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Tears beaded in Helena’s eyes. “Know that my impact is not the only thing that will live on. Having you as my granddaughter was one of the greatest blessings of my life, and you impacted me as well. Keep giving your love, Nadine, because I know you have so much of it to share.”
“We’ll miss you, Grammy,” I told her.
“Grammy?” she questioned. “Lucas, you always call me Helena.”
I realized then what I’d said. It felt so natural that I hadn’t even realized it. “You are my grandmother. We may have only been family for one day on Earth, but you were always family to me. You taught me what family is because I didn’t have that. I had people who gave birth to me, but I didn’t have a family until I met you. Now thanks to you, Nadine and I have a chance to start a family of our own. Even though we don’t get to share our time on Earth with Dean, he will always be a part of our family, as will you. We know he’s in good hands.”
Grammy smiled. “I love you both. Keep in touch, all right?”
I wrapped my arm around Nadine’s waist and pulled her close. “We’ll be in touch so often you’ll get sick of us.”
“That’s impossible,” Helena said with a smile. “After all, grief and death are ephemeral, but love lasts forever.”
“Ephemeral?” Nadine asked.
“It’s a word for something that lasts for only a short time,” Grammy said kindly. “Your grief will be a part of you forever, but the hardest parts will ease, and the pain will fall off of you entirely when it is time for you to come home.”
Then she lifted Dean’s tiny hand and waved to us. “Goodbye, my loves. Perhaps it will seem like some time until we are reunited, but to Dean and me, it will not be long at all. Farewell.”
“Goodbye,” we said in unison.
The portal faded, and Helena and Dean were gone. Even so, I could still swear I felt them here with us, though we couldn’t see them.
Helena was right. They weren’t going anywhere.
The sound of rustling sheets met my ears, and I realized our bodies were stirring. We were waking up. The room around me began to fade.
My eyes opened moments later. I was back in my body, feeling well rested. Nadine rolled over to snuggle against my shoulder. I melted into her, feeling so at peace.
After several long beats, she spoke in a quiet voice. “I still don’t get it. The boys were born under a lunar eclipse, at the exact time they needed to become demigods, as predicted. But Grammy made it seem like Dean’s death wasn’t supposed to happen. So what was it—destiny, or not?”
“Maybe we’re thinking too black and white,” I suggested. “There are multiple paths to a single outcome. Maybe Dean wasn’t destined to die, and it’s just something that happened that no one could’ve controlled. Maybe we don’t need to make sense of it to know things are going to be okay. I know it’s harder when we don’t have answers. But maybe we can be content knowing not everything has a cosmic reason behind it.”
“I think we can,” Nadine agreed.
A knock came at the door.
“Come in,” I called.
Talia opened the door. “Uh, Nadine… Are you able to get out of bed?”
I sat up straighter. Something in her tone worried me.
“Yeah, I can,” Nadine said. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong,” Talia insisted. “It’s Isa… you’re going to want to come see this.”
Nadine could get out of bed, but it was obvious she was still very sore. I helped her up and stayed close as we followed Talia down the hall. She led us downstairs and into the den, where Grant, Chloe, and Onyx were on their knees in the corner. It looked like they were trying to coax Isa out from behind the couch. Their cats surrounded them, and I worried something was wrong.
“Aw, look at the little paws!” Onyx sang in a high-pitched voice.
They all turned to look at us when we entered the room. “Shh…” Chloe whispered, gesturing us forward. “You don’t want to spook them.”
Nadine looked as confused as I was when we both approached the corner. The others moved out of the way, and my heart skipped a beat when I saw what was hidden back there.
Isa and Oliver lay snuggled up on a blanket, licking a tiny wiggling creature between them. Its eyes were closed, but it lifted its head and let out the tiniest high-pitched meow. The kitten couldn’t be more than a few minutes old, because it was still covered in goop. I could just barely make out its tortie color pattern—mostly black, mottled with brown splotches.
Nadine gasped. “So this is where you were all night.”
