Kady Cross: The Girl with the Windup Heart

Everyone went still. They were all thinking the same thing—Finley could see it. “What did you do with that small part?” she asked.

He picked up her father’s shield. “It’s in here. Thomas absorbed it. He offered to stay in the Aether and guard it, but I had a suspicion that I could bring it into this realm with me.”

Finley swallowed. “My father. Is he...?”

Griffin smiled sympathetically. “He moved on. I think he went to the same place as my mother. He gave me this to give to you.” He offered her a folded piece of paper.

“You brought it back, as well.”

He shrugged. “It seems that I’m able to take this realm into the Aether and vice versa.”

She stared at him. She wasn’t quite afraid of him at that moment, but she was...in awe. That was it. She closed her fist around her father’s note. Her mind couldn’t make sense of all of this, couldn’t understand how Griffin could be so powerful, or how he had gone from death to so very much alive in what seemed like minutes.

But then time was different in the Aether.

“So, The Machinist is done?” Mila asked. “Forever?”

“He is,” Griffin replied. “I think we’ll put what’s left of him in a safe place just to be certain.”

“Like the bottom of the ocean,” Sam remarked.

They all chuckled, but there wasn’t one among them who thought it a bad idea.

“You must be exhausted, laddie,” Emily spoke up. “You should get some rest.”

Griffin glanced around at all of them. “Actually, I’m starving. Who wants supper?”

It was hours before Finley and Griffin were finally alone. After a meal with their friends, and after the mediums had taken their leave—after Griffin’s heartfelt thanks—they’d all helped seal her father’s shield in a lead chest and buried it beneath the fountain in the back garden—far away from any automatons or machines, just in case. Sam had then set a huge statue of a half-naked Greek lady on top of the spot. It would take a little while before they would all truly believe The Machinist was gone, even though they knew it was true. After their connection, and with the connection he now shared with the Aether, Griffin would know if there was anything of Garibaldi left out there.

Once that was done, they separated into their pairs and said good-night. Jasper and Wildcat went off to the room they shared in the house, followed by Sam and Emily. Emily had gotten a little emotional after a glass of wine at dinner and not only told Griffin how much he meant to her, but how much he meant to everyone else, as well. When she burst into tears, Sam took her wine away and gave her a hug.

Jack and Mila took their leave after that. While Mila hugged Griffin like a long-lost sibling, Jack held out his arms for Finley.

“I’m happy for you, Jack,” she whispered.

He smiled at her. It was a good look for him. He ought to do it more often. “I’m happy for you, too.”

“Someday, will you tell me what you said to Blackhurst?”

His grin grew as he released her. “Maybe.” Then he took Mila by the hand and off they went.

“So,” Griffin said when they entered their own room and closed the door. “Jack and Mila?”

“I know! ” Finley squealed. “Can you believe it?”

He seemed to consider it. “Actually, it makes an odd sort of sense to me.”

“Oh, now that you are one with the universe and heavens and all that?” she teased.

He grabbed her by the hand and pulled her into his arms. “No. I mean that I can see how they’d make it work. He needs a little happiness and goodness in his life, and Mila is nothing but. Mila needs someone who will love her just as she is, and Jack, for all his faults, is one of the least judgmental people I’ve ever met.”

Finley wrapped her arms around his neck. “You’re spending too much time thinking about Jack and Mila and not nearly enough time kissing me.”

An error he immediately remedied. And then some. It had been such an emotional few days that they were both needy and urgent. Clothes scattered as fingers stroked and touched, unable to get enough of each other. It was as though both needed some sort of physical assurance that the other was indeed real. Afterward, they lay entwined under the covers, Finley with her head in the crook of Griffin’s shoulder.

“I read the note from my father.”

He tilted his head to look at her. “When?”

“While you were digging the hole in the garden.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

She ran her fingers over his chest, just enjoying the feel of him, so thankful that he was there with her. “He said that he’d remained behind for so long because he wanted to watch over me, and that he finally felt that he could move on knowing that I had you to depend on.”

He kissed her forehead. “That you do. Although, I thought you were going to murder me when I made you wake up.”

Finley came up on her elbow. “Me murder you? I thought you committed suicide, you great idiot! You were all tragic and self-sacrificing.”

He made a strangled sound that was something between a laugh and a gasp. “You heartless wench! I was trying to make a grand gesture.”

“You scared me half to death.”

“Only half? For a few seconds I went the whole way.”

Her merriment faded into a hard lump in her throat. “If you had died I was prepared to die, too.”

He frowned. “To be with me?”

She nodded.

“Finley, that’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever said!”

“Oy! It was a grand gesture.” She was able to make the joke because she knew he wasn’t really mad at her—well, he was, but he would have felt the same way. “What I’m trying to tell you, Griffin King, is that I don’t want to live in a world that doesn’t have you in it.” She drew a deep breath and summoned all her courage. “I love you.”

Time seemed to stop. He just stared up at her. A swath of her hair fell over her shoulder onto his chest and he didn’t even blink.

“Griffin? Did you hear me?”

“I did,” he answered without a change in expression. “I’m just waiting to see if maybe I died after all, because this certainly feels like heaven.”

If anyone else had said it she would have groaned and rolled her eyes, but she melted like butter on a stove instead. “That’s so sweet.”

He lifted his head and kissed her. “I love you, too.”

Months ago, if anyone had told Finley that her freakish nature would lead her to such happiness she would have called them a liar and punched them in the nose. She would have given anything to be a normal girl, but now she was perfectly happy to be exactly what she was. She was content with who and what she was. It didn’t matter that they had little privacy, or that they always seemed to be getting involved in someone else’s problems. She had good friends—she had a family. And she had Griffin King, Duke of Greythorne. It didn’t matter that he was rich or powerful. She’d love him even if he were a rat catcher.

“What do you want to do tomorrow?” she asked. “Save the world again?”

“I’ve had enough of that for a bit. I thought maybe we could finally go for that walk in Hyde Park.”

He’d asked her to go for a walk with him before they left for New York, but they never got to do it. With The Machinist finally gone, their lives were going to be a lot quieter. Maybe. “That sounds lovely.”

“And then maybe we’ll take a trip to my country house in Devon.”

She’d never been to Devon. “I’d love to.”

He wrapped a lock of her hair around his finger. “And then maybe we could go to Paris or Venice or Athens.”

Finley’s breath caught. She’d never been to any of those places either. “I’ll go anywhere with you.”