In the end, breaking the rules worked out well for me, but I've never been one to stay inside neat lines. Life is more complicated than that. Fate is more complicated than that. It's why I came up with a new set of rules.

Rule One: The Threads do not define who we are.

Rule Two: The Threads show the most likely future based on how things stand in the present, not the only possible one.

Rule Three: No one really needs the power to see the Threads. We can change them on our own.

I wrote all of them down in a journal, and I placed that journal in the box with the other Weavers' diaries in the Sylvan library. The Threads didn't appear for me again after the day Calen died, but I wanted any future versions of me to be ready, just in case. I wasn't certain that Calen would reincarnate, considering I'd ripped all his Threads out of space and time, but... just in case.

In some ways, that made me sad. I was glad I never had to see him again, but part of me wondered if, in another life, he might be someone better than he was. If he had the right teachers, the right encouragement, he could really do something wonderful for the world... but maybe some future version of me could find that out. I was more than ready to leave him behind entirely.

Though I couldn't see the Threads, I did still have a sixth sense about the future. I could tell you when a car was about to run a stoplight, even if you couldn't see them. I could tell you which grocery store would be the least crowded. After a little more serious study on symbolism and method, I was freakishly accurate with a pack of tarot cards, which was excellent for business at my shop. It was only little things, but that was how I liked it.

With the Threads gone, my elemental magic blossomed in a very literal way. I found I had an incredibly affinity for growing plants, and I loved growing new varieties for my medicinal concoctions. It was a quiet life, and that was what I'd always wanted for myself. Peace, security, and a family who loved me were all the things I'd ever wanted or needed. Though it would be pretty cool to tell my future kids about my wild Weaver adventure, I wasn't really eager to have another one.

Come back in about five years, though. My opinion may have changed.

The Sylvan Council offered me a reward for finding and "neutralizing," as they put it, the culprit behind the Veil vandalism and attacks on Sylvan society. I decided to take it in the form of cold, hard cash.

Literally cold and hard, by the way. They sent my payment as a massive box of precious stones. I wound up having to go to special witch and Sylvan contractors to sell them off, considering human authorities would have been seriously suspicious about their origin, but it was worth the trouble when the payment came through.

I used the money to pay off my debts and build a house, complete with a little apothecary shop next door on land that I owned. It was a cute, half timbered building with three bedrooms, and plenty of room for a garden and a greenhouse outside.

Oh, and did I mention the house was on Sylvan lands?

"Sunday? You home?"

Dante's voice rang out from downstairs just as I finished getting dressed. He didn't bother to knock anymore, especially since I'd given him a key. I still kept my hair bright pink and purple, though almost two years into our relationship, Dante now knew it was naturally a shade of sandy brown that I despised.

"In the kitchen!"

I tied off the bundle of herbs I was working on and hung them on one of my ceiling racks to dry. It was a new crossbreed of a Sylvan and mundane plant, and I'd hoped to isolate some specific properties from the two. More testing needed.

"How's the plant propagation project?" he asked, leaning in to kiss my cheek.

"Well, it bloomed." I gestured to the hanging bundles. "Not sure what the effects are yet."

"My genius larrinae," he murmured. I rolled my eyes, but I was smiling, anyways.

"Is the Council still fighting you on that land ownership statute?" I asked, peeling off my kitchen gloves.

"No, they're now fighting me and Callie," he said with a laugh. "She's a firecracker."

"She's perfect for that job." I laughed, shaking my head.

After everything cleared up, Callie was invited to be the newest member of the Sylvan Council, finally adding a witch representative to the group. She was making incredible headway on... most things. Slow progress was still progress, and we were generally happy as long as something was still moving.

"Can I stay over tonight? I am not looking forward to being hounded by Council members the second I step back into Court," he sighed.

"You could live here if you wanted. You know I wouldn't mind."

He practically lived here already, with clothes and personal items kept as much around my house as in his rooms at Court, though I liked to think that my place was a little more homey. It was all eclectic décor and random trinkets, lightly cluttered and certainly lived in.

"Don't tempt me," he murmured, pulling me in for a hug. "I'd spend the next three centuries here, and you know it."

It was slowly sinking in, at least on my end, that several centuries together wasn't an impossible future. Sylvans were very long-lived, vampires especially so, and the more I thought about it, the more I actually liked the idea of spending a very, very long life beside Dante.

The upside of having a vampire boyfriend? Dante offered to turn me if I ever decided I wanted it. I wasn't sure if I'd take the offer yet or not, but I was glad to have it all the same. I might have inherited my dad's long lifespan, anyways, and I wouldn't need the vampire longevity.

Wait, did you think I was waffling on making a commitment to Dante? No. Never. I just wasn't sure I wanted all the vampiric side effects if I'd already inherited a long life.

I wasn't planning to leave him any time soon, and honestly, we'd spoken a little about getting married at some point. That did come with a few complications, considering that Dante was the heir to the Sylvan throne, but most of those complications had been resolved when the Veil borders opened to witches again. The remaining ones were more personal complications, like the fact that I considered myself far too blunt to ever be royalty, and I didn't know the first thing about taking care of an entire world full of people.

In any case, I was happy and in love. I knew this wasn't the end of the fight for unity between Sylvans and witches. Things just weren't that simple in real life, and we had a lot of work left to do, but things were moving in a good direction. As far as marriage and, very possibly, becoming a queen one day? I didn't know where that might take me, but that was okay.

I had plenty of time to decide my fate.