Epilogue
MORGAN
Ihear the door to the cottage and quickly hide the knives I’ve been polishing under the cloth as Bryn comes in.
She’s dressed in a peach colored gown that Dawn helped her choose from the Trading Post, and her hair is plaited and wrapped around her head like a crown. She wears a necklace Jak bought for her while we were in Kitore.
Over the past few weeks, she’s settled into life in the village. She’s happy.
It helps that the deal she made with Calder has been voided by the Underhill of course, and that she’s been given leave to stay in Halsford for as long as she wishes without any stipulations at all.
It annoyed me that the Council Five didn’t accept that Bryn had done everything asked of her, though. As far as I’m concerned, she upheld her end. She went to the Dark and put herself in harm’s way to get the fae bitch. It’s not her fault Fiana got away.
But, I suppose I understand in bureaucratic terms. Once they realized that Voss wasn’t who he was pretending to be, and that Calder had been foolish enough to be manipulated so completely by Fiana’s spy, he was taken off the Fae Council too.
Last I heard, he slunk off with his tail between his legs and rarely leaves his home now.
If I get the chance to kill him, I still might, but, for now, he’s in a place where I cannot get to him.
I’m trying to be content with the fact that he has been stripped of all his power, both in the Underhill and in Halsford.
I wish I’d been able to get Voss, but Lia and Bryn had it in hand. Hopefully, he’s either dead, or far beneath the First City, a prisoner of its wards until he succumbs to starvation and thirst.
I smile darkly at the thought.
Bryn puts some packages on the top of the cupboard in the kitchen, humming to herself. When she finally notices me, she jumps but her smile is wide and unbridled.
‘I didn’t know you were back.’
‘We finished the final cottage this morning,’ I say. ‘But we’re building ten more just over the rise.’
‘For Fiana’s former slaves?’
I nod. ‘That will be their part of the village for now.’
‘I’m glad they’re allowed to stay.’
I snort. ‘The Underhill has their own problems. So long as the village doesn’t fall to their enemies, and we don’t become a liability to them, they no longer seem to care what Halsford decides. At least for now, though some of them would likely be pleased if we killed each other.’
She frowns. ‘Do you think that will happen? That the Light Realmers and the Dark will fight amongst themselves again?’
I shrug, sitting back in my chair. ‘Who can say? Many are afraid that it will happen as it did before, but there will be safety measures in place, and, thanks to Tavish’s very vocal change of heart, there are quite a few in Halsford who think it could work.
We’ll have to see. At least with Gwen back on the Village Council along with Lia, we won’t be thwarted every time a change needs to be made. ’
Bryn nods and turns away from me, pulling at her dress a bit.
I raise a brow. ‘Are you feeling well? The need you sometimes feel, is it upon you?’
Is it wrong that I almost wish it was?
I feel as if it’s been ages since I took my little human to my bed, but, after how she saw me in Fiana’s dungeon, I’m not certain if she wants to be there any longer. She hasn’t asked it of me.
She shakes her head. ‘No, I haven’t felt it since Merediea.’
She turns away and mumbles something that I’m not sure I hear correctly.
‘What did you say?’ I ask, sitting forward.
She turns back, looking annoyed. ‘I said that I wish it would come upon me, then at least you’d…’
She lets out a huff, and I regard her with a dawning awareness and dismay.
Have I not provided for my female? Has she been left wanting?
I stand in one swift motion.
‘Come here, my little human,’ I growl, and I watch her eyes heat. ‘Explain.’
She walks across the room slowly and peers up at me. ‘You haven’t come to me, or invited me to your bed since we returned to Halsford,’ she says and it sounds accusing to my ears. ‘None of you have.’
She purses her lips. ‘I despise sleeping alone.’
I draw her close to me, embracing her. ‘I’m sorry. We thought we were doing the right thing. We thought you might be upset, going back to the Dark Realms again, thinking you were stuck there, that you were Fiana’s. We wanted to give you time…’
‘I don’t need time. I need my mates.’
I let out a groan. ‘I promised the others we’d all be together when the time was right.’
Bryn steps back, and begins to unlace the bodice of her dress. ‘The right time is now. It’s their own faults if they aren’t here,’ she states and I can’t help my chuckle.
They’ll likely both be here soon anyway, but I have a plan this time. I’ve been thinking of it for weeks, practically coming in my breeches every time I think about it.
I take her hands to stop her from unlacing any further.
‘Wait.’
Her luminous eyes look up at me in question. ‘You don’t want…?’
‘I do,’ I promise. ‘Gods, I do, but,’ I squeeze her fingers gently. ‘First, there’s something I want to give you.’
I step away and go to the table, uncovering the knives and picking them up, hiding them from her view.
‘I had these made for you.’
I show her the two matching knives.
‘They’ll fit nicely at your thigh,’ I murmur, allowing myself to feel excitement as she gazes upon my gift to her and looks pleased.
‘Locke worked some intricate conjures over them. They’re impossibly sharp but will never cut you, nor anyone you care for.
You’ll never be able to lose them, either.
They’ll always make their way back to you.
’ I shrug. ‘Locke explained how, but I stopped listening after the first few minutes. But I wanted you to have some that were yours and yours alone.’
‘They’re beautiful, Morgan,’ Bryn breathes. ‘I love them.’
She loves them.
She curls her arms around me, squeezing tightly and the euphoria I feel has rarely been matched in my life before.
‘Do you trust me?’ I whisper and I feel her nod. ‘Good. Put the knives on the table.’
She hesitates, looking as if she doesn’t want to part with them even for a moment and I grin. Turning away, I go to the middle of the room where the thick beam of the ceiling goes across, and I feel for the rope I tied there days ago, letting it fall down.
When I turn back to her, she’s giving me a questioning look.
I beckon her and she comes to stand in front of me. ‘What are you?—’
I hush her. ‘Trust, remember?’
She nods and I take her wrists, binding them together loosely with the rope. Her lips part. Her breaths quicken.
‘If we begin and you don’t like anything, you must only say and I’ll stop. I can cut the rope in but a moment,’ I assure her.
She nods a little hesitantly, but lets me draw her arms over her head. I tighten the rope over the beam until her boots are only just on the floor.
Perfect.
Her eyes don’t leave me as I step closer to her and take hold of her throat, squeezing gently as I kiss her lips. I nip at them and she moans quietly.
When I step back, her pupils are huge and her breathing heavy.
‘Is that all right?’ I ask. ‘Your wrists don’t hurt?’
She flexes her fingers and shakes her head.
‘But what are you going to?—’
‘Hush.’
I run my hands down her arms to cup her face and kiss her again, teasing my fingers down the front of her bodice to her thighs.
Falling to my knees before her, I take off her boots, making her giggle and kick at me when I tickle her toes.
Moving her skirts out of my way, I take one of her legs and put it over my shoulder. Then take the other in my hand and kiss the top of her foot to her ankle, and on to her calf. I’m slow, my lips moving up in a line to her knee.
She’s restless, wriggling on the line like a fish I’ve caught and I grin as I delve under her dress and begin to lick up the inside of her thigh.
When I reach the apex, I pause and I grin to myself wickedly as I bite a meaty chunk of her flesh with my sharp teeth just hard enough to bruise so she can wear my mark for a few days. She squeals, but she doesn’t tell me to stop.
I grasp her legs tightly and bury my face between her thighs, licking her from the top of her arse to the bud of her pleasure, my tongue delving shallowly into her cunt.
Her hips bounce and I grip her tighter, licking her in earnest. The sounds of her pleasure are the things of dreams. Mine, at least.
But just as she’s about to crest, I hear a throat clear.
I blow out a sigh into my little human’s flesh and she whimpers.
As I try to pull away to see who’s interrupting my feast, though I have my suspicions, Bryn mewls and tries to keep me where she wants me, clasping her legs around me and not letting go.
Still beneath her dress, I let out a laugh, biting her other thigh.
She squeals and lets me go abruptly. I emerge from under her skirts tutting at her.
‘When you’re bound for my pleasure, my little human, I decide when you find it,’ I growl, taking her throat again. ‘If I wish it, you’ll beg, understand?’
Her eyes are a haze of lust as she nods.
As I suspected, it seems she does enjoy these kinds of games.
My lips turn upward. So do I.
‘Good female,’ I murmur and she swallows hard.
Now, I turn to find both Locke and Jak in the cottage. They’re standing by the door, their faces a mix of surprise and lust.
‘I thought we were waiting,’ Jak says, but steps closer as if he can’t help himself.
I shrug. ‘I’ve barely begun.’
I grab one of the knives from the table as I swing back to my female, deftly cutting the laces of her gown. I pull it from the eyelets in one swift move, making Bryn take in a quick breath.
‘I’ll buy you a new lace,’ I say low as I move around her and, for Jak and Locke who are staring, I part the gaping cloth a little, giving them a tantalizing glimpse of her tits.
I graze her nipples, plucking at them as I bare her to their views.
I see them both swallow hard.
Jak steps closer. ‘Are you all right?’ he asks her. ‘Are you sure you want this?’
Bryn’s cheeks pinken as she nods.