Epilogue Auria
We emerged from the shadows cast by cliffs surrounding the grotto where I’d first met Bylur as a bear. No, a dyrakongur. A full moon reflected light on the water in front of us, and from there into even lighter reflections on the stones around us.
Bylur extended a hand, and light sparkled in his palm. “I told you I inherited moon magic.”
I nodded, reaching for the sparkling light. It danced across my fingertips, matching the airy feeling in our bond as he’d gathered the light.
He dropped his hand, and the light shimmered in the air for a few seconds before fading away.
“My earring is an artifact made from a piece of moonstone that magnifies the moon’s magic.
It’s a light magic, but it scatters more easily than any other power.
My earring makes it easy to stabilize.” I’d seen his earring a few times since I’d first looked at him, but the last few days had been so busy, I hadn’t asked him about it.
He reached in a pocket and pulled out a silver band with a small, glowing stone set in the center of it. “This is also an artifact made from a piece of moonstone. I believe that it will allow you to use moon magic more easily, though you’ll also have to be wearing the key.”
I opened my hand, and he slipped it onto my middle finger. Light danced around my hand, and I felt its energy as easily as I felt Bylur’s shadows. “This is amazing,” I whispered.
He lifted my hand to his lips and pressed a kiss on top of my fingers. “I’m so glad it works.”
“Only because you gave me the key. Otherwise, Parcival said that humans can’t usually use fae magic, though the marriage bond lets them feel it.”
He chuckled. “I’m glad you’ve discovered the usefulness of Parcival’s vast knowledge, but—” He turned his hand to emphasize my mother’s ring on his smallest finger.
He’d had an elf with metal magic enlarge it so it fit perfectly.
“In this case, your gift sealed the magic. It secured the link between us and your heart—” He pressed two fingers against my chest, just above my heart.
“Your heart let me in. The key never would have worked if you hadn’t trusted me. ”
That called for another kiss.
I tugged him closer to me, and relaxed into his embrace. Magic swirled around us—black shadows and bright moonlight—but also through us, invisibly pulling our hearts together and bridging our souls so that I felt Bylur’s love as easily as I felt my own thoughts.
I wanted to stay here all night, warmed by Bylur and the power that he carried, but he pulled back. “Time to go, before I change my mind and keep you here forever.”
I curled my face into his chest. “Forever sounds nice.”
He wrapped his arms tighter around my back. “You do remember that with the fae marriage bond, our hearts are tied together? You will live as long as me. We will have thousands of years to come here.”
“That doesn’t make me excited to go speak to some of my biggest fears.”
He stroked my hair. “I won’t force you.”
Leaning away from his comforting chest, I straightened up. “I know. And I love you for that. I also love you for coming with me and holding my hand while I do it.”
He offered me a hand, and I set mine in his. “Loving you is such a wild trust,” I said, intertwining my fingers between his. “It’s like you’re in my heart, calming every fear as it erupts.”
He squeezed my fingers, and guided me out of the grotto, keeping our feet dry with his shadows.
“Loving you has brought the most wonderful kind of chaos into my life.” We turned a bend around the cliffs.
“You’ve filled a hole in my heart that I didn’t even realize was there.
” He paused in the middle of the river and brought a hand to my chin, grazing his thumb along my jawline.
“Now I need your chaos to balance my structure.”
I grinned at him. “I didn’t know I needed your structure in my life either. But it’s been better than I ever could have imagined.”
He nudged my chin up and brushed a quick kiss across my lips while water rushed past us. I smiled against his skin. “This river is a lot more romantic when your shadows are keeping us dry.”
He chuckled, scooped me up in a cradle hold, and planted a kiss on the top of my head while he crossed over the ice on the edge of the river. “I can think of more ways to bring romance into this little adventure.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck. “Be careful there, you might get accused of being spontaneous again.”
He laughed out loud. “As long as it’s with you.”
He carried me down a gentle slope and past a few scattered trees until I spotted the lone tree with white, peeling bark. He set me down and pointed at a small shimmering circle on its trunk. “Would you like me to go first?”
My mind skipped back to when I’d come through before. “I think if you touch it, it will expand big enough that we can both go through at the same time.” He touched it and, like I’d remembered, the shimmering circle grew as large as a door.
Before we walked through it, he pulled a case out of the shadows. I raised a questioning brow.
“I’ve never tried walking through a shadow to another dimension,” he explained. “I think it will be safer if I carry the money through, and then use the shadows again.”
As we walked through the portal, a silver haze blocked my view of everything else.
On the other side, a small, dark cottage sat exactly how I’d left it.
Even the broken painting frame still lay in a heap on the floor.
We picked our way across the bedroom and then through the main room.
The door outside was unlocked, and Bylur opened it.
He latched it behind us and then stared at it for a moment.
“You want to report it to the Autumn courts?” I asked, guessing based on the conflict in his emotions.
He shook his head and started moving us through the forest. “Want is a strong word. I do not plan to tell anyone about it, but there is a part of me that is curious about their missing princess and if she created the portal. And if so, why?”
“How long has she been missing?” I asked.
He shrugged. “I don’t remember. Over a hundred years. The only reason we were aware was because they visited every court asking if we’d seen her. Nobody knew anything about her, and Kalshana does not have a history of intermingling with other courts. But I cannot help a little curiosity now.”
“I’m curious too,” I said, “but mostly I’m just relieved that it led me to you.”
He took my hand while we walked. “Yes, I’m curious about that too. Did your bird know it was there? Or did he sense it after you ran into the house?”
“I have no idea.” For most of my life, Rat had stalked me like a hovering mother hen, but for the last few weeks, he’d given me more and more space, like he trusted me not to get myself killed twice a day. I nudged Bylur with my elbow. “I think he finally warmed up to you.”
Bylur shook his head. “He still flies at my face any time I come close to kissing you.”
I laughed. “Yes, but he doesn’t stay as close to me as he used to. If he didn’t trust you, I’m sure he’d still be hovering.”
We approached the outskirts of town, and Bylur shifted us to walk toward a soldier patrolling.
I expected to feel my lungs freeze, but…
they did not. Somehow, after all that had happened since I’d been here last, this lone elf soldier did not inspire the dread he once would have.
Bylur’s shadows had protected me from swords and fire—what could this one soldier do?
As I had the thought, Bylur unleashed a pool of shadows, and we stalked up to the soldier with the darkness writhing around us.
The soldier pointed a sword at us—a sword that I knew we could disarm with shadows. “Who are you and why are you here?”
Bylur answered like a king. “We are Bylur and Auria, Lord and Lady of the fae House Umbran. Take us to your magistrate.”
“I’m sure he’d like to see you, my lord,” the soldier stammered, “but it is in the middle of the night. Would you like to return in the morning?”
“No.” Bylur left no room for argument. “We will see him now.”
The soldier spun silently around and gestured for us to follow him. We marched to the center of the town, along familiar streets that I had survived on for years. This had been the home where I grew up, but I had no desire to ever live here again.
I squeezed Bylur’s hand. No, I truly had nothing left behind here, besides fears of elves catching up to me and demanding payment or incarceration. Every positive feeling I had associated with home was either from my earliest childhood or the last few months in Kalshana.
We approached a large brick home in a neighborhood I’d always avoided. I knew the town’s prison and office buildings were here. I did not realize the magistrate had a small mansion as well. We marched up to the door and the soldier rapped with a metal knocker.
Moments later, another guard opened the door. They exchanged a brief conversation, and the new soldier looked at me with a terrifying recognition. Then he disappeared. Our escort faced us. “I suspect he’ll come down, but we’ll wait out here.”
Bylur squeezed my hand and sent the warmest, most loving emotions at me through our bond.
He might have made a council, but he looked and spoke like a king, with his attending shadows and stoic expression.
And the feelings that he sent through the bond to me chased away the fear and trepidation that had once threatened me.
A few minutes later, the door opened again. The same soldier wrinkled his nose at me and faced Bylur. “Lord Maltidor will see you in his study.”
Bylur’s stone-faced expression did not change. “He will see both of us.”
The soldier opened his mouth, but then closed it and nodded, gesturing for us to follow him.
The study had wooden walls painted a dark blue and a bare, hardwood floor. One empty wooden seat waited for us across a desk from an elf who looked middle-aged, which meant he could be anywhere from five hundred to five thousand years old.
Bylur motioned for me to sit in the empty seat, and then he squeezed my shoulder.
I faced the magistrate. “My name is Auria, and I’m here to pay for small thefts I committed during the last fourteen years.”
The magistrate’s face hardened. “You stole for fourteen years?”
I lifted my chin. “No. There were times when I worked as a maid or did other errands too. But there were quite a few things I stole over the course of the last fourteen years, mostly small foods.”
The magistrate pulled out a ledger and started turning pages. He ignored us for several minutes while he muttered to himself and scanned the rows of notes.
Finally, he looked up and said, “I believe your fine would be seven hundred gold pieces. Are you prepared to pay that much?”
Bylur’s warm emotions filled my heart, and I smiled. “Yes.”
The magistrate tapped his ledger. “Thieves typically perform a penance as well, something to make up for the chaos they created in the community.”
Bylur stepped closer. “I propose an additional fine that could be used to benefit the community instead.”
The magistrate narrowed his eyes. “I suppose we could double the fine, if that’s what you would prefer.”
Bylur bent down, pulled the case out of the shadows, and set it on the magistrate’s desk with a clunk. He opened it to reveal thousands of gold coins and piles of diamonds. “I believe this should cover that.”
The magistrate’s eyes bulged. “This is a king’s treasure.” He glared at me. “Did you steal it?”
My eyes widened, but Bylur’s face hardened and shadows lowered the temperature of the room. “Auria has inherited the wealth of the winter fae’s richest lord. Who are you to question where it came from?”
The magistrate stood to face Bylur. “I am appointed by the King of Hemlit to oversee justice in this quadrant. Paying for one crime by committing another is not just.”
Bylur leaned over the desk. “I told you she inherited it.”
“That could be a clever way to word theft.”
“Then let me elaborate. She inherited it through marriage. To me. You offered her a fee. Are you retracting that offer?”
The magistrate leaned back and folded his arms. “No. Since it was legally procured, I will accept her payment and clear her name.”
“Good.” Bylur extended a hand to me. I took it, stood, and we turned to the door.
“There is extra,” the magistrate called. “Would you like to wait for me to count it?”
Bylur waved his hand as we walked out the door. “No,” he called without looking back. “Improve your little town, or quadrant, with it.”
We’d already entered the hall when I had one more idea. “Wait!” I ran back to the doorframe and looked at the magistrate. “There’s an orphan who lives on your streets who goes by Crusty. Use some of the extra to help him find a home.”
Once the magistrate nodded an agreement, I ran back to Bylur. He wrapped me in a side hug, and pulled me into the shadows. We stepped out in the little cottage, walked through the portal, and then used shadows to get back home.
As soon as we were in our room, I crashed into Bylur’s chest with a full-body hug.
“What’s that for?” he asked, stroking my hair.
“I’m so glad we did that.” I hadn’t realized the weight that avoiding that fear had burdened me with. “I feel so free now.”
He chuckled. “Good. I want you to feel free. And happy.” He tucked a piece of hair behind my ear, just like he had hours ago. “Now, what were we doing before all of that?”
I grinned at him and reached a hand up to his cheek. “Some kind of nightmare prevention, I think.”
He laughed and bent down to kiss me, but I stopped him with a finger on his lips. “Truly, though, Bylur, you have to know, you’ve destroyed all the fears that have plagued me the most. I’ve never felt so safe and confident in my life.”
He smiled against my finger. “Then maybe it’s time to start making some new dreams.”
I moved my finger away from his mouth as he pressed a kiss to my lips. Shadows and light swirled around us, wrapping us in a magic that glowed in the deepest corners of my heart.
This was the best dream possible—a lifetime with this fae who loved me, and who I loved back. A perfect blend of fantasy and reality and trust and acceptance. A dream worth living.