“What are you thinking about?” Smoky wrapped his arm around my waist. “You look so far away. So wistful.”
I leaned my head against his arm. “I guess…destiny. The Hags of Fate. Where we started and where we’re all ending up. If anybody would have told me when I first came Earthside that I’d end up marrying a dragon…or a youkai-kitsune…I would have laughed them out of the house. If I had known Trillian was going to be coming back into my life, I would have been terrified. The thought of taking my place with Aeval and Titania would have sent me running back here to Otherworld. Now, it all feels so right, even though it’s still a little scary.”
“Destiny doesn’t usually look the way we imagine it,” he said. “Destiny has a way of waiting till we turn our backs and then rolls in like a whirlwind, throwing all our plans to the wind. But when they settle down again, changed—sometimes beyond recognition—we realize that what we thought we wanted wasn’t really what we needed at all.”
“You two are very philosophical tonight,” Chase said. He had been standing close enough to hear us talking. “I never dreamed my life would become what it has. I still don’t know where I’m going to end up. And I’ve decided that, as long as Astrid and Sharah are safe, I’m okay with that.”
“You’ve come a long way from the Chase we first met when we came Earthside.” I patted him on the shoulder. “I’m happy you found your love.”
He paused, looking like he was going to say something, then shook his head, pressing his lips together. But the look on his face wasn’t altogether happy.
“Is something wrong?”
For a moment, I didn’t think he was going to answer, but then he let out a long sigh. “I know that Sharah’s expected to produce an heir—one who is full-blooded elf. I’ve known for a while but I couldn’t talk about it, while I processed what the implications were. Astrid can never take the throne, and I’m actually happy about that. I think ruling a kingdom is too stressful for most people.” He stared at me and I couldn’t help but wonder if the comment was also pointed at me, but this wasn’t a conversation about my journey.
“How do you feel?”
“Angry. Sad. Resigned.” He shrugged. “I’ve come to realize that in the end, it doesn’t matter what I feel or think. Sharah’s the queen of Elqaneve. They have traditions going back tens of thousands of years and they aren’t going to change them just because I want them to. Nor is she an empress or dictator. She can’t just abruptly tell her people that everything they’ve grown up with is being tossed aside because she wants it to be.”
“Unfortunately, you’re right. I’m sorry, Chase. But that doesn’t mean you and she can’t still be a couple.”
“No, but it means that my idyllic vision of a happy little family, just the three of us, is blown apart. Smoky, you talked about destiny not being what we always want it to be. I think I’m finally realizing that. And I’m learning to accept that it will be what it needs to be. I’m not in control of the universe, but I’m in control of how I react.”
The detective looked and sounded so much older than when we had first met. He was also, sadly, wiser in the way that the world worked. That was one thing I missed about both him and Delilah. Both had been idealists. Delilah had been naive in so many ways, and Chase had been so resistant to doing anything other than the way he been taught was right. Now, the pair of them had both grown and evolved, but a certain innocence had fled with the shedding of their skins.
“Everything works out as it must. Maybe not how we would like, but usually, there’s a reasoning to life’s currents, even though we can’t always see the big picture.” It was pithy advice, I knew, but the only thing I could think of to say at the moment. “Come, we’ve got to keep moving.”
Smoky took up the lead and once again, we set out. The sky was once again clear, and the path had grown steeper. I was extremely grateful that I’d brought my staff because it gave me leverage as we climbed up the dirt trail, so hard in places it was almost slick. The rainstorm had been isolated, and the further we distanced ourselves from the dubba-troll’s hideout, the steeper the climb became.
About thirty minutes into the fifth hour of climbing, I began to hear whispering on the wind. The voices blew past me, impossible to catch, but the susurration echoed in the back of my mind, as though the winds themselves were trying to tell me something. I fell into the rhythm of the hike, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other. A few minutes later, Delilah worked her way up past Bran and Chase.