Dire Destiny of Ours (53 page)

BOOK: Dire Destiny of Ours

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"Amen to that," Elyssa said, holding up her drink for a toast. "Here's to rest and relaxation."

"Hear, hear!" Shelton said a bit too enthusiastically.

"As if you'll be doing much relaxing," Bella said. "Have you told the others what you'll be doing?"

"Please, god, tell me he's not going back into bounty hunting," Elyssa said. "I think he's caused enough emotional trauma to innocent families."

"Ha, ha." Shelton said in a deadpan voice. "I plan to start causing emotional trauma on a whole new level." He grinned. "I'm going to be a teacher at Arcane University."

I slapped him on the back. "Congratulations, buddy!"

Bella lifted both eyebrows. "They asked him to be the Grand Chancellor over both Arcane University and Science Academy, if you can believe that."

"Who is 'they'?" Elyssa asked. "Someone in an insane asylum?"

"Professors from both institutions who were cleared of sympathizing with Daelissa voted on it." Shelton wiped his hands on a napkin. "Just so happens Zagg and a few other friends of mine are now in the new Ministry of Education."

"As I recall, Zagg tried to kill you not long ago," Elyssa said. "You have a funny way of making friends."

"Yeah, turns out collecting the bounty on someone's girlfriend isn't the best way to go about it." Shelton shrugged. "At least things got sorted in the end."

"Why didn't you want to be the chancellor?" I asked.

"Too much responsibility." He picked up another slice of pizza. "Besides, a position like that requires using diplomacy. You know I'd be the first person to tell them to kiss my ass if they pissed me off."

The table burst into laughter.

I gave him an amused look. "You realize you're going to be one of those people whose friends can't believe you're a teacher, right?"

"Meh, it's a living," Shelton said with his mouth full.

"Is this seat taken?" a familiar voice said.

I looked up and saw Dad, Mom, and Ivy. Behind them I saw Elyssa's entire family plus Felicia and Adam Nosti, Meghan Andretti, Nightliss, Stacey, and Ryland.

Stacey planted a big kiss right on my lips before I could utter a word and pulled back. "You marvelous man! I knew you were destined for greatness from the moment I met you."

"You mean when you used your felycan wiles to feed on me when I was clueless?" I couldn't suppress a huge grin as I stood up and looked at everyone.

"We heard there was a pizza party," Dad said, pushing together several tables while a waiter tried desperately to control this new unexpected situation.

"Is it my turn?" Felicia Nosti stepped up next to Stacey. She kissed me and then gave me a big squeeze. "I've been wanting to do that for a long time."

"He's an incubus," Stacey said. "You know how they are."

Elyssa rolled her eyes. "I'm going to let this slide just this once, okay, ladies? Next time, you're going to answer to me." She grinned as if she were joking, but the flash in her eyes indicated otherwise.

I shook hands with Thomas and Michael.

Elyssa's mother, Leia, kissed me on both cheeks and hugged me. Before she pulled away, she whispered in my ear. "I couldn't be prouder of you if you were my own son. Perhaps one day we'll be able to call you that."

I felt a blush coming on and said softly, "There's no 'perhaps' to it. That's a definite."

She smiled and backed away.

Phoebe hugged me next. "I wanted to thank you again for rescuing me. Without your help, I might have died with Daelissa."

Shelton stood up and banged his fork against his plastic cup. The room grew silent. "I hear a lot of people saying thanks to Justin." He put an arm around me. "If you think about it, everyone here has probably had their bacon rescued by him at one point or another."

My face warmed and I felt acutely uncomfortable as murmurs went up among everyone.

Shelton didn't give me a chance to speak. "Raise your hands if you ever tried to kidnap or kill the poor guy at some point."

Felicia, Shelton, Elyssa, Ivy, and several others raised their hands. Leia nudged Thomas and he grudgingly raised his as well.

Shelton chuckled. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm glad he saw the best in us. I'm glad he believed in us. When I met Justin, I wasn't a very good person. I'm proud to say that he gave me something in life I thought I'd never have again." Shelton choked up a little at his next words. "A best friend."

Everyone broke into applause. I felt hot tears in my eyes and saw quite a few others wiping their faces. I slung an arm around Shelton. "Here's to best friends." I held up my soft drink.

Not everyone had a drink yet, but those who didn't pretended they did. "To best friends!" they shouted.

I wiped my eyes and smiled like a fool. So many awful things had happened to get us to this point, but I felt happy. "There was a dark time when I felt lost and alone. If it hadn't been for Elyssa, I might have given up. Since then, I've gotten my family back." I motioned toward Dad, Mom and Ivy. "And I've extended my family by quite a bit." I waved a hand around the room. "You're all an important part of my life now, until the end."

The room broke out into applause. Even some of the other patrons who didn't have a clue about the nature of my family joined in the applause and cheers. I idly wondered if a video of this would end up on the internet.

More pizza arrived. I waved to the tables. "Now, let's enjoy the food and the time we have together."

The rest of the evening was amazing. We laughed, we reminisced, and there were plenty of tears.

The recent past had been incredibly painful, but it had brought us to this moment. The future would be full of hard work and uncertainty. But for now, I had the present to keep me happy.

The world was safe for the time being. I had a big family to rely on. I had Elyssa, my one true love, by my side.

Life was good.

"Saddle the white horses," I told Elyssa. "It's time to ride off into the sunset."

She beamed a beautiful smile at me. "As you wish."

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