When he made it to her, he looked out and saw three dark gray columns of smoke heading straight up to the sky through windless air from beyond the dense woods that surrounded the sides of the compound.

He knew what those were. Those were the ultimate end to the dead golem. An end that included certain body parts that had been hacked to shit and then far removed from their mates, especially the heads, all this being burned to ash.

“They might have had women,” Delilah said softly, and Abel looked back to her to see her head again turned to the window. “They might have had kids.”

“And if they’d succeeded, there is no ‘might’ about what they were gonna do, which was something we couldn’t let them do. At all costs.”

“At all costs,” Delilah whispered to the window.

“Pussycat—” he started, lifting his hand to curl it where her neck met her shoulder.

This again got him her eyes. “Are you okay with all costs?”

He didn’t understand the question.

“What?”

She turned fully to him and rested her hands on his abs. “You took lives, honey.”

Now he got her. More than got her.

She was reflective and looking out the window because the bodies of men who likely multiple someones had loved were being reduced to ash. She was also reflective and looking out the window because she was worried about his state of mind.

“I’m good,” he assured her.

She wasn’t assured and he knew this when she tipped her head to the side and asked, “You sure?”

He slid his hand to the back of her neck, pulled her closer, and bent to her.

“I’m sure,” he said, soft and firm. “And you’re going to be good too, seein’ as Moose returned, he’s fine, and he’s waiting in living room three for you.”

Her eyes lit in a way he liked at the news Moose was back and they started dancing in a way he liked even more at his comment about living room three.

“Which one is that, then?” she asked.

“I’ll take you there,” he offered.

“Awesome,” she said softly, and he used his hand at her neck to pull her around until she was at his side. Then he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and started guiding her to the door. “We should officially number them so there’s no confusion, you know, seeing as it seems we’re gonna be here awhile,” she went on as she slid her arm along his waist.

“We’ll do that after you welcome home Moose and I get your dad and Jabber so they can do the same.”

She looked up at him and said, “Right on.”

Even as they walked out the door, he bent and touched his mouth to hers.

Her arm curled around his waist gave him a squeeze and her eyes gave him a smile when he lifted his head.