EPILOGUE

S IGNA

It was strange how fast a day could pass when a person had spent months anticipating it.

Christmas dinner had come and gone in a cozy haze.

With everyone’s belly full and spirits high, Blythe had been able to rope the family into several games.

Charades had been Signa’s favorite, given how deeply Aris despised it while still being determined to win.

Cocoa was drunk and cookies eaten, and by the end of the night Elijah rested near the hearth with Blythe slumped beside him.

She’d been stubbornly trying to keep herself awake, refusing to acknowledge that Christmas was coming to an end.

But now, with only a few minutes left until midnight, she lay snoring beside her father, Beasty curled contentedly between them.

Aris had left for his study about an hour prior, and Sylas, for his part, had managed to spend the majority of the day with his family before the souls had claimed him late in the evening.

There’d been more of them than Signa cared to see given that it was a holiday, but he hadn’t seemed surprised when he stood, gave Signa a kiss, and left to shepherd them on to their next journey.

His disappearance had left Signa alone near the fire, toes curled beneath her as she worked on some sketches to rest her mind.

Or at least she’d believed she was alone, until the lights above her blurred and twisted, seeming to pool toward the threshold all at once.

Signa turned to find Aris standing at the threshold, a finger pressed to his lips.

He peered around the room to ensure that everyone was asleep, and then waved for Signa to follow him.

Spurred by curiosity, Signa set her sketch pad down gingerly, peeled from her chair, and followed after her brother as silently as she could manage.

“Aris? Has something happened?”

He was waiting for her at the end of the hall, a strange mix of emotions on his face that Signa couldn’t quite decipher. Whatever it was, it wasn’t happiness.

“I have one more gift for you,” Aris whispered as she approached, “though it’s not something I could give you in front of the others.

” There was a tension in his voice that captured Signa’s attention, and the skin between her brows pinched.

His foot kept tapping at the floor, and she couldn’t for the life of her figure out why he was so anxious until she noticed that he was holding something small, which he carried with a tender touch.

“I came across this during my travels many centuries ago and have kept it ever since,” he told her, thumbing nervously at the package.

“I tried to use it back when Mila died, but I couldn’t get it to work.

Not for me. Still, I kept it, not believing in coincidence.

And now… I believe I’m meant to give it to you. ”

He opened his hand to reveal a small stopwatch unlike any Signa had seen.

Its glass face was smooth and faintly domed, with a warm amber tint that seemed to catch and hold the light.

Intricate markings surrounded the outer edge, not numbers, but symbols that shimmered faintly.

The casing was made of dark, polished brass, worn smooth with age, and the back bore a delicate engraving of a swirling pattern that seemed almost alive when the light hit it just right.

If Signa tilted her head and listened closely, she thought she could hear a faint, rhythmic ticking, like the soft heartbeat of time itself.

Aris set the stopwatch in Signa’s hands, clasping her fingers around it. It was cold in her grip, buzzing faintly beneath her palms. She curled her fingers tighter, for it felt like the stopwatch might free itself from her grasp at any moment. And yet she could barely breathe while holding it.

“Aris—” she tried, though he cut her off by curling a hand around hers and drawing the stopwatch down to her side.

“Time is a tricky beast,” he warned, studying her face closely.

“I’m not telling you to use this, Signa.

I’m not even confident that you should. Sylas would tell you to throw it into the sea, but I know what it’s like to spend every day of your life waiting and wondering what happened to someone you love.

I know how much answers can mean. The choice is yours, but I wanted you to have the option.

You can finally learn what happened to your parents once and for all. ”

He peeled away, and in her hands the stopwatch rumbled on, its weight a sudden comfort as she clutched it close.

Aris disappeared in a haze of light back to his study, leaving Signa standing numb in the hall for a long while before she slowly made her return to the parlor.

The room was quiet save for the soft crackle of the fire, Gundry’s gnawing at the antlers, and the gentle snoring of her cousin and the cat beside her.

This moment, so still and perfect, was a rarity in their lives.

And yet, as much as Signa cherished it, she’d long been hungering for more.

For answers, and to understand what, exactly, had happened between her mother and Solanine—otherwise known as Chaos.

She glanced out the window, to where the first flakes of snow had begun to drift lazily from the sky, slowly blanketing the world in white. There was a shadow upon that whiteness, one that danced through Wisteria and onto the chaise with Signa, looping an arm comfortably around her.

She slipped the stopwatch into her pocket at Sylas’s arrival, careful to keep it out of his reach—for now.

She’d tell him about it eventually, once she’d decided what to do.

Aris’s warnings echoed in her mind, but so did the weight of her curiosity.

Perhaps Time had refused him for a reason, and perhaps that reason had to do with her.

Whatever truths lay hidden in its ticking heart, however, they would have to wait.

Tonight was not for unraveling mysteries or chasing ghosts, but for spending the evening with those most precious to her.

The snowflakes continued to drift past the window, their silent fall like a gentle exhale from the world outside.

In this moment, as the fire crackled and the scent of evergreen lingered, Wisteria felt whole once more, and so did she.

For years Signa had longed to understand her place in this world, but now, surrounded by the family who had given her more love than she’d ever dreamed possible, that hunger softened into something she could bear.

When Sylas pressed a kiss to her cheek, Signa curled into him, her heart full to the brim. Whatever mysteries tomorrow might bring, they would face them together. But for now, an hour of Christmas still remained, and Signa would not miss it for the world.