To Hell and Back by L.B. Gilbert

Epilogue

Valeria stretched her toes into the sun on the rebuilt deck at the top of Rhys’ house. Well, her house now, too.

The dragon clan’s territory was home, and, slowly but surely, they were becoming her family—well, part of it anyway.

Her brother Salvador dropped by regularly during his wanders with his mate. So did her parents.

Lucia and Fulgencio had been everything Salvador had warned her about—aggressive, brash, and perhaps a little too morally flexible on some matters. But he was right about the other part. They loved each other, they loved her brother, and they loved the new baby sister they had brought to meet her. And despite what they had once wanted her to be, they had been through enough to give up their pretensions of power and care for her as she was now. And Valeria decided to let them.

After the way she’d grown up, it was strange to be the recipient of so much love and affection. First, there had been Rhys. Then the members of his clan, starting with Sanaa and her kids. Now her brother, sister, and parents.

The weirdest part was that their affection wasn’t a transaction. She hadn’t done anything to earn it except be herself. Turned out that it had been enough.

Valeria still had many mixed feelings about Ravenna. The mother who raised her had been laid to rest according to clan tradition, cremation on a pyre.

Sometimes, in her head, Valeria would rail against her and what she had done. Other times, she was able to see from Ravenna’s perspective and she found it easier to forgive.

It was likely she’d always be conflicted about Ravenna, but, after a while, Valeria decided that was okay, too, as long as it didn’t hold her back from living the life she had now.

And that life was good.

She hadn’t expected it, but, strangely enough, her biological mother and father approved of Rhys. They liked his wealth and his strength, seeing him as a fitting protector for the child they had once lost themselves.

Not that either had brought that up. Fulgencio and Lucia did not mention Ravenna’s name during their entire weeklong visit. It was still too raw a subject for them.

Her parents had left a few days ago. They had kept pushing her to visit them on their estate in South America. Valeria was excited to see it, but she had plans for her first post-Sheol trip out of clan territory. She’d been researching like mad, determined to impress her dragon mate with her cunning plan.

A baby’s laugh attracted Valeria’s attention. Lanaa was enjoying a snack with her dad on the other side of the pool while her brother paddled with his mother.

Rhys had stubbornly added the pool to the new deck, despite her objections over the extravagance. There was no such thing to a dragon with a horde of treasure. And now that there was a temperature-controlled option to the freezing lake, the other dragons took full advantage, especially the little ones.

There was also a very sturdy rail on the deck now, one with a door Rhys could open to launch himself out over the valley without having to worry she’d fall off the third-story roof.

She was distracted by the sight of the man in question climbing out of the pool in his skin-tight swim trunks. A drop of baby-blue paint was stuck to his shoulder from when he’d helped lift her to the ceiling so she could finish the mural she was painting in the children’s nursery. It depicted a dragon wrapped around a sleepy bear in a gumdrop forest.

Rhys saw her watching and preened a little, shooting her a private smile. That last came a little easier than it had in months past. The love of all her lives was only now calming down with his overprotectiveness. He was also starting to lose some of the reserve that had characterized him when they first met.

For instance, the bat-wings made a brief appearance as he walked toward her. They beat hard for few seconds, pushing the water droplets to the waterproof deck before he sat next to her on the extra-wide pool lounger.

“I don’t know where you found this reclining chair thing, but it is officially my favorite place to sit in the entire house.”

“I thought your favorite place was in front of the fire.”

She had told him so yesterday when she had burrowed into his arms after a sushi meal because she hadn’t had fish since before Sheol.

“That may be my second favorite now.”

He raised a brow. “What about last night in bed?”

“That’s not technically sitting,” she pointed out with a grin.

A picture of her draped over Rhys after they had made love flashed through her mind. She wasn’t afraid of touching him anymore—not after a particularly memorable conversation in the library.

They’d been messing around, reading whatever took their fancy, when he’d crossed her path unexpectedly. Despite everything that had happened, she still jerked away to avoid brushing up against him. Having used that gift intentionally so recently had made her wary of it all over again.

Rhys had apologized and had been ready to take her back to bed because he assumed her skin was still tender after the angel light. When she admitted it was because she feared ensnaring him, he’d laughed.

“How could it be dangerous?” he’d asked dismissively.

“Aside from making you my unwitting love monkey if I’m not careful?” she’d shot back.

He’d shaken his head, taking her face in both his big hands. “Unmindful simian’s aside, believe me when I say that this power of yours is of no consequence. Not to me. Not to us.”

“How can you say that?” she asked, bewildered. “Aren’t you concerned that I might be pushing you, leading you to think or say something that you don’t want to do?”

His amusement had been reassuring. “I love you as much I can within the bounds of reason and possibly beyond. That’s been the case since before this life and will continue into the next—of that, I have no doubt.”

He’d pressed a soft kiss to her lips. “No witch’s gift of ensnarement could compare.”

It was clear Rhys meant every word, so Valeria had slowly begun to pull down that last wall between them.

It wasn’t easy. She had to alter the habits of a lifetime, but dragons could be surprisingly patient. And now she had a relationship that was emotionally loving and breathtakingly intimate, something she’d never dreamed she’d have.

But something was nagging at her, one last thing she had to do before she picked up and moved on with the rest of her life.

When he first heard what is was Rhys had scowled and went out back to break some boulders for fun. But after an hour or so of cathartic smashing, he came back inside ready to listen.

He hated the plan, but loved her enough to humor her, especially after she convinced her brother’s mate to get on board. Only an Elemental could open the door to Sheol without a human sacrifice.

“You know this is a frivolous reason to break the Covenant,” Gia scolded with a maternal-sounding tone as she prepared the opening.

Valeria shrugged. “It’s more like bending it. And I don’t believe it’s frivolous. I think it’s important for Michael to see how humans live now. His window into this world is too small. He inevitably takes things out of context. I think he needs a bigger picture. Michael needs to learn how we actually interact with one another.”

“And you think soap operas are the way to do that?” Gia asked skeptically.

“I do,” Valeria said, laughing.

“Hey, there are plenty of documentaries in there, too,” she added, pointing to the piles of books, movie discs, and the specialized video player Michael would need to play them.

There was a duplicate of the latter and several solar-charging devices just in case the first one crapped out or the archangel broke one in a rage.

“Soap operas are something he knows,” she continued. “I’m hoping they’ll be his entree into figuring out how people tick—the way they love despite adversity and how sometimes they have to compromise to make their way in the world.”

She broke off to add another book to the pile. “I’m sure there are a million other things I should have included and didn’t. But it’s a start.”

“You could have preloaded a laptop and e-reader with all this material,” Naveen pointed out, picking through the discs that had comprised the Sight and Sound list of the world’s greatest movies.

“True, but he is most familiar with what the devout people he uses to look into the world know. Most of these individuals are older and less tech-savvy. But I’m hoping there is enough common knowledge in his memory for him to figure out how to work a disc player.”

“He could be dead,” her brother added hopefully.

“Evil never dies,” Rhys said ominously, unaware he was quoting several movies.

Valeria brushed off her hands. “Michael is immortal or near enough. I think he survived. And, if he did, he’s going to be angry. This won’t stem that anger, not at first. But it might give him food for thought—if he doesn’t smash it to bits after its arrival. I figure that’s the best I can do.”

If it meant he’d stop targeting witches to help him get to Earth, she had to try. It might even inspire him to take a closer look at where he was and try to make that place better.

That was a big ask for a pile of films and books, but Michael had to start somewhere.

Gia opened the door and pushed the pile through it, sealing the opening shut in less than two seconds. When it was done, Valeria felt a thousand pounds lighter.

“Happy now, love?” Rhys asked, leading her back up the hill after her brother and his mate departed.

“Yeah,” she said, slinging an arm around his waist. “I am. It feels like a fresh start, a new beginning.”

He put his arm around her shoulder, propelling her to the house. “So, what do you want to do with this new lease on life?”

“Well, it so happens I have a plan,” she said, her excitement catching his attention enough to make him stop walking. “I want to go treasure hunting.”

Rhys’s amusement lit his eyes. “If that’s what you want to do, I will take you wherever you wish to go. But we could do anything—sailing around the Azores…shopping in Paris. Or I can fly you to Rome for the perfect dish of pasta.”

He raised his arms wide to encompass their surroundings. “There are no limits. I plan on giving you the world. There is no need to restrict yourself to treasure hunting for my sake. ”

Valeria stopped, crestfallen. “But I want to go! And I thought you’d leap at the chance to get back out there. Isn’t seeking treasure a dragon’s favorite pastime?”

He rubbed her back. “Oh, don’t get me wrong. I would take great pleasure in guiding you on your first hunt—to see you experience the thrill of finding a gold coin or precious gem for the very first time. But I no longer feel the need to search for such trinkets myself.”

“You don’t?” she asked skeptically.

He squeezed her to him. “I already found the greatest treasure there is.”

Valeria snickered, hugging him around the waist. “So cheesy,” she said, laughing.

Rhys grinned, nudging her with his hip. “You love it.”

“I do.” Valeria leaned her head against him, sighing contentedly as they reached the house. “I really do.”

The End.

* * *

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