EPILOGUE

Well maintained marble headstones, embedded in recently mown fragrant grass, stretched out in neat ranks and columns within the cemetery. The wedding date engraved on the gold band had been enough to track Jaime's identity, and bring them all to the place of remembrance.

Three women dressed in black created their own path among the memorials. They followed a map, which the blonde woman consulted periodically from behind aviator sunglasses worn against the mid-morning brightness.

Lauren's staid and conservative pantsuit was a contrast to what the doctor suspected was a Chanel two piece suit knock-off, which Kenzi had procured through one of her innumerable cousins. A fascinator, topped with a bold raven feather, perched atop Kenzi's inky black hair and served as an anchor point for a beaded veil that curved over her pale delicate features. Although Kenzi wore the highest of heels, she was still as steady as a gazelle on the cultivated lawn.

Used to the colors of mourning, Bo had not changed outfit for the trip.

"This is it." Lauren folded the map and pocketed it.

The trio directed their attention to the creamy marble plaque and read the neat black enameled epitaph: Adam Hardy, beloved husband to Jaime Hardy. Justin Hardy, treasured son. Father and son had died on the same day.

"Were they killed by the Fae?" Bo's question was strained as her throat tightened with a blend of grief and unfocused anger. Official causes of death could be fabricated, they had all witnessed it for themselves.

"I couldn't find a record of them in the Light archives," Lauren answered, and then shrugged helplessly. "I can't see the Dark death lists." Lauren frowned uneasily at the ages recorded on the stone. "But children? I've never seen the Fae take a child. But if they were capable of it, they would be Dark."

"Bo, you have to let it go." Kenzi touched the succubus' elbow to catch her focus. "You can't owe the Morrigan another favor." The slender pickpocket slipped the wedding ring that Lauren had taken from Jaime into Bo's clenched fist. "And you know her, she'll just mess with your head."

With her face set in a stoic mask, Bo knelt on the neat grass and dug the wedding ring into the dirt by the grave marker. Wiping her hands on her pants leg, Bo sat back on her heels and glanced up at Lauren's ever-present calm, and the tears that rolled quietly down Kenzi's milky pale cheeks. Although her words would make her feel like a harbinger, Bo knew that she owed them both the dignity of honesty.

"The Fae won't stay secret forever," Bo sighed. "This isn't the Dark Ages and no one is making up fairy stories. The world is more connected, people are going to continue putting the pieces together, and one day we won't be able to hide anymore."

The sobering truth weighed on them all; that one person driven to retribution by grief, and armed with a little knowledge, had shown them all a foreshadowing of a battle which could drive their world to the edge of darkness and beyond.

Bo rose smoothly, rejoined the two human women in her life, and linked arms in a silent pledge to one another to stand together against the shadows and the monsters within.

Dec 2012