Epilogue
ESMéE
“Will this hold us?” I asked, leaning out on the window one last time, my eyes observing the ground sceptically.
“I wouldn’t let you do it if I wasn’t a hundred percent sure.” Hudson smiled, caressing my face, his icy blue eyes gleaming as he looked up at the night sky. “You’re really doing this aren’t you?” he breathed after a moment, and I nodded.
“I can’t stay here now. She killed everyone.” I brushed my fingertips over my belly.
“I told you my father wouldn’t mind you staying with us.”
“She would come after me, after us all.” I felt a sad smile play on my lips. “It’s the best this way.”
“You’ll be all alone, Ezzie.” Hudson got a hold of my hand, clenching it. “I don’t like it.”
I shook my head and inhaled, filling my chest with the warm air. “I won’t be alone.” I placed his palm on my belly. “I’ll always have a part of you with me.” I looked down at his signet ring. “Promise me you won’t tell anyone she’s yours. That you’ll protect yourself,” I whispered.
The thought of a world without Hudson Lamont made my insides shudder.
“As long as you don’t tell, it won’t care about you. If it knows you’re important to me—”
He leaned forward and pressed a kiss onto my forehead.
“I promise,” his words rang like a goodbye, which I wasn’t ready for. I blew out a nervous breath.
I had to be ready, I reminded myself.
“Maybe she’ll die soon,” I said, half-joking, half-hoping, getting a hold of the rope that Hudson fixed to the window head for me. The corner of his mouth turned into a small smile, which made my own widen into a grin. I loved to make him smile. It was a rare sight.
“Maybe.” He nodded, holding onto the rope, too.
I was halfway out the window when he stopped me one more time, his fingers trembling around my thigh.
“Will I see you—you two ever again?” His blue eyes swam in despair.
I wet my lips, trying to find my voice. When I did, it sounded much more cheerful than how I felt inside.
“Of course, silly.” I smiled. “Life is not that short.”
Hudson chuckled. “Is that a promise?” He sat down on the windowsill and pressed another kiss to the tip of my nose.
“It is,” I replied, pulling him closer by his shirt.
One kiss. A promise to our future.
Four flowers grew beside each other on the Hill of Thorns,
Four flowers, each delicate and true.
Until one of them grew their thorns too long,
And it cut down the flower that was close.
When the flower fell on the frozen ground and broke,
One flower ignored, one laughed, and one thought.
But neither of them knew,
The broken flower lived on and grew…