Standing, I pull her up with me and try to fix what’s left of her tattered clothes. I scoop her into my arms and she gasps softly, clinging to me, her body still trembling from what we just did.

“I’m taking you back to the cabin,” I murmur against her ear. “To fuck you into a deep sleep.”

She cups my face, kissing me gently. “Mmm. I love the sound of that.”

I start walking, her weight comfortable in my arms. The snow crunches beneath my boots, and she nuzzles into my neck, her nose cold, her breath warm.

I feel Lakynn go still in my arms and I look down at her. She squints her eyes playfully before saying, “No more secrets. Where are we going in the morning? Where are we going to start over?”

“Just one more secret,” I tease her. “But I know you’re going to love it.”

EPILOGUE

RIVEN

St. Killian University looks like it belongs in a fairytale with stone turrets, ivy-covered buildings, winding courtyards, but it’s too foggy, I’ve decided. It’s quiet. Clean. Far removed from the bloodstained mess I left behind us in Castlebrook Falls.

It’s our first day in Ireland, and I can feel peace in every part of me.

For the first time in years, we’re safe. I owe Caiden Grey big for facilitating the fake names and fake passports we needed to start over. I would have just picked a place out in the middle of nowhere where we could be alone, but she deserves this. I want her to take the classes she wants, make friends and do all the things she couldn’t when she was being kept by the Kozlovs. The upside to being here is I can play hockey, get some pent up aggression out that I’ll undoubtedly have with these fucking jerk-offs looking at my girl.

I glare at two hockey guys as they walk past us on the way to the arena. Their eyes shifted to her for half a second, and that was enough for me. I pull at the tie that feels like it’s strangling me. She would pick a school with a fucking dress code. I can already feel it, my body count…the murder-y kind…is going to be astronomically higher by graduation.

And I was a fucking glorified hitman, for God’s sake.

Lakynn walks beside me, her hand curled in mine. Her expression is relaxed, soft in a way I haven’t seen since we were young. I watch her scan the towering buildings and manicured hedges like she’s trying to memorize everything. And maybe she is. She’s always been observant like that. There’s a quiet way she has about her while she studies everything in sight. She’s fucking brilliant, and I know she could have gotten into the school on her own if our situation was different.