Epilogue
Nevara
The battle was over, and the war was won, but still visions churned behind my eyes, hovering just out of my reach.
I reached out to trace a familiar bottle in my liquor cabinet, feeling the jagged lines of the chipped paint and the raised edges of the embossed stars. It wasn’t time to open it yet.
The court was in an uproar over their half-Unseelie queen, even with the defense of the soldiers.
And I wouldn’t open this bottle when we still lived in a realm that believed the Shard Mother wanted them to exterminate children.
I froze as a vision hit me, a torture chamber up in flames. The Archmage smiling. Everly carrying a small child in rags while Draven corralled a larger group away from the flames.
You’re safe now, the queen whispered. No one is going to hurt children like you ever again.
Strong arms wrapped around me as the image faded, and the ghost of warm breath caressed the delicate shell of my ear.
“It’s a bit early for a nightcap, love. Even for you.” Soren’s voice was low and teasing, stirring something deep in my core.
I leaned back into him, relishing the way his skin was always the hotter side of warm and letting that warmth sear into me.
Another vision overtook me, another child, only this one had pale, shimmering hair and a smirk that was pure mischief as he twirled a stream of pale blue flames through the air.
The boy looked up, and my lips parted.
His angular eyes were golden… and utterly unburdened by the ability to See.
Visionaries only ever had one child, and that child was always female, and always fated to be the Shard Mother’s vessel for Winter. Draven told me he was searching for a way to free me from my chains, but I hadn’t thought that he would truly succeed.
It was only one possibility. I knew that. Just one branch on fate’s eternal tree, but…there was a warmth around the vision, like the Shard Mother was sending it not just to comfort me, but to reassure me that I would find my way there.
I turned in Soren’s arms, catching his mouth with my own.
The moment his lips touched mine, I saw another vision of the future, bathed in the same warm glow as the first.
It was Everly, her shimmering wings on display as she danced with Draven in the Great Hall, smiles stretched across both of their faces. What was more, the vast room was filled to the brim.
Batty flapped overhead while Lumen made a game of trying to eat her. Wynnie whispered something in Eryx’s ear that made the stoic male’s cheeks turn red. Courtiers twirled and chattered, their shoulders absent of the tension that had plagued the palace for as long as I had been alive.
The entire room was bustling with movement and echoing with the unmistakable sound of laughter.
And for the first time, I saw myself, standing at Soren’s side, letting him pour me the last of the shimmering midnight liquid from a deep blue bottle with chipped constellations painted on the side.
“It is early.” I murmured against Soren’s lips, basking in the rare impending feeling of peace. “But we’ll drink it soon.”
THE END