Eve almost smiled. "I have been told."
Vessa handed the photograph back and wiped her face with the back of her hand. "What did he say at the end."
"That I am going to build what they would have built," Eve said. "And he said he knows. That he is going to watch it happen from whatever corner they put him in when this is over."
"And you believe him," Silas said.
Eve looked at him. "Yes. I do not think he has any fight left. I think he used whatever he had left to file that arbitration and tell the truth."
The room was quiet.
"The proceedings are in two days," Damian said. "Everything goes in. The directive. The vote record. Sable’s testimony. The witnesses. It ends him."
"Yes," Eve said.
"And after that?" Maya said.
Eve looked at her. "After that we build what cos next."
Maya squeezed her knee and stood up. "I am going to make tea. The terrible kind you all pretend to like because I made it."
She left the room and the sound of her footsteps faded down the hall toward the kitchen. Vessa stood up more slowly, the folder still clutched against her chest.
"I should finalize the docuntation," she said. "Make sure everything is organized for the filing."
"Vessa," Eve said.
Vessa stopped. Turned back.
"Thank you," Eve said. "For all of it. For placing Seraphine. For finding Sable. For forty one years of waiting."
Vessa’s eyes filled again but she blinked it back. "Your mother asked to. I do not break my promises."
She left the room and Damian heard her footsteps on the stairs heading up to the guest wing where she had been staying since Aldenre.
The sitting room was quieter now. Just the four of them. Damon still beside Eve. Silas still in his chair. Damian across from them watching the firelight play across Eve’s face.
"I need to go find Maya," Eve said. She stood up and Damon let her go. She crossed to Silas first.
He looked up at her.
"We are both still here," she said quietly.
Silas’s hand ca up and caught hers. Held it. "We are both still here," he agreed.
She squeezed his hand and let go. Left the room. Her footsteps faded down the corridor.
The three brothers sat in silence for a long mont.
"She is alright," Silas said finally. Not a question.
"Yes," Damian said. "She is alright."
"He gave her what she needed," Damon said. His voice was rough. "The photograph. The truth about her parents. He gave her both."
"Yes," Damian said.
Silence.
"Two days," Silas said.
"Two days," Damian agreed.
He stood up. His body ached from two days of sitting in cars and standing in cold corridors and holding tension in every muscle. He needed to move. Needed to find Eve. Needed to see her face one more ti before he could let himself believe she was actually ho and safe and still standing.
He left the sitting room and walked down the corridor toward the kitchen. He could hear voices...Maya’s sharp and practical, Eve’s quieter and steadier. He stopped in the doorway and watched them. Maya was making tea. Eve was sitting at the counter with the photograph in front of her, just looking at it.
Maya said sothing and Eve almost smiled. Not quite. But almost.
Damian turned away. Gave them their mont. Walked toward the main staircase instead.
The estate was quiet around him. The old walls. The high ceilings. The weight of pack history in every stone. This was Blackwood land. Had been for generations. Would be for generations more.
He climbed the stairs and stopped at the landing. Looked out the tall window at the estate grounds stretching away into darkness.
Footsteps behind him.
He turned.
Eve.
She crossed the landing and stopped in front of him. The photograph was still in her hand. The pendant was visible at her throat. Both parents with her.
"Hi," she said.
"Hi," he said.
She looked at him for a long mont. Just looked. Like she was seeing sothing she had not seen before or maybe seeing sothing she had always seen and was only now allowing herself to na.
"I love you," she said.
Damian went completely still.
The words hung in the air between them. Simple. Direct. No performance. No calculation. Just....true.
"Eve..."
"I know," she said. "I know you probably already knew. I know Damon probably already said it. I know Silas shows it in different ways. But I needed to say it to you directly." She paused. "I love you Damian. For every archive session and every strategy eting and every mont you have stood beside and let lead and caught when I fell."
His chest was tight. His throat was tight. Everything in him was tight except the one part that had been locked for twenty years and was opening now like a door he had forgotten existed.
"I know," he said. His voice was rough. Barely there.
She almost smiled. "You are stealing my line."
"You stole it from soone else first."
"Fair."
He crossed the space between them and pulled her in. His hand in her hair. Her face against his chest. Both of them holding on in the quiet landing with the estate dark and still around them.
"I love you too," he said into her hair. "For longer than you said it probably."
She laughed against his chest. A small sound. Broken at the edges but real.
"Insufferable," she said.
"You started it."
She pulled back enough to look at him. Her eyes were wet but she was smiling. Actually smiling.
"We are going to be alright," she said.
"Yes," he said. "We are."
He kissed her. Soft. Then pulled back and rested his forehead against hers.
The estate was quiet around them. Ho. Pack. Family.
Everything they had built.
Everything they were going to keep building.
Together.
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