Demon’s Test (Demon Mates #4)

Epilogue

“And then Cian showed us the spring underneath his mansion where he binds the protective magic to the water. It was so fascinating.” Sammy beamed at Barion and Jon, who were suitably impressed by this recounting of Sammy’s first visit with Cian. It wouldn’t be the last because there were so many things I haven’t seen yet , and Quirion knew Cian’s impersonation of a deer caught in the headlights after two hours with Sammy would keep him warm on even the coldest days. If he needed keeping warm, which he didn’t. So, the saying didn’t apply to him exactly. He knew what he meant, which was enough.

“Yes. It was a great visit.” Milo and Sammy shared a look of pure happiness. Usually, Milo wasn’t as into history as Sammy, but the way Cian used magic interested him greatly because he had some ideas about how to implement it into his research. Just yesterday he had told Quirion he might have the solution for how to control the nanobots he had designed.

“I believe you. Phoenixes have a unique way with magic.” Maribel took a sip of her tea. “Do you remember Shae, my love? What fun we had.”

Mavis kissed her wife’s cheek. “Oooh, yes. She knew how to wield her wings.”

Declan and Troy pressed their hands against their ears. “We can’t hear a thing!”

“Prudes.” Emilia grinned.

“What’s so special about a phoenix’s wings?” Amber looked confused, like always when sexual innuendo was used.

“Nothing, they’re just super soft, I believe.” Emilia tugged the banshee under her arm.

Technically this was a book club meeting, though through some coincidence, the whole family was gathered. Barion and Alerion had brought their mates here and had gotten caught up talking. Quirion had brought Milo because they needed a book Milo had forgotten the other day, and now they were sitting next to Barion and Jon, sipping hot chocolate and munching on mini lemon pies Amber had bought, not baked, as she had assured everybody before the first bites were taken. Corrywin and Grann were here to escape yet another boring meeting with the witch families of New Orleans.

Thus the book club meeting had turned into an impromptu party. The intricacies of female stereotyping in Goethe’s Stella would have to wait another week. Nobody seemed overly upset and Quirion had to admit he was enjoying himself.

If anybody had told him only five years ago that he would one day enjoy spending time not only with friends but also with his family, he would have laughed in that person’s face. He was Quirion, a scholar whose biggest and only love was books, their safekeeping his reason for living.

Now his reason for living was sitting next to him, snuggled under his arm, laughing at something Sammy had said. Books were still important, and he would keep on rescuing them from unworthy hands, but now he had another reason to get up in the morning, as the humans liked to say. Quirion didn’t think life could get much better than this.