Gunmetal Magic (Kate Daniels #5.5)(97)
Author: Ilona Andrews

“I just realized you died on me twice.” Raphael rolled to his feet and staggered off.

“Where are you going?”

“I need a minute.”

He stumbled into the bushes and I heard him vomit.

A shadow came over me. Roman sat on a log next to me. He was carrying something long and wrapped in plastic.

“Nice guy,” Roman said. “An ass**le, but he loves you.”

“I love him, too.” I petted his hand. “Thank you for everything. I had fun.”

“I had fun, too.” He grinned. “Look what I got.” He pulled the plastic back. The Bone Staff.

“You got it?”

He nodded. “Spent an hour digging through that clay. Worth every minute.” He leaned over and kissed my cheek. “I’ll see you around. You call if you need anything, yes?”

“Yes,” I agreed. “You call me, too. I owe you some help. As long as I don’t have to sacrifice any babies, I’ll be there.”

“I’ll count on it.”

He walked off and Raphael took his place, rinsing his mouth with water from a canteen. Around us, the shapeshifters were herding the snake people into a group. I was covered in mud, blood, and swampy muck. Raphael looked even worse, his hair smeared with gore. I really wanted to go back home, take a shower, and sleep for a year.

“Help me off the log?” I asked him.

“No. We’re going to get you a nice stretcher and carry you down to the boats.”

“I’m okay to walk. My chest hurts a little, but I can make it.”

“You are certifiable,” he told me. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a plastic bag.

“What’s this?”

“I swore that if we made it through today, I would do this.” Raphael pulled a small plastic box out of the bag and got down on his knees in the mud.

This was crazy.

He opened the box. A white engagement ring with a band shaped like a beast’s paw lay on a small velvet pillow, with a beautiful sapphire clasped in its tiny white claws.

“I’m f**ked up,” he said. “I have many faults. But I promise if you marry me, I will love you and take care of you for the rest of our lives.”

I stared at him.

“If you put up with me, I will put up with whatever you can throw my way,” he said. “Bad days, good days, ‘I’ll cut you if you look at me the wrong way’ days. I’ll take them all.”

I knew I had to say something.

“If you kill her with this after everything I’ve done,” Doolittle said behind me. “You will never leave this swamp.”

Raphael searched my face, anxious. “Andi?”

“Yes,” I told him. “In sickness and in health, poor, rich, I don’t care.”

He was still looking at me, as if he hadn’t heard.

“Yes, Raphael.” I laughed or cried, I wasn’t sure. “Yes.”

“Put the ring on her, you fool,” Doolittle said.

Raphael slipped the ring on my finger and I hugged him.

“I’d kiss you,” Raphael said. “But I need to brush my teeth and I’m covered in blood.”

“I don’t care,” I told him. “Kiss me anyway.”

EPILOGUE

My Pack admittance ceremony was held on Tuesday in the Pack’s main gathering place, a large room deep below the Keep, where the terraced ground sloped in “steps” toward the stage with the metal fire pit. I’d heard Kate describe it before, but I had never seen it. I thought about dressing up, but it seemed kind of pointless. Whichever outfit I wore, I would still be me and that’s what really counted.

A few minutes before ten p.m., Martina knocked on the door to the small room where I was asked to wait. “It’s time.”

I followed her down the stairs, lower and lower. I had no idea the Keep went that deep underground.

Finally she stopped before a solid door. “Nervous?”

“Not really.” I had spent the morning sitting in a small room with Raphael and the families of the four murdered shapeshifters, telling them the whole long story. The Pack had rounded up the snake people. It didn’t take long for the truth to come out: Raphael’s crew was murdered by Saii, the priests. They were the only ones with poison glands. The rest of the snake people had fangs, but their bites were hardly fatal. All six of the Saii were dead. I took out Gloria, Roman and I had killed Sanchez on the bridge, and the four remaining perished before our battle with Apep. The Pack loaded the remaining cultists and what little baggage they had onto the boats and shipped them under armed escort out of the Pack’s territory. They were forbidden to return. Derek oversaw the convoy and said that most of them seemed relieved. The Saii had worked them like slaves.

I got to hold Baby Rory again. We made a pact, he and I. He would grow up to be kind and strong, and I would make sure that his clansmen would never mistreat him or break his bones.

I was able to look Nick in the eye when I told him that the people who had murdered his wife would never again hurt anyone else. He thanked me. This ceremony paled in comparison.

“Last chance to turn back,” Martina said.

I knew what waited behind the door. Raphael and his mother. A few members of Clan Bouda. Kate and Curran. My friends, my alpha, my mate, and the new future. For once, I wouldn’t have to hide who I was.

I opened the door.

The vast chamber stretched in front of me, dipping down to the stage, on which a metal fire pit stood. Flames danced inside it.

Behind the pit stood Aunt B. To the left, Curran and Kate sat, together with the other alphas and betas. Shapeshifters occupied the terraced steps surrounding them. Hundreds of shapeshifters. Suddenly I was nervous.

There was no turning back. I raised my head and marched down the stairs toward the fire, looking straight at Raphael for support. The stairs lasted for an eternity. Finally I stopped next to Aunt B.

“We gather here to invite Andrea Nash to the Pack,” Aunt B said, her voice carrying through the room. “You know her. She has fought for us. She has given her blood and used her skills for the good of the Pack. Today we honor her sacrifice and accept her as one of our own. If any of you have a problem with that, rise and challenge me.”

“No, thank you!” someone quipped from the right.

Light laughter ran through the room. I tried to keep still, but the giggles bubbled up out of me.

Aunt B grinned. “It’s your turn, dear. Your moment.”

I stepped to the fire and pulled my sleeve back. The flames crackled and burned in the fire pit. I thrust my forearm into the fire. The flames licked, searing my flesh. The smell of burned hair from my arm whiffed up. I held it for another second to prove that I was in control. No loup could touch the flames. It inspired strong instinctual terror in them.