I looked up at Adrian. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t have the answer.” I realized those weren’t words I uttered very often.

Adrian took a deep breath and glanced at those around us. “I think . . . I think maybe we need to ask for some help with this.”

I understood the suggestion and considered it. The fewer people who knew the truth about Declan, the better. But what was being asked of us was too big for us to shoulder alone. We needed allies we could trust in deciding Declan’s future, and glancing around at those gathered—Rose, Dimitri, Eddie, and Daniella—I realized these were the people we could count on. “Okay,” I told Adrian.

“Can somebody finally tell us what’s going on?” Rose cut in impatiently.

Adrian took a deep breath, bracing himself for the monumental story he was about to tell. Everyone else had gone very still and very silent, as though sensing the gravity of what was to come. “What I’m about to say is going to change everything you think,” Adrian said. He focused on Rose and Dimitri. “You two in particular are about to get your worlds rocked.”

Epilogue

“IS THAT THEM?” MY MOTHER CALLED. “I thought I heard the door.”

“It had better be,” I said, taking a pan out of the oven and carefully setting it on the counter. “This roast is at peak deliciousness. I’m not waiting for them to dive in. It would be a crime. A declaration of war against fine cuisine everywhere.”

My mother, used to my theatrics, smiled. “Sydney’s not here yet either.”

“Oh,” I said. “Well, I’ll wait for her.”

Eddie stuck his head in the kitchen, his face alight. “They’re here.”

I took off my oven mitts and apron and strolled out to the living room to see the guests who’d just come into the living room of our small rented house. I hadn’t seen Rose and Dimitri in almost a year and a half, right around the time Jill had been rescued from the Warriors in St. George. They looked the same as ever, gorgeous and formidable, as they stamped snow off their boots and gave us big smiles. Jill, who’d traveled with them, had already thrown herself into Eddie’s arms and was kissing him.

“Whoa, hey,” I said. “It hasn’t been that long since you saw each other. Control yourselves.”

It had actually been about a month since they’d been together, which I knew probably felt like an eternity to them. They’d been dating ever since her rescue from St. George, but she had had to go back to Court to finish her education while Eddie stayed with us. So their relationship had become a long-distance one over the last year, with her visiting us on breaks or him going to Court when he could get another guardian to stay with us.

Jill flushed pink and extracted herself from Eddie long enough to give me a hug. “I’ve missed you so much!” she said.

“I’ve missed you too,” I told her warmly. Every time I saw her, I was astonished to see how much she had transformed from an awkward girl into a poised princess of the Dragomir line. “But you’ve got to admit, I’ve been pretty good about updates. And I send you pictures every week.”

She grinned. “I know, I know. It’s just a little different not being with you like I used to.”

I planted a kiss on her forehead. “Better for both of us that way, Jailbait.”

I’d held good on my word to Sydney. I’d gone back on my meds, silencing both spirit and Aunt Tatiana. It had also quieted the bond between Jill and me. She still had a sense of me but no longer the intimate view into my heart and mind like she’d once had. Before I could say more to her, a plaintive wail made its way to us.

“The little master awakes,” I said. “Be right back.”

I sprinted out of the room and up the stairs, to the bedroom that doubled as both a nursery and Eddie’s room. I had high enough royal rank to finally be assigned my own guardian, and Eddie, in that noble way of his, had pulled strings to be assigned to us. I’d initially protested because I wanted him to stay at Court and have a semi-normal dating life with Jill. Eddie, however, felt obligated to be with us—both out of friendship to Sydney and me and for all the times Neil had helped him. We’d offered to turn the house’s small study into Eddie’s own bedroom, but he always ended up sleeping in Declan’s room anyway.

“Hey, buddy,” I said, walking over to the crib. Declan stood there in fire truck pajamas, watching me seriously with big brown eyes. His dark curls were tousled from sleep, but he beamed as I approached and lifted him out. “Did you have a good nap? We have guests, you know. Aunt Jill is back.”

Declan leaned his head against me and yawned, not responding. He was only a year and a half and not much of a conversationalist. Only a few of us knew his true age, however. To the rest of the world, we said he was just over a year old.

That was because we were also telling the rest of the world that he was my and Sydney’s son.

Neil had been convinced it was the only way to give Declan a chance at an ordinary life, and we’d finally respected Neil’s wishes to stay in hiding. There was no other family to care for Declan; Nina had never recovered. Even if we’d passed Declan off as Olive’s son, whom we were raising on her behalf, there might still be too many questions about his father. But if we, a Moroi and a human, said we had a dhampir son, there was no reason for anyone to think we weren’t telling the truth.

And so Sydney and I had dropped out of contact with everyone for a while, finally telling the world we had a baby a few months after his supposed birthday. We claimed she’d gotten pregnant right after being rescued from re-education, and then we’d said he came early. We stayed away from people enough that we were able to fudge the dates and make it all seem plausible. If we seemed secretive in our actions, most people assumed it was because we were still nervous about the Alchemists. They’d held good on their word to leave us alone so far, but everyone understood why we might be wary.