* * *
An hour later, I was supposed to be looking something up on the computer for Nickamedes, but really, I was watching him whisper into Metis’s ear. Something perhaps a bit steamy, judging from the sly look she gave him in return. She leaned up and kissed his cheek before waving at me and leaving the library. The two of them were officially a couple now, and I couldn’t have been happier for them.
Nickamedes shuffled over to the checkout counter. He was still using his cane to get around, but he wasn’t leaning on it as heavily, and he said that some of the aches and pains in his legs had finally started to ease. I was hoping he’d make a full recovery after all.
“So,” I said, swiveling around on my stool and raising my eyebrows at him. “I take it that things with Metis are going well?”
A blush bloomed in Nickamedes’s cheeks, although he still managed to give me an utterly withering look. “Things are going just fine, not that it is any of your business, Gwendolyn.”
“Of course not,” I sniped. “I’m just the reason the two of you got together in the first place. It’s not like I’m going to be responsible for your lifelong happiness or future kids or anything.”
He gave me a sour look that melted into a smile before he disappeared back into his office.
“You should cut the librarian some slack,” Vic piped up from his spot behind the checkout counter. “Love can be a tricky thing, after all. Don’t you agree, fuzzball?”
Nyx was curled up in her basket, but she lifted her head up and barked out her agreement.
I laughed and went back to work.
My friends came and went as the evening wore on and turned into night. Daphne. Carson. Kenzie. Talia. Morgan. Savannah and her boyfriend, Doug. And Alexei and Oliver came by too, since they’d gotten back from Russia a few days ago. Some of the sadness had left Alexei’s eyes, although I knew it would take time for him to fully recover.
Finally, Logan came to the library, and I forgot about everything else. Despite everything that had happened with the candle, the Spartan and I had forgiven each other, and we were in a good place now—and stronger than we’d ever been before.
Logan hung out around the checkout counter while I went about my usual chores. Finally, though, I got caught up enough to take a break, and he flashed me a sexy, wicked grin.
“You know,” he drawled. “With all the time we’ve spent together the past few weeks, there’s one thing we haven’t done.”
“Oh really? What’s that?”
He jerked his head at the stacks and waggled his eyebrows. “We haven’t been back there in forever. Maybe it’s time we see what all the fuss is about for ourselves, huh?”
I leaned closer to him. “That sounds like a plan to me, Spartan.”
Logan laughed, and I headed around the counter. Together, and still laughing, we scurried toward the stacks. We’d almost reached them when the inevitable happened, and I heard the door in the glass office complex squeak open.
“Gwendolyn!” Nickamedes called out. “Where are you going? These books aren’t going to shelve themselves!”
I looked back over my shoulder at the checkout counter. The librarian waved me over before disappearing back into his office. I turned back to Logan and grabbed his hand.
“Come on,” I said. “This way.”
“What about the books?” he asked. “And Nickamedes?”
“He can wait,” I said. “Just like I waited for you—
and for all of this.”
Logan frowned, not quite understanding my meaning. So I tightened my grip on his hand and reached for my psychometry, letting him see all the memories that were attached to my mom’s scarf, the one Grandma Frost had given to me the night of the dance, the one that was carefully tucked away in my messenger bag. Then I reached for all the images and feelings—good and bad—from the snowflake necklace around my neck, the one he had bought me for Christmas.
I showed everything to Logan. All the battles we’d fought, all the enemies we’d faced down, all the heartache we’d endured. But most of all, I showed him my love for him and all my hopes for our future—together.
Logan sighed in understanding, and I let go of the memories and emotions.
“That’s what I’ve been waiting for,” I whispered, staring into his blue, blue eyes.
“Me too,” he whispered back.
I’d been thinking about that book of my life Sigyn had shown me, and I’d finally figured out why some of the pages had been blank. Now, I was ready to fill them in with new memories—my memories of all the experiences I’d have with Logan and the rest of my friends over the years ahead.
“So come on, Spartan,” I teased. “Let’s go. Unless you changed your mind about wanting to be alone with me.” Logan smiled at me, that slow, sexy smile I loved so much, the one that always made that warm, fizzy, dizzying feeling explode in my heart. “I would never do that,
Gypsy girl. Not with you.” “Good.”
So I grinned, pulled Logan back into the shadowy stacks, and pressed my lips to his, ready to start the next chapter of my life at Mythos Academy.
The one that I would write myself.