you've admired and loved your entire childhood picks up and leaves, and you don't even get a goodbye."
"But I did search for him," he pressed, squeezing the skin between his brows. "Up until I heard my little brother proclaimed dead, I looked everywhere. I didn't forget about him--"
"It's Alec." I gave a short laugh. "He's a stubborn, thick-minded idiot and it takes a lot to change his mind. But, he'll come around eventually. It's just a matter of building trust between the two of you. The boy actually can't hold a grudge. He warmed up to me soon enough even though we gave each other black eyes when we first met."
Flynn opened his eyes again and though his smile was small, it was warm and kind. "I can't...I can't ever stop thanking you for saving him, Park, from back on that ship and the fire. I don't know how things would've turned out if you two hadn't met."
"Hey." I gave Flynn's arm a confident squeeze as I headed back over to the room door. "It's a happy day. Go get something to eat and stop raining on the parade. He'll come around, Flynn. Don't you worry."
Flynn's smile became a little brighter at my words before he walked off, calling Archer's name as he did so. I stepped into the room and slid the door closed before I strode further into the room. The blinds, which had been drawn shut for the past few weeks, were now tied back to reveal the sunlight. The melting snow on the buildings glimmered like diamonds and I turned my eyes away from the brightness to meet Alec's jaded gaze.
"Fraternizing with the enemy, I see," he huffed, but he could barely keep his grin off his face."
"Says the supposed double agent," I retorted. For a minute, I stood there, smiling at Alec, feeling a rush of relief run through my veins. Then, Alec whispered my name and in a flash, I was perched by his side, leaning myself into his embrace, feeling his arms forming vices around me, his forehead resting on my shoulder.
"I didn't think I'd get to see you again," Alec confessed, his words thick with emotion. "After everything I've done and everything that's happened...I thought that that had been the end for me. For us."
"But I'm here," I reassured him. "We're all here. We're all alive, Alec. We made it out." Jubilance swelled in my chest and I clutched my friend tighter. We had beaten the odds. We had survived.
"I'm so sorry." His body was trembling as he drew away from me. Tears were brimming at the edges of his eyes, threatening to spill over. "I'm so sorry for keeping this all from you. For lying. For making you think that I was a traitor and for making you doubt yourself. I'm so sorry for everything. I put you at so much risk." He inhaled a shaky breath. "I put all of our lives at risk--I'm so stupid."
I shook my head, a crooked smile flickering onto my lips as I said, "Do you remember during the summer when we were caught by my grandmother snooping around my father's private office? And I said that if we were in a burning building, I would leave you there?"
He gave a strangled laugh and ran a hand through his black hair, nodding to my words. "And I said I wasn't going to count on you anyway."
As his hand came down, I took it into mine and squeezed the fingertips gently. His knuckles were still marred with red as his skin recovered from its cuts "You did what you had to do to help us catch Abigail. You put yourself in so much danger--more than you should have--to help protect my family and me. And for that, Darkwood, I would charge into way more than a burning building to make sure that you stay by my side."
He braved another crooked smile. "And I'll count on you to be there for me." He sat up a little straighter and rested his back against the wall, a relaxed looking coming across his face. The scars marking his skin had faded to a soft pink color. His bruisings were changing from plum splotches to yellow, his black eye now less gruesome as before.
"Look, Sparrow, I know I'm good looking, but do you think your boyfriend will appreciate all this staring?" Alec flashed me a smirk and winked obnoxiously at me. "Though, if you see Logan, tell him I'm sorry about punching him back at Easkey. I was forced to do it or else my cover would've been blown. He shouldn't be too mad, it was only one hit--"
"Speaking of my boyfriend and you working together," I cut off, narrowing my eyes at Alec. "I want to know what exactly possessed you to do something so reckless and dangerous without involving me and how exactly you pull this off."
Alec had the decency to look guilty. He cleared his throat and began to twiddle his thumbs as he glanced at me, his arrogance from before now morphing into nervousness.
"It was after you were submitted into the hospital and the nurse kicked us out. Archer was insistent on going back to the woods to search for any clues that group could've left behind. We, uh, we of got lost." Alec rolled his eyes at the memory. "Archer kept on driving further and further out of town until we were way up in the woods. Then he practically kicked me out of the car and forced me to walk."
"Oh, how tragic."
"It was nearing three in the morning, Sparrow, I wanted to sleep." Alec made a face at me. "But Archer was desperate or clues, so we took a hike before the crack of dawn. Your brother and I ended up getting separated and I, well...I kind of fell down into this ditch. It turned out Archer had been right--this guy named Daniel had been hiding in the ditch, avoiding XYZ while waiting for his ride. He pulled a gun on me, thinking we had tracked him down. But I saw it as an opportunity to learn some things, so I started spewing bullshit on how much I still hated the Sparrows and how I've just been milking them for the benefits, soaking in all their secrets, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike."
Alec quickly averted his gaze from me, casting them down onto his hands. "I hadn't meant a word, but it worked so well. Daniel believed every single thing I said, and told me that he would be back with a way to help me out. He ran off, and I couldn't stop him. I told Archer, but instead of alerting XYZ, Archer wanted to wait and see how our cards played out.
The next day, Marila contacted me. She said that if I wanted to return to my true family, I had to prove myself. She gave me a location to arrive to within three days and I had to bring valuable information or else they would punish me by hurting someone I cared about. After that phone call, Archer's plans fell into motion.
Apparently, he'd been working on bringing the fight to our enemies for months, trying to figure out a way to lure them beyond their walls of security and anonymity. But he needed an inside man capable of changing their mind as well as uncloaking their shroud of invisibility. So Archer instructed me to tell them where the Halloween group was being held, and we continued to feed them bits and pieces of crucial information as time went on.
With you out of town, Archer didn't have to worry about anyone getting to you. He just made sure that no civilians or agents were harmed, so he would call Lancelot Cross and offer his 'Dragon expertise,' influencing Lancelot to override Six' control over the city and alter a few things to prevent casualties. Over the month of November, I skipped school to drive out of town to work with Daniel, lending him information while encouraging Marila over the phone to make a final move. They needed to believe that the only chance for change was if everyone stopped hiding. They never suspected a thing."
Alec swallowed, the lump in his throat bobbing. "Right before we roped Logan into flying to Cimeria with us, Marila gave me a call and wanted me to help with the plan to break out their members being detained at XYZ.
That was a little tricky. Archer had to extend his plans to Lancelot so that we could pull off the stunt without ruining my cover. Files had to be transferred secretly and equipment had to be moved down to lower levels for when the explosions went off, but it worked. We got them free and no one suspected me. Then...things got a little strange.
Marila called to thank me for my help. But she also did it to tell me that her boss, since I didn't know it was Abigail until I came to Easkey, was getting impatient. She wanted results. She wanted for everything to end once and for all--and she wanted to be on top. Marila commanded that I reveal my betrayal to you. She was confident that it would destroy your morale and...it did."
His voice was cracking and he hurriedly cleared his throat, rushing on with his story. "Archer had to bring your father into the scheme by then or else I would've been tossed out from the palace and handed over to the authorities. Then Archer began to cement the rest of his plan. Our enemies were stepping out now. All we needed to do was to bring the fight to their doorsteps. I was to gather as much information about the whole ordeal as possible while changing as many factors as I could in order to sway the outcome in our favor.
I suggested Easkey because I knew Fly--that bastard lived in Ireland. Marila had wanted Archer as hostage because she figured, after losing him for so long, your family would do anything to get him back. But I convinced them to use Logan, because the only way Archer Sparrow was getting kidnapped was if he handed himself over. It would've raised a red flag. I was already pushing the plan so far back to allow Archer to finish tying up his loose ends that my intentions were starting to be questioned. I couldn't do anything else by then.
The day of the formal, I filled Logan in on everything, and when the night began, everything fell into place. Six orchestrated the attack on the agents as a red herring for you while I 'kidnapped' Logan and took him out of town. And well...you know how the rest of that story goes."
In the silence that stretched on between us while I tried to digest all of Alec's words, his heart monitor was the only noise, beeping rhythmically in the background. A heartbeat that was almost lost to all of the mayhem and fire back in Easkey.
"You see, this is why you should've signed up for those gymnastic classes Elijah mentioned," I finally joked, and Alec laughed, leaning against the wall as he did so, his smile lighting up his face.
But as the giggles died away, I took a deep breath and confronted the problem that had plagued me for months: "I don't understand why my trust had to be broken in order for them to make a move. Why did I have to be kept in the dark?"
"Because you, Sparrow, can't replicate genuine trust," Alec answered, his tone quiet. "They were looking for signs that I had done my job. Six was watching all the time. They needed you to seem weak and discouraged. A Park Sparrow blazing and full confidence leaves no room for victory for anyone besides herself. They needed your state of mentality weak enough that they could manipulate you, control you. You couldn't know the truth because then you still would've trusted me. You had to mean your hatred, because when you truly trusted me, Park, before all of this...it was nothing like the act you put on afterwards."
And Alec looked at me straight-on, his expression more honest and open than it had ever been before. "Believe me when I say that the worst part wasn't having them beat me black and blue for leaving in the first place or having to hand over information to the enemy, fake my loyalties to them. It was the worst when I had to look into my friend's eyes and know that she hated me. That she didn't trust me. That she thought I threw everything she had done for me into her face. I thought I was alone again."
"You're not alone." I took his hand, my lips reaching from ear to ear. "Not anymore. I forgive you, Darkwood, for being so reckless, stupid, impulsive, careless--and for not letting me help out."
"Will a punch in the face work after I heal?"
"You deserve three."
"I'll settle for two."
As we burst out laughing and pretended to shake on the deal, the door slid open with a bang and a whole parade began to file in. Archer led the group, saluting me as he sank into the seat by Alec's bed. Elijah skipped in with Jasper by his side, the two of them sitting down by the windows, their smiles as radiant as the sun. Logan sat down by me, pretending to crush Alec's air-blown kiss in his direction while Zen and Minnie pushed Iris into the room. Hauling up the rear was Sevastian, who was dragging Flynn in by the collar of his shirt.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Alec tensing up at the sight of Flynn, who was trying to fight off Sevastian. He was struggling with so much strength, but with no avail, until he pulled off his blazer and slipped through his t-shirt, stumbling to the floor without an item of clothing on his chest.
Sevastian seized the clothes and tossed them to Iris while Flynn leapt to his feet, looking murderous.
"Give it back," he demanded.
"No. I'm admiring the ugly."
"You see, I'm the good-looking Darkwood," Alec stage-whispered, though it caught the attention of his half-brother.
"Oh, right, you got all the good genes in the family. I'm surprised no one ran away screaming when they first saw you," Flynn drawled, rolling his jaded eyes as Iris handed Flynn back his clothes with a sympathetic smile.
"I'm shocked no one's still screaming when they look at you. You're positively hideous," Alec shot back.
"If I'm hideous, then you're--"
"Let's just establish right here and right now," Archer disrupted, ending the Darkwoods' cacophonous voices, "that both of you are ugly. Can we move on now? Like how I'm the most attractive--"
"So, Darkwood," Minnie sang as I punched Archer on the arm, "you won't believe what you've been missing out on."
Alec did perk up at the topic, and we all took turns describing the past few weeks to him. Archer, with the grudging help of Flynn, listed off the events following Easkey. Minnie and Jasper explained the tabloids and news reports would have to face. Logan relayed the news about Sophia and her contribution to XYZ while Sevastian praised Vincent for being so strong against the press. Zen, Minnie, and Alec pressed for exact details on the trial, and as the topic came to a close on Abigail's sentence, Archer turned in his chair to look at me.
"I heard about the commotion with the nobles on a trial for Alec," he started, arching a brow. "I also heard about Frederick Fell and this private meeting with Abigail Blackewell. Is that why you came out so freaked out? Did they say something to you?"
I lifted my head off Logan's shoulders as he gave my hand a tight embrace at the mention of Abigail.
"Frederick Fell was the same as ever. Anytime I screw up, he always appears, ominously warning me like he's Professor Trelawney and I'm Harry Potter, reminding me that the law will be enforced," I said while Jasper nodded to my words. He and I, despite him not publicly carrying the title of Sparrow, had our air share of angry lectures from various nobles that were displeased with our behavior.
As though their own children weren't caught throwing rambunctious soirées that involved a lot of alcohol, illegal substances, and miscellaneous factors that were just as bad as my escapades.
"But Abigail..." My voice trailed off as the morbid memory of our meeting was pulled back to the surface. The cheer and relief that came with Alec's awakening was fading rapidly as I relayed all of her words to everyone. The energy from before ebbed away until nothing but a grim atmosphere hung in its wake when I finished speaking.
"How do we know she's not just lying?" Logan asked, unaware that he had inched even closer to me. "What if this is her last play against you, to cause paranoia as revenge?"
"I wouldn't put it past her," added Elijah in a wary tone. "In all of my years of knowing her, Abigail has always had an agenda behind everything she does. This could be a bluff or payback for imprisoning her."
"After everything she's done, Park," Zen spoke up, "you really think she can be trusted?"
"No," I answered honestly. Some part of me, though it was shrinking away by the hour, couldn't find it in me to believe her. "But the facts are there. Her story lines up. We can't pass this off as some pathetic attempt to scare us when it could be a legitimate threat."
"She's right," Sevastian agreed, his Russian accent slipping into his tone. His brows were furrowed, eyes honed into slits while his pale lips were set into a thin line as his gaze danced over to Iris, a focused glint to his stare.
"Irissa, do you remember the task we were sent out on a couple months ago, when it was reported that someone had snuck into Drageryian Hall to steal a bunch of files?" he asked.
"Don't call me Irissa." Her smile was passive-aggressive. "And yes. We got the files back and handed the man over to the government--after you nearly strangled him, if I remember correctly."
"Do you remember what he said when we caught him?" Sevastian pressed. "He said that there was something big in store for the nobles of Cimeria. Retribution would arrive soon. At the time, I thought he was joking, trying to spook us into letting him go. But Abigail never wanted retaliation, she only wanted power. She only targeted Park."
"Sevasatian," Archer said. "That man you found--did he happen to have a black tattoo on his forearm?"
Sevastian was quiet for a minute or two before he responded with a slow nod. "It was a sharp design and curled up his skin. But it wasn't Jonathan. I would've kept him for you to have your final word."
"No, I know it wasn't Jonathan because Flynn was chasing him through Florence at the time." Archer bit his bottom lip. "But he isn't the only one with that tattoo, it seems."
"Marila had one," I recalled.
"So did Daniel," Alec said.
"As did about a handful of the people back in Easkey," Logan concluded.
Elijah blew out a breath. "So Abigail was right. There's another power out there hungry for blood. Our blood. And they want to start--"
"--with my sister," Jasper and Archer finished, both of them glancing at me with a glint in their eyes like sunlight upon a sword's sharp edge.
The mood was bleak as the minutes ticked on by. Everyone knew now that this wasn't over. We had locked away one source of trouble, but now another enemy had surfaced. It was lurking in the shadows with a much more vindictive purpose. Death and retribution, I thought. Abigail seemed like child's play compared to the horrors I imagined this group would be up to.
"I, for one, don't really care if they're hungry for blood," Flynn spoke up, shattering the silence. A manic grin spread onto his lips. "I can't wait to meet them."
"Flynn, you need to stop smiling when you say those kinds of things," Minnie sighed.
"My smile's been said to light up the darkest corner in the world, Minnie Mouse, so don't stop me."
"Flynn's right," Sevasatian declared. "Why should we be scared?"
Iris nodded. "I've put away demons and monsters. I'll do the same to them."
"And if they're touching a hair on my little Sparrow's head, they can think again," Archer threatened, earning the nods of Elijah and Jasper.
Alec bumped me with his unbroken leg, a confident, resilient look about him that I hadn't seen for a while, and it brought a similar smile to my face as I looked at him, remembering what I was like the summer this all began.
"We've got your back, Sparrow," he said. His gaze met everyone's in the room before landing on mine again. "You're not in this alone. You don't have to be scared. "
Everyone began to speak up and I started to laugh as Logan joined in on the snowballing announcements of bravery and determination. It even turned into a competition when Alec and Flynn began to make statements that grew steadily more violent and tragic. Jasper stared at us all with an aghast look, rubbing his face when Minnie, the sanest of us all, hopped onto the bandwagon.
I hadn't realized that my fear had been so obvious, but it was so hard to hide it. Finding strength now was a chore after everything I'd been through. I was a walking mess from the fire, my symptoms of trauma a clear sign of that. It was becoming difficult to be who I was and that itself frightened me to the very core.
But Alec was right--they all were. I should've have to be so afraid. Maybe it was insane for all of us to sound so eager to march back into hell after just escaping it. But that was how we lived. Because at the end of the day, we were all alive. No matter how awful our chances were, no matter how insane and reckless we all turned out to be, our survival rate still remained at one-hundred percent.
All eyes turned to me and I realized that I had yet to make my own idiotic declaration of courage and unnecessary ferocity. Logan took my hand again, his crooked smile on his lips as his head tipped towards the group.
"Come on, Sparrow," he said. "Where's your sense of adventure?"
The nightmares might not be over just yet, I thought as I looked at everyone, but we'll face them. We'll overcome them, just like we've always had and always will.
I grinned, feeling more like Park Sparrow than I had in months.
"This kingdom is ours. Anyone who thinks otherwise will have hell to pay."
* * *
Was this cheesy? Probably. But hey, cut me some slack--this was the last chapter of "I'll Protect You." I allowed myself some room for cheesiness because after all, it is what this story was built on.
Yes, you heard me right--the last chapter. I actually do have an epilogue because I like epilogues, epilogues feel complete to my kind of writing and it gives me one final chapter in which I tie everything up. To those of you who continue to read this series of Park Sparrow and Her Shenanigans, it'll give you something to enjoy while you wait--a happy note. To those of you who will be finishing this story once and for all and will be telling yourself, 'Enough is enough,' the epilogue, to you, will be my way of saying goodbye.
I'm sentimental, sue me.
Hopefully, the epilogue will be up soon--I do have SAT's this weekend and I haven't studied at all, so I'll be cramming all day and night.
wish me luck aaand ciao for now -- nghi