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"So why am I still here now?"
"Audrey Parker was a stronger persona than expected and you found out how to take the darkness away."
Audrey held out her hands, fingers splayed and palms up. "The aether. That's the residue."
"How did you figure it out?"
One corner of her mouth quirked up. "My old foster mom used to always say that "what I give you, I can take away just as easily". I thought that might apply here, I guess. It's all about intent, right? I just couldn't let that baby lose his dad. Plus I couldn't do that to Duke. He gets to be normal. He deserves that."
"Mara!" A voice yelled out.
Audrey turned to see William stalking across the lawn.
"Henri!" He called out angrily. It took Audrey a moment to realize that that must be Agent Howard's real name. "Stay away from her. You've punished her enough."
Duke grabbed the handcuffs from Nathan's belt and, in one smooth move, launched himself at William. He had William down and his wrists cuffed in seconds.
"Hell yeah!" He shouted, pumping a fist in the air. "Take that, you son of a bitch."
Audrey felt a twinge of pain in her wrists but tried to ignore it. She still hated how she was connected to him. Her eyes met Nathan's as he stared at her, concerned. She nodded, letting him know she was okay, and then turned back to Agent Howard.
"So what are you going to do?" He asked.
She frowned. "What do you mean?"
He chuckled. "Are you just going to save everyone? Going to be a big hero?"
Audrey fell silent. She stuffed her hands in the front pockets of her jeans and shrugged. What was she going to do now? If she was meant to keep suffering, was he going to bring the barn back? But then what did he mean about the light? She glanced back at William, who was struggling in Duke's grasp. Nathan was talking to him lowly. She watched the way her lover stood—his elbows tucked in at his sides, his posture not shifting back and forth like most people usually did. Every so often, she knew, he had a tendency to rub his hand across his chin. The moment he would start, he would instantly pull his hand away and his jaw would clench, silently angry at his inability to feel his own face.
She loved him. And that's how she knew that he deserved to be free.
"If I go, they go, right? The Troubles? You're here to take me away."
"Not quite," Agent Howard—Henri—stated. "The Troubles, yes. But it will change you. It will take away any residual magic from your being and your memory. Can you handle that?"
It wasn't even a valid question for Audrey. Of course she could handle it. Firstly, because she was Audrey Fucking Parker. She had saved dozens, possibly even hundreds, of lives already and even came back from the dead (or an alternate dimension or whatever) herself very recently. Secondly, because magic didn't matter to her. All she really needed was a home.
That was all she had ever been looking for.
And within Haven, she'd found it.
Agent Howard didn't wait for Audrey to voice her approval. He didn't need to hear it—it was written plain as day across her face. Her usually stress wrinkled forehead was relaxed, her fingers unclenched from her clothes, her bottom lip left unbitten. He'd been with her for decades—he knew her in and out, no matter what persona she took on.
A small battle of pride raged within him. Yes, he had spent centuries with her, entrusted by his tribe with the responsibility of keeping her in check and making sure she suffered cycle after cycle. Had she really earned her freedom now?
He no longer had a Grand Council to confer with, but he could guess that they would support his opinion. His knowledge and wisdom had only increased in vastness over the centuries. The pain of her original betrayal—the creation of the Troubles—no longer hurt. It was time to let go.
Audrey whisked away from her reverie and was about to speak when Agent Howard reached out and clasped his hands on her shoulders. She would probably count on one hand the number of times they had actually had physical contact, so its suddenness knocked the breath out of her. She stared at her boss, her mentor, her punisher, her guide with wide eyes.
He pulled himself up to his full height and whispered a few words under his breath.
Her heart began to pound harder and faster, rushing in her ears. She felt the wind pick up around her, whipping her bangs across her face and pushing her slightly off balance.
Distantly, she could hear a familiar voice calling out her name. But the moment she noticed it, the moment she forgot. All she could focus on was the heat building up in her chest and her arms and her legs and her head and it was so much and too much and the next thing she knew, it boiled over and exploded outward. A flash of light surrounded her and she squeezed her eyes shut.