Chapter Thirty

Reprise

It was evening back in what used to be the Southern Bohemian Occult when Charlotte and the coven walked through her familiar bent, iron gate, past the small cemetery, and under the long, forest tunnel. They walked into the town square she had not seen in what felt like an eternity. They were not greeted by any sort of parade. There were no celebrations for the unsung heroes of the night as they made their way past the old, abandoned inns and shops. The sign to Edwin’s store had been broken and was dangling from one chain in the wind. Charlotte suspected it would be a while for her forsaken town to regain its magic.

Francis had left them. He went where he could exist in eternal night, where he could not harm any of the ones he loved, including Charlotte. He bid them a farewell after seeing them safely back through the forests to the Occult city border.

“I will be watching over all of you from the city of the night,” he told them. “No harm will come to you as long as I am there.” And then he was gone as easily as a shadow in a bright flash of light.

Sarah, who had been riding atop the spider for the journey, had been tending to Valek as they went, cleaning up the charred cracks and sooty scars. All of her books and spells had been left at Francis’ home in Prague. Tomorrow, she would cook up a transportation spell to retrieve them. That was the plan she’d told them. Whether she would succeed or not, the others really didn’t know.

Charlotte, who led the group through the abandoned square, could see clearly the large, brown house with the one spire at the front and the cockeyed roof shingles. She stopped walking when she could see her porch steps, too, surrounded by the low, green bushes that had now grown all over the cobblestone footpath. She inhaled the frostbitten air and ran to it. She tripped all over the bottom of her wedding dress, if she even wanted to call it that, ripping the hem to shreds. She ran up the steps like they were her last salvation and collapsed, her hand grasping the small brass doorknob.

Home. A place she thought she’d never see again. She would never take it for granted. Home. She didn’t even bother to open the door. The mere knowing that home was just on the other side of it was enough. She sat on her porch and buried her face in her knees. It was finally all over.

She felt Sarah come and sit beside her. “I can’t imagine how this must feel to you right now.”

Charlotte looked at her. “Of course you can! This is home to you now also. You don’t have to be anyone’s servant anymore. Now all you have to be is my friend.” They smiled at each other before they embraced.

Mr. Třínožka grumbled at the start of the footpath and they both looked at him. “I don’t mean to break this up, but we’ve gotta get this feller inside.” He indicated Valek, who was still strapped to his back. Sarah smiled at Charlotte again before running to help Dusana and Lusian carry him inside.

They easily trailed up the stairs of the house and down the hallway, laying Valek on his bed. The dark drapes were left open so the silver moonlight would be there when he opened his eyes. He would know then that everything was okay. No more hiding. No more fighting. Perhaps it had all just been some horrible nightmare that was over now.

Charlotte stayed downstairs while they did this, trusting Sarah would make sure he’d be comfortable. Instead, she trailed the lower parts of the house, her hands brushing along each wall, ensuring herself she was truly there.

The study, which had been thoroughly abused in their absence—books all over the floor, furniture overturned—was still there, with its forest green walls and wooden moldings. Charlotte bent to pick up her Volume on Vampire Anatomy and placed it back in the same place she had put it thousands of times before. Her sketchbook had been tossed about also, and a picture that had been torn out from between its brown covers was one she had been sketching for Valek. It was of the two of them and their home, together. She picked it up, considering it needed a few new additions.

Ultimately, she made her way past the foyer and the kitchen, to the back room, where she had seldom been allowed. His office. Cautiously she opened the door. What she found on the other side was exactly how he had left it. Pristine. White. Organized. A true embodiment of who he was. Valek’s papers were carelessly shuffled about on the desk like he had been there just last evening. Charlotte hugged the drawing to her chest and smiled. She was really home.

“Charlotte?”

She turned to see the others standing in the threshold of the office.

“Are you all right?” Jorge asked.

She nodded, folding the sketch behind her quickly and smiled. “Yes, just having a look around.”

“Valek should be awake soon,” Dusana offered.

“Thank you. I’ll go up in a minute.”

They waited, looking at her expectantly.

“Oh! Yes, let me show you around. You can make yourself at home anywhere you want.” She cautiously walked past them. Tomorrow, Charlotte decided, she would take them all out hunting in the daylight.

Once they were all settled in; Jorge in the study, reading by the fire after Sarah had magically seen to it that all of the books had been stacked back where they belonged, Lusian, Sasha, and Dusana searching around in the kitchen until they found Valek’s emergency blood packets, and Mr. Třínožka napping in the middle of Charlotte’s singed, old bedroom with Edwin as a teddy bear, Charlotte finally made her way to Valek’s bedroom.

She closed the door softly behind her, as she had weeks ago when she snuck into his room the first time. But she could see him now, lying peacefully in the center of the bed—the first time he had ever slept peacefully. She crept over to him as she had before, pulling one knee up and then the other, until she was lying next to him, her arm fastened securely over his chest. Sighing, she closed her eyes.

“Valek,” she began when he still did not wake up. “I love you.”

Valek opened his eyes.