The Luna Queen's Rebirth (Ellie and Dominic) novel Chapter 523

Chapter 523

Ellie’s POV

The house was exactly how I remembered it. Dominic carried my bag upstairs before I could argue, and when I followed him into the bedroom, the closet door was already open. My side sat empty, just like he’d promised. A neat row of bare hangers, waiting.

I made it through hanging two shirts before my phone went wild. Dozens of calls and text messages came pouring in, some old, some ringing in my hand as I stood there, looking at the screen.

Lucas’s name popped up first. Call waiting.

“Hello?” I answered.

“Ellie. We have reservations for tonight. You, me, Abigail, Sarah-”

“Hello to you too,” I grinned.

There was a pause. Then, I could hear the smile in his voice as he said, “Let’s save the reunion for chips and salsa, eh?”

The restaurant that evening was loud and warm and smelled like fryer oil and lime. Sarah had gotten us the corner booth, and Abigail spotted me from across the room and started waving frantically, grinning wider than I’d ever seen in this life or the last.

There were hugs. There was shrieking, most of it Sarah’s. Lucas held me at arm’s length and looked me up and down like he was checking for injury. Most of mine had healed by now, although the cut above my brow was still a little red and angry.

“Satisfied?” I asked, placing my hands on his arms.

He nodded once and released me. “You’re intact, which is more than I could have asked for,” he said. “You only wrote once, though.”

I winced. “Sorry,” I said, sliding into the booth next to Sarah. I scratched my head. “I was, uh… Busy.”

The waiter arrived with our chips and salsa, and my friends all looked at me, waiting expectanctly.

With a deep breath, I told them everything, or at least what I could fit in one sitting. Vivian. Stephanie. The expedition. The tomb. By the time I got to the part where Dominic and I walked into our own funeral, my friends, especially Lucas, were looking at me like I had grown a second head.

“I know,” I muttered, staring at my placemat. “It’s… a lot.”

“A lot?” Lucas leaned in. “Ellie, you almost died.”

“Like, multiple times,” Sarah said.

I smiled wryly and gave them all a look that didn’t need saying out loud. Maybe I’d be reborn again. Maybe not. Either way, death felt a little less daunting after going through it once.

“A few weeks, no, and no,” I laughed. “We’re waiting until it’s further along to tell people. You three don’t count. You’d have figured it out on your own anyway.”

“Obviously,” said Sarah, flipping a strand of hair over her shoulder.

Lucas tilted his head. “So does this mean you’re staying? No more traveling?”

I hesitated. It was a question I’d been asking myself in the mirror ever since I saw those two positive lines, every morning when I woke up and saw a still-flat belly staring back at me. Stay home. With Dominic. Become his Luna, help with the campaign, return to my old duties-

Or go on another adventure. Another assignment. Another story to live out.

Right now, I knew I wanted to be home. That much was for certain. But maybe someday…

“I’m staying,” I finally said when my friends started getting impatient. “We’re having the baby here. That part’s easy.” I turned my water glass in a circle on the table. “It’s the part after that I keep going back and forth on. Hanna’s going to ask about my next assignment sooner or later, and I don’t know what I’m going to tell her.”

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