Chapter 124

Kayla

The days that followed the email leak were… sweet. Far sweeter than I ever could have anticipated, if I was being honest.

It was strange, really, how quickly life could shift from chaos to calm in a manner of days. The guild had announced their search for a new member to fill Gray’s old spot, and Nicholas had thrown himself into his campaign, preparing his application with newfound fervor.

But it wasn’t just the political victories that made these days feel so good. It was the quiet moments, the ones that no one else saw.

The way that Nicholas would smile at me from across the room, his amber eyes softening as they met mine. The way he would reach for my hand under the table, his fingers brushing against mine. The way he would slip into my bed at night once everyone else had fallen asleep.

And the way that I let him.

We didn’t talk about it—not with each other, and certainly not with anyone else. There were no labels, no grand declarations, no promises. But it didn’t matter. I was happy just to be content with our stolen moments, without the pressure of putting a name to whatever was happening between us.

After what had happened with Liam—which still plagued me sometimes, when I couldn’t sleep at night—I was okay with that. With just being… wanted.

On the day before solstice, we finally packed up the car and headed to Grace’s cabin. It was a risk, of course—we couldn’t afford to let the guild know we were there—but we were careful. We took back roads, avoided towns, and made sure to leave no trace of our journey.

When we finally arrived, Grace opened the door with a look of shock written across her face.

“Surprise!” I cheered, holding up an armful of carefully-wrapped gifts.

She blinked, glancing back and forth between all of us—me, Nicholas, Jade and Emma, Noah, and Marcus. We were all covered in snow and our cheeks were flushed from our trek through the forest. But we were all grinning.

“What’s this for?” she asked, holding the door open to let us all in. No one except for Emma cared that we were leaving puddles of water on the floor as we headed inside.

“Solstice,” I said as I set the bundle of gifts down on the table. “Thought we’d come celebrate with you.”

Grace said nothing, although the tears in her eyes spoke volumes. Without a word, she surged forward and threw her arms around me, sniffling into my hair. “Thank you,” she murmured, and I returned the hug without a second thought.

Soon enough, the cabin was filled with warmth and laughter. Jade and Marcus were arguing over who would sleep on the couch for our first night, Noah and Emma were blowing up an air mattress, and Nicholas was raiding the pantry for food. Meanwhile, Grace was showing me her newest knitting project: an absurdly enormous blanket in soft purples and reds and yellows.

“It looks like a sunset,” I said, brushing my fingers across the soft weave. I glanced up at Grace with a smirk. “But I don’t recall giving you this much yarn.”

Grace blushed and glanced over at the window leading to the front yard, where one of the warriors Nicholas had assigned to guard duty was standing. “I may have bribed Nina to venture out and buy me more yarn,” she whispered.

“How? You don’t have any money,” I teased.

Grace’s blush, combined with the faint purple mark peeking out from the collar of her sweater, was all the answer I needed. I grinned. “I see. If I’d known that kisses were the new currency these days, I wouldn’t have bothered spending my pocket money on all these gifts,” I replied with a snort, eliciting a well-deserved smack on the arm from Grace.

That afternoon, we bundled up and headed into the forest, axes in hand. The air was crisp, the ground covered in a thin layer of snow that crunched beneath our boots. The forest was quiet, but not too quiet; birds chirped in the pine trees overhead, squirrels twittered as they darted around the forest floor, and somewhere, a woodpecker was hammering at a tree trunk.

We searched for the perfect solstice tree, debating the merits of each one we came across. One was too skinny, another too sparse, and one had a clearly-abandoned birds’ nest in it that Emma stoutly protected, stating, “They might come back! You never know!”

Finally, we settled on a tall, sturdy pine, its branches thick and full.

“This one,” Nicholas said, pointing.

We all stopped, practically having to crane our necks just to see the top of the tree. It was… enormous. Too enormous to fit in the cabin. Jade rolled her eyes. “Men,” she groaned. “Of course you’d pick the biggest one.”

Nicholas simply grinned, unbothered, and rolled up his sleeves. “Go big or go home, I say.” The other men grumbled their agreements, leaving me, Jade, and the rest of the girls standing off to the side exchanging looks of disbelief.

The guys took turns chopping at the tree, their breaths visible in the cold air as they worked. I would have been lying if I said that the sight of Nicholas’s arm muscles rippling with each strike of the axe didn’t make me want to shove him down into the snow and ride him right then and there, but I stood back with Jade and Emma, watching as the tree began to sway.

“Timber!” Noah finally shouted, stepping back as the tree started to fall.

But the tree was somehow even bigger than we’d anticipated, and it came crashing down faster than expected. The guys scrambled to get out of the way, their laughter echoing through the forest as the tree narrowly missed them. Marcus literally had to dive into a nearby snow bank just to avoid getting steamrolled.

“That was close,” Marcus said, brushing snow off his jacket.

Emma looked like she wanted to kill her brother, since the tree didn’t do the job for her. “Not close enough,” she said, kicking a pile of snow at him. He just grinned, put her in a headlock, and ruffled her hair with his knuckles, ruining her braid. Even I couldn’t help but snort at her sisterly whine of annoyance.

We dragged the tree back to the cabin after that, the guys grumbling about its size but still laughing as they struggled to fit it through the door. The top of the tree scraped against the ceiling, and we had to bend it slightly to get it to fit.

“It’s perfect,” Grace said, her eyes shining as she stepped back to admire it.

Indeed, it was perfect. Comically large and leaking sticky sap all over the floor, but it was big and vibrant and smelled like heaven.

That evening, we gathered around the fire, the tree standing proudly in the corner of the room—now draped with popcorn and cranberries and dried orange slices. Grace had prepared an absurdly large amount of stew and homemade bread, and we all dug in, ravenous after spending the day out in the woods.

We ate until we were stuffed, the conversation flowing easily. No one talked about the guild or the emails or whatever fresh hell they were dealing with now, but it was… nice. Simple.

I sat back in my chair, swirling my spiked eggnog in my mug, my heart swelling with a sense of belonging I hadn’t felt in a long time. Grace was blushing as the warrior brushed past her for another helping of soup, Jade was throwing pieces of bread in Noah’s bowl—much to his chagrin—Emma was snapping candid pictures of everyone at the table, and Nicholas was shaking his head, rubbing his hands over his face.

I realized, then, that this—this was my family. It was big and strange and too loud, but it was mine. The first real family I’d had in a long time, honestly. If only Ava and Henry could have been here, it would have been perfect.

As the fire crackled down to embers and the night grew late, I found myself curled up on the fuzzy rug with my head resting on Nicholas’s chest. His arm was wrapped around me, his fingers tracing lazy patterns on my arm. The others were scattered around the room, some talking quietly over steaming cups of mulled cider while others were already asleep wherever they could find a spot.

I closed my eyes, the warmth of the fire and the sound of their voices lulling me into a state of contentment. For the first time in what felt like forever, I was truly happy.

And as I drifted off to sleep, wrapped in Nicholas’s arms, I couldn’t help but feel like I was home.