The Deathless Trilogy

3.Epilogue. Three Years Later

Three Years Later

Celia and Julian's wedding rages into the night. Oriana and Neo chase the kids around the old cornfield in a game of tag, while the adults dance the night away. Just for tonight, all my living family is back together. For tonight, all is right in Hicksmon.

The summer after our final battle against Gunther, we began recolonizing the United States. The Nomads took Virginia and kept most of the Originals with them. Through their correspondences with Mom they've told us that they're rebuilding Richmond with the help of the rubble sweepers.

Jacob stayed in West Virginia to keep leading Hellhole, but the rest of us moved back to Pennsylvania. We set up a new Deathless camp on the property where my family's house stood before the Prowlers tore through it. As we settled in, we turned our camp into a town, and when it came time to decide on a name for our new territory, Mom and Eleanor suggested we name it after their parents who made that land into our home after the blast. Mom's maiden name Hicks mixed with Eleanor's maiden name Timmons makes Hicksmon.

Hicksmon, Pennsylvania. Home, where Mom is now the sole leader of the Deathless, though Dad is always at her side. Declan resigned to get back into the lab, and I resigned to join him. He and I are working on a new project, genetically modifying the seeds of medicinal plants to increase their medicinal value. Essentially, we are creating a living, growing pharmacy based off of Declan's original research.

An upbeat song plays over the field from the music center, and I take turns dancing with Dad, Ian, Declan, Julian, and Daniel. Mom sits with Eleanor and Joe by the fire, even though Dad and I keep calling her up to dance.

"Are you crazy?" she yells back. "I'll have the baby right there in the field." She and Eleanor laugh as Mom rests her hand on bump where my little brother is growing. Another month and he'll be here. Henry Blume, that's what they've decided to name him. After my uncle.

Julian spins Celia, and her dress flows out around her as she turns. Esther and Tempest take a break from tag to fluff the fabric of Celia's dress, lifting it higher into the air and laughing as they do it. Esther is beautiful, though she doesn't seem to have taken after me at all. Her eyes are richly brown and her hair is as golden as a pancake. She has all of Nate's genes, but since Eleanor has blonde hair and brown eyes too, Esther passes for her daughter without question.

Tempest is a perfect blend of both Ava and Ian's genes, with the dark hair Ian used to have before Raviv and his men saved his life, Ian's blue eyes, and Ava's lioness face. Tempest and Esther know they're cousins, that's how we introduced them last night. They haven't asked how they're cousins yet, and I don't expect they will for at least a few years. We'll deal with that awkward conversation then. For now, we'll let them be kids, unaffected by Gunther's toxic legacy for as long as possible.

Ava and Ian made it out from China for the wedding. They're living there for the time being as they help rebuild Chinese communities. In the three years since we've seen them, they've revitalized communities in eleven different countries. The light from the solar-powered string lights around the field reflects off Ian's chrome skull cap as he and Ava dance beside Jane and Dr. Guzman.

The two of them, Joe, and Daniel run the Patel Ward Medical Center we built down the road, where Eleanor also works as a nurse. Jane is a real caregiver now. Not because someone forced her to be, but because she worked hard to earn it. Pretty soon she'll be promoted to head of the ER and then she won't be directly supervised by Dr. Guzman anymore. Finally, they'll be able to go public with the relationship they've been hiding—badly—for the past few months.

I smile to myself when I see Dr. Guzman's hand brush over hers while they dance. A group of girls from the estate crowd them, blocking their secret flirtation from most everyone's view, including Tanya, the old comforter from the estate who tried to attack me.