Chapter 39
Chapter
Thirty-Nine
KILLIAN
My kingdom is safe. The empire is healing.
Gifteds are free. My familiar makes me stronger every day.
Dragons have returned to our lands. The family I never thought I’d be lucky enough to have seems to grow every single day: a frost cat, Tristan, Cece, Math, and their unborn daughter all a part of it now.
My heart is so full it could fucking burst.
And my wife is happy and whole and safe in my arms.
It’s been a few months since the Battle of Fire and Ice as the bards have dubbed it, singing songs about it in taverns across the empire, and though there is still much to do, I can see the world we’re making taking shape. A better world for everyone.
More familiars are bonding with Gifteds everyday, as if the Makers are blessing us once more, rewarding all of us for stopping the darkness.
Cece and Math decided to go back to Helios to raise their daughter in the home they built there—not the physical home above the tavern since a certain Ice Queen insisted on building them an entirely new one right on the beach, big enough for them to add at least ten more to their brood should they wish to—but now that we know for sure mirroring a Gift causes no harm to the bearer, I’m able to borrow from Yara as often as I like, opening doorways between the two kingdoms as easy as breathing so visits happen nearly every day.
Thea stirs as I run a finger down her spine, along all of the new ink there.
Ancient runes that had called to her from the old magikal texts: strength; courage; family; love; loyalty; bread-making.
That particular one she and Dessa had gotten together when they’d been completely drunk on sweet ale from Sol.
I probably should have talked them out of it, but it was too funny not to let them continue.
I can see her lips curl upward, but her eyes remain closed as I trace the lines of my favorite one of all: the troth rune.
The one that we share. The one that saved her life that day.
The one that saves my life every day.
“That one’s my favorite too,” she says softly, eyes still closed. I frown wondering if I’d said the words through the pathway without realizing it. She cracks one eye open, her grin widening. “No, you didn’t, but I still know your mind, Killian Blackheart.”
I lean down and kiss her softly.
“That you do, love.”
She sighs and shifts enough that she can face me as I lie on the pillow next to her.
“Do you think they were steering it all, knowing how this would all end?” I know who she means. The Makers.
“I think they set us on paths that would lead us to each other, and then the rest was up to us.” I do think that Thea and I were destined for each other, that we were meant to be together and find our familiars and end this war and the atrocities Barony and the Alliance were committing against Gifteds, but I don’t think we had no choices of our own to make.
We had to find our own way to love, had to learn how much we could trust and mean to each other.
“Well, it’s a good thing I refused to accept that pathetic excuse for a kiss that night then,” she says with a sleepy grin.
“Pathetic excuse for a kiss,” I repeat, shaking my head, remembering that night so clearly, every detail seared into my memory forever. “I proved you wrong there, Red.”
“Hmm...did you? I can’t recall...”
That spark of mischief shines in those emerald eyes, and she squeals when I move, twisting and pulling her beneath me. She giggles, but there’s fire in her gaze when I grip her wrists, moving them slowly above her head, and pinning them there.
“Do you need a reminder?” I purr, leaning down and putting my lips a hairsbreadth from hers.
“Always,” she breathes.
I smile, my whole world shrinking to this room, this bed, this moment with the woman I love.
“As my queen commands.”