“Really?” Madeleine asked. She struggled to sit up, but the two of them had to help her. Even so, overall she felt much better than she had the last time Ash had brought her back. “We need to figure this out. You’re banished, but you’re not human. You’re still immortal…right?”
“It would appear so,” Ash said. “I still had the ability to bring you back, so I haven’t been stripped of my power or anything.”
“Am I really going to have to get old and gray while you still look like…this? Not that I’m complaining,” she amended quickly when Ash turned an incredulous look toward her. “It’ll just…cause problems, you know?”
“Not when I can appear any age I want.” He grinned at her. “I just prefer this one. But if you need me to look like a wrinkled old man someday, I can do that. For you.”
“Thanks…I guess.” She giggled, until another thought cast a shadow across her jubilation. “But what about…after I’m gone?”
“Well, let’s not dwell on that now,” Riam said with determined optimism. “Go and have a long and happy life together—it’s more than most people get. We’ll figure that out when the time comes. I’ll still be around, of course.” He gave Madeleine a wink, the gesture so out of place on him that she lifted a brow at him.
A long and happy life. She liked the sound of that. It sounded much better than a dark and miserable eternity.
Epilogue
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Ash asked.
“No. But it’s something I need to do. Thanks for coming with me.” She knocked for the third time on the door they were standing in front of. Maybe he wasn’t home. Maybe he didn’t answer the door for strangers. Maybe they’d come all this way for nothing.
“Of course. He’s not going to be happy to see me, though.” Ash turned and faced the quiet street behind them, muttering to himself. “Probably have a heart attack.”
Maybe he didn’t open the door for demons who’d enticed him to trade his daughter’s soul almost thirty years ago. Yeah, that could be it.
“Well, for that matter, he might not be happy to see me.”
“I can go sit in the car, if you think it would help.”
“No.” She reached over and took his gloved hand with her own. It was brutally cold out and snow dusted the carefully tended yards and their tacky Christmas embellishments. Her dad’s yard boasted Santa waving from his sleigh, while the simple but cute frame house was liberally draped with twinkling colored lights. “I want you here.”
Ash looked over at her and smiled. She took a moment, as she often did, to appreciate how beautiful he was, his dark hair glistening with tiny ice crystals. The past couple of years with him had been the happiest of her entire life, and that happiness didn’t appear to be letting up anytime soon.
This was a crazy scheme if ever there was one. But if what Ash said was true, and her father had turned his life around after making the deal with him all those years ago, then he must carry tremendous guilt. Ash had described what kind of person he’d been. He also knew what kind of person he’d become—one who’d kicked the drugs, helped out in his community, and counseled runaways and other troubled youth. Even Riam had been a source of information. Heaven had been keeping its watchful eye on Maxwell Gatlin. But something else Riam had told her was that her dad was sick now and wasn’t long for this world.
Yes, it was a terrible thing he’d done. But she wanted to give him what peace she could before he left. She wanted him to know she was okay, that he’d inadvertently done her a wonderful favor.
Of course, it had to be jarring, knowing a family member was happily in love with a creature of darkness. If you cared at all, anyway.
It was another thing she had to consider, that he wouldn’t give a rat’s ass if she was dead or alive or burning in Hell by now. She simply couldn’t bring herself to believe he’d feel that way, however.
Fueled by urgency at the thought, she pounded on the door again, harder than she had before. She had to know. She didn’t know why it was so important, but it was. It kept her up at night, talking to Ash deep into the wee hours. He was the one who’d told her maybe it would be good for her to face him. She’d always entertained the thought, but it hadn’t seemed plausible, or something she would really consider doing, until he suggested it.
Suddenly, the door swung open while she was mid-knock. Maddie froze, lowering her arm. Ash turned around. An older woman with tidy graying hair stood framed by the doorway, head cocked to the side as she appraised them with shrewd eyes. “Yes?”
“Um, hello,” Maddie said. “Does Maxwell Gatlin live here?”
“He does. May I say who’s calling?”
“My name is Madeleine Dean. He may not know me, but…” She took a deep breath. “I’m his daughter.”
The woman looked her up and down, pulling her green cardigan closer against the cold rushing into the house. Madeleine wanted to huddle closer to the heat pouring out. “You’re Madeleine?”
“You…know my name?”
“Honey, he’s talked about having a daughter named Madeleine for as long as I’ve known him—that would be twenty-five years, now. But he never knew your last name, or how to reach you at all. I always wondered if you really existed.”
“And you are…?”
“I’m his wife. Please call me Anne.” She offered her hand, still looking shell-shocked, and Madeleine shook it, feeling the same. This was surreal. Anne glanced back into the house. “I’m afraid he’s not doing so well at the moment.”
“I had heard he was ill. I’m terribly sorry.”
Anne nodded, removing the silver-framed glasses she’d been wearing and wiping her eyes before replacing them. “I’m sorry, this is just so…”
Madeleine reached over and touched her arm. “I know.”
Composing herself, Anne went on. “Yes, he has cancer. The doctors, they’re still trying, but things aren’t looking too well this time. The treatments take a lot out of him and he’s resting. But I know he would be so upset if I didn’t tell him you were here.”
“I don’t want to disturb him—”
“Nonsense. Come in out of the cold before you freeze.” She held her arm out toward Ash and ushered them both inside. “And who is this handsome fellow? Your husband, surely?”
Just my demon lover.
“Oh, something like that,” he said. Madeleine bit her lip on a smile. “Call me Ash.”
She looked around the living room as they traded pleasantries. Though outside it was nearly dusk, the scent of coffee drifted in from the kitchen. It was nice and homey here, the end tables and walls crowded with pictures of loved ones. At least he seemed to have lived a life full of happiness.
She hoped she’d get the opportunity to meet some of the faces in those photos, the family she’d never known. Maybe they would be closer to her than the one she’d had. Maybe.
“He had some strange stories to tell,” Anne was saying a little nervously when Madeleine turned her attention back to her. “He never could really explain how he knew about you, or knew your name at all. At least, he would never tell me. I suspected he had more to say, he just wouldn’t say it. But come to think of it…for some reason he believed something might have happened to you. Lord, honey, you can probably help answer a thousand of my questions he’s turned aside over the years.”
“I’ll be happy to,” she said, casting a glance at Ash.
“Please, have a seat. I’ll let him know you’re here.” Anne indicated the afghan-covered couch and slipped quietly from the room.
“I think you probably should wait out here,” Madeleine whispered to Ash. “I mean, if I get to go back and see him.”
He nodded, pulling her into his arms. “That would be best.”
She breathed in his scent, wrapping herself in the comforting warmth of his embrace. “If it wasn’t for you, he wouldn’t know my name, would he? He wouldn’t know about me at all.”
“I guess not,” he murmured. “I told him about you.”
“My mom knew who he was, but as far as I know, she never even attempted to contact him. No one did.”
Ash kissed her forehead just as Anne came back into the room.
“Madeleine? You’ll have to come on back here, but he’s so excited to meet you.”
Madeleine left Ash’s embrace and moved away, holding one of his hands as long as she could before she had to let it go. He smiled at her, and again, she thought she could see something shining in his eyes. “Thank you,” she mouthed to him, and followed Anne down the hall.