Fallen

The deputy swept in, shooting the man in the fur and horns a curious look before ducking and putting his shoulder in Camden’s armpit so he could support him as Alonzo stepped aside. “Come with me,” he said, and the six of them staggered the quarter mile to the squad car.

Alonzo got in the front seat and the officer lowered Camden into the back and Scarlett, Millie, and Haddie piled in on the other side, Scarlett wrapping her arms around Camden and holding him tight as the car drove off. Camden reached forward and put his hand on his brother’s shoulder, leaving it there. Alonzo turned his head and Scarlett saw the curve of his gentle smile.

She put her head on Camden’s shoulder, Haddie’s body pressed against her, Millie right on the other side. The lights of the squad car cut the darkness as they turned onto the main highway, heading in the opposite direction of Farrow.

They were going to be okay.

They were all going to be okay.

Never had Scarlett believed her life would lead her to this moment and all that had unfolded since she’d first bent down on a city street and retrieved a fallen flyer. But now, with her fatigue pulling her under, with all she loved tucked into her sides, Scarlett clung to the tenuous hope lying just beneath the deep-seated exhaustion and fear.

Her purpose had been bigger than she’d ever imagined. She was too tired to wrap her head around it now, but somehow she sensed, deep inside, that Kandi had been part of all that had come to pass. She moved her eyes upward, out the window where the trees of the forest whizzed by, the miles between them and Farrow ever growing. “Thank you,” she whispered. “Rest now, my brave friend. We’re all together.” She laid her head on Camden’s shoulder and Scarlett rested too.EPILOGUEIn the AftermathHaddie smiled, running her hand over the cat as it arched its back and rubbed itself against her leg. “Good boy,” she said, scratching his head until he purred. After a moment, Haddie stood, squinting off into the distance, hoping to see Alonzo at the edge of the woods. The light shifted, but it was only the trees swaying in the autumn breeze. Alonzo had come to live with her, her mommy, her new daddy, and Millie too, but the big, gentle man spent as much time in the forest as he did at Lilith House with them. Haddie knew it was because he had been raised there and it was where he felt most at home, but Haddie still missed him when he was gone. Her heart would always leap with joy when she saw him step from the woods, often with a hurt baby in his hands, his compassionate eyes filled with concern as he handed it over. “Hat hep bobby,” he would say. Haddie help baby.

And then together, they’d take the tiny thing to her mommy, whose eyes still widened as she brought her hand to her chest and laughed that laugh that meant you have got to be kidding me. Then she would sigh and say, “Well then. Let’s see what we can do.”

Or if she was in the middle of baking or decorating one of her cakes, or getting ready for a bridal party to arrive, she would call Camden and he’d take the creature to the pretty little shed at the edge of the woods that he and Haddie and Millie had painted together. She and Millie even made a sign that they proudly hung on the front: Ruby Sugar Baby Animal Rescue Center.

Her mommy’s business had opened the year after they escaped the men in the forest and had become very busy over the last few months. Her mommy said it was because all her advertising was finally paying off, but her daddy said it was because her mommy was the most talented person he knew, and she’d made Lilith House into a magical place any bride with good taste would fall in love with. Haddie agreed with her daddy. Her mommy’s cakes were so pretty they made Haddie gasp every time she saw one. And Lilith House was beautiful with all its new paint and floors and balconies, and shimmery lights. Every time a bride entered, her eyes got big and she’d look around like she’d never seen a place like it before.

Haddie loved the brides. She loved their dresses made of white lace and shiny satin. She loved the way sparkles glittered around them and their grooms the same way they did around her mommy and daddy. She and Millie—who was her sister now—would peek at the brides from around doorways and out windows as they took photographs in the gazebo and walked through the flowers and trees, holding hands and smiling at each other.