“I know we have to say goodbye, but she’s such a joy to have around. I’ll miss her and her little puppy and the sweet way she says tree. I wish there were a way we knew she could remember us.”
“There is.” I brought out the oak leaf pendant I ordered with all the other baby things at the beginning of the month. “We each get to give her a pendant to represent her time with us.” I handed the pendant to Henry. “This one can represent both of us. You saved her by that old oak in the forest, and the oak leaf symbolizes me and my Druid ancestry. She’ll remember both of us every time she sees it.”
“That’s really sweet, Finn, thank you.”
He handed the pendant back to me, then walked over to pick her up and bring her over for her snack.
I put the pendant on her necklace, then placed it in a special pouch in her duffle bag. The tin of magic formula was still in there, along with lots of other things we’d collected for her this month. Right on top was her favorite stuffed puppy.
“I put everything in there earlier. You can put the journal on top when you’re done.”
Henry fed her some soft fruit while I finished the last entry.
She learned several words this month, including milk, tree—twee, pup—for her puppy, and gorm—not sure what this is, but she usually has puppy growl when she says it. She’s sweet and a joy, but don’t let her diaper get dirty, or there will be hell to pay.
Finnegan
Having finished the last entry, I placed the book into her bag, closed it up, and walked over to where Henry was sitting with his mom and dad and several of his brothers and sisters.
“They all wanted to say goodbye.” Henry was valiantly trying to hide some tears, and I was surprised to feel my own eyes tear up.
I hugged him as we watched all the family pass Ameria around, showering her with kisses and hugs and her favorite raspberries to her neck that made her giggle.
“I never thought I’d say it, but I’m going to miss her so much.”
Henry hugged me back and gave me a kiss to the neck, right below my beard, where I liked it the most.
“She’ll be all right, right?”
I let him go and met his worried gaze.
“I know that every Mage is going to do the absolute best they can to keep her safe, just like we did. We even caused a kidnapping scandal. What do you think they’ll run into?”
He chuckled and looked a little less concerned. “I don’t know, but I hope next month will be boring and nothing at all happens.”
As I touched the secret rune on my arm, hidden by my charmed bracelets, to summon Jemma here to hand over our charge, I hoped Henry was right.
An hour later, after saying our goodbyes and sending Jemma back with Ameria to her home in Greece, Henry and I went for a walk in the gemstone forest.
“You know, Finn, we have a very long future ahead of us. What should we do first?”
I wriggled my eyebrows at him and grabbed his butt with both hands to give it a squeeze. Through his surprised laughter, Henry yelled, “You weirdo, don’t look at me like that. We can’t get freaky every day for the next millennia.”
I kissed his neck and nibbled his earlobe. “We absolutely can, and I plan on seducing you with my kilts and hatred of technology.”
“Finn, seriously. What do you want to do? We can stay here as long as we want, but I’m not sure.”
I considered the opportunity provided us by this haven. We would never have to worry about anything ever again.
“I could step down from the Guild, and we could stay here. It would be peaceful, and we could be near your family.”
Henry thought about it for a moment, then shook his head. “As much as I want to think that would be perfect, and it might be in the future, I don’t think you’re ready to retire from the Guild just yet. You need to see that Ameria is safe and that the ones who murdered her parents are brought to justice.”
“You’re right. I’m not quite ready yet. But one day, I will be, and we can come back here. Okay?”
Henry took my hand and led me out of the woods and to the house’s rear entrance. “I think that’s a perfect idea. We can go back to the cabin in a week or two.”
“And what are we going to do for the next week, my Henry?”
He pulled me with much more force than necessary into the bedroom, and as he was closing the door, he replied, “We’ll be doing each other, my Finn.”
The End
Finnegan and Henry will be back in 2022 with a whole new mage adventure.
Ameria’s story continues with Jemma in the book Shadow Mage by Lia Davis available on April 29th. You can pre-order all of the books here.
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Keep reading for a sneak peek at Shadow Mage
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Abigail Kade lives on the Gulf Coast of Alabama with her husband of 25 years and their two teenagers, God help her. Her work ranges from super sweet contemporary, to paranormal, to deliciously dark, and she loves every single genre. She
believes everyone deserves their happily ever after, but sometimes it's a difficult or dark path to get there. Abigail spends all of her limited spare time dreaming and writing about all the interesting characters living in her head, and telling
anyone who will listen that instalove is a very real thing, no matter how
