Widow's Web (Elemental Assassin 7)

Or maybe the love Owen and I had shared was just as dead as my mother, sister, and Fletcher.

No, I thought. Our love wasn't dead. It was just a little battered and bruised. It would eventually heal, and I was determined to do everything I could to help it along. If that meant giving Owen time and space to himself, then that was what I was going to do - no matter how much I just wanted to be in his arms right now.

"Come on, Gin," Bria said in a loud voice. "The wine isn't going to open itself!"

"Be right there!" I called back.

My friends had come to cheer me up, and I was going to let them. So I had a broken heart - so what? I'd gotten through worse, and I'd get through this too. This time, I was just grateful that there were people here for me, people who cared about me.

I looked at Owen's rune a final time, then fixed a smile on my face and headed into the kitchen to eat, drink, talk, and laugh the night away with my friends, my family.