Epilogue - Warm Mornings
Wrenora
There was a cat purring against my ear, the blanket tucked tightly around me, and no sign of Callan other than a pack near the door that hadn’t been there the day before.
I slipped from the sofa, pulling my dress and boots back on and scratching the top of Fynn’s head before I snuck out of the study.
The silence of the Ice Fortress was almost more terrifying than the screams of the day before.
I worried Callan had left and taken Cassmira to Dyga without me.
From room to room I wandered. It reminded me of the morning I’d woken before the sun.
The morning I’d melted the frozen woman in the throne room.
After searching the upper levels, I stood at the back of the main hall, expecting to find the bodies of dead elves and Callan’s mother, but they were gone.
The dead had been taken away, leaving nothing but blood stains and gore as the only proof there’d been a battle.
The door to the throne room stood open, light from the sun casting chaotic shadows on the wall.
The sun? I must have been mistaken. The sun hadn’t shown for years in Telrain.
I followed the pull of the ribbon around my ribs, knowing now it was Callan at the end of it—that thread of Fate tying us to one another.
I hadn’t expected the destruction. The throne had been skewered by a giant icicle.
Both of the massive windows had been shattered into countless pieces that littered the floor, the curtains torn to shreds.
Snow had drifted into piles near the exterior wall and the sides of the throne where the wind collected it.
Fragments of ice were scattered everywhere, making me happy I’d thought to slip my boots on.
And there he stood facing the view of the Breven Mountains, his hands tucked behind his back. He stood perfectly still. Could he feel the pulling of the thread that endlessly tugged us together? After a few more seconds he turned toward me, a gentle grin on his face.
“Do you plan to stare at my backside all day?”
Heat prickled up into my cheeks as I crossed the room. “I thought you’d snuck away with Cassmira.”
He took my hand and pulled me against his chest, wrapping his strong arms around my shoulders, instantly warming me.
“I may have tried.”
I pushed from his arms, glaring at him as best as I could, but truth be told, the smug grin on his face was so much more endearing than the scowl I had been so used to seeing.
“She took your words to heart and refused to take me.” His grin grew into a brilliant smile. “Congratulations, you’re now the proud master of a sassy frost phoenix.”
I blinked a few times before he pulled me back into his arms, kissing the top of my head.
“Where is everyone?” I asked, still confused by the silence of the Ice Fortress.
“When I woke this morning, the remaining guards had just finished collecting the bodies of the dead in the bailey.” He paused.
The silence might have been foreboding, but in his arms, nothing seemed as urgent or terrifying.
“I sent them with the servants to Neeva to the royal residence until they can find other work.”
“Was there no one from the uprising?”
He took a deep breath, letting it out long and slow, brushing over my hair and tickling my head.
“Only one poor terrified elf. I sent him and a couple of the guards to Dyga with a message for the rebellion leaders.” He sighed.
“They’ll be disappointed with Magdala’s treachery.
Apparently killing my mother was never part of their plan. "
I swallow hard, a new opinion of Magdala hardening my heart.
“We should find something for breakfast so we can be on our way,” he finally said.
I pushed from his arms again, this time, because I needed him to know.
“We can stay for a while if you need. Or...or maybe we should take Cassmira north. You have a map. You must have some idea of where to find more frost elves.” The words came unbidden, pouring from my soul.
“We can try to find them, and if we don’t after a few weeks, we can go to Dyga.
Or maybe we come back here, and I can try to imbue another sapphire or—”
He curled his fingers into my hair and pulled me to his lips, stealing the words from my mouth. Another hand slipped to my waist as my own wandered up his chest and slowly climbed into his hair holding him in place.
I was lost in his kiss, the world around us falling away. Nothing else mattered. For that moment, it was only us, his arm around me, my fingers in his hair. When we finally came up for air, he pressed his forehead to mine, hands framing my face.
“I know how to cure the winter blight.”
I pulled back from him, glaring as a grin tugged at his lips.
“How? What must we do? Where must we go?” His smile fell, and goosebumps bloomed over my arms.
He stepped into my space again, pressing his lips to my forehead as he took a deep breath. “You are the answer. You are the cure.”
The hair rose up on the back of my neck. “What?”
He smiled wide, showing his teeth. “Your magic is the only thing that can suppress mine. You are the cure to the winter blight.”
“I don’t understand?”
“Yesterday, when you stopped the snow from falling, when you melted the frozen woman in this exact spot,” he said as he looked down at his feet.
“When my fortress was melting. You are the warmth that will destroy the blight. Your magic will temper mine. I don’t need to find the frost elves, because I’ve found you. ”
“It can’t be that simple.”
“Can’t it?”
I glared at him long and hard until my eyes fell to his lips.
Could it be so simple? I turned toward the gaping hole in the wall that used to be two massive ice windows and marveled at the brilliant snow, sparkling in the morning sun.
The sky was so blue and cloudless it looked fake, like an old painting from a history book.
We stood in ruins, yet my heart had not been so full of hope in all my life.
“Perhaps I just needed a little sunshine.”
My attention snapped back to Callan as he grinned down at me, his eyes twinkling with mischief. He was going to be the death of me, and I would love every moment of it.
––––––––
I stood at the edge of the valley on the north side of the Ice Fortress, Cassmira perched beside me, wings spread wide to break the wind.
Strapped around her neck in a sack snuggled Fynn, wrapped tight in the blanket from Callan’s study.
Every few moments, I ran my fingers over his warm grey ears where they peeked from the top.
At the base of the valley, Callan stood with his back to us, his arms at his sides, head bowed in focus.
He stood like this for several minutes before he raised his head to look up at his creation.
A fortress that was the very embodiment of his power.
The ground shook as he raised his arms. I flinched, but Cassmira pulled her wings around me, tucking me back against her like I was her baby phoenix.
A massive fissure split open at Callan’s feet as the fortress warped and buckled in on itself.
First the spires fell, the ice cracking in several places.
The heavy tops speared into the base of the castle, shattering into countless glittering fragments.
Sheets of faceted ice fell away, swallowed whole into the crack in the permafrost. It took seconds for the fortress to return to the snow and ice from which it had been wrought, taking with it the bodies of the dead, the remnants of Magdala’s treachery, the beautiful faceted walls, and the icicle chandeliers.
It took the memory of the queen’s pale face, the blood smeared on the ice, the etched translucent ceilings.
It took Callan’s sanctuary—his study, the canisters of gems and shelves upon shelves of books.
For several long moments he stood perfectly still, hands stretched out at his sides, before he let them drop.
A smooth valley of snow remained where a magnificent fortress once dominated the horizon.
After several minutes of standing in silence, the sun burst through the clouds overhead, streaking through the last misty remains of the fortress.
It was ethereal. Like the smallest drops of golden light twisting through the frigid wind.
Callan turned away to watch, his eyes so sad as he said goodbye.
I pushed from Cassmira’s wings and raced down the edge of the valley through ankle deep snow, ignoring the cold wind that ripped at my face.
He yanked me into his arms once I was close enough, swinging my legs to the side as he cradled me against his chest with one arm.
I savored the heat of him as he planted a soft kiss on my lips.
He turned back toward where his fortress had been, and we both gazed across the valley. The mist had finally settled into a sheet of smooth snow, unblemished, as though nothing had ever been there.
But in the distance, there was something.
It poked up through the ice where the sun touched the surface, sprouted with two brilliant green leaves.
It might have been there before Callan destroyed his fortress, or it might have managed to rupture free of the permafrost when he’d disturbed it.
But either way, it was the first green thing I’d seen since the war.
Overhead, I heard a sound I hadn’t in ages—the chirps of birds. Behind us, Cassmira squawked as two tiny wrens flitted and danced in the sky before they landed near the green frond.
Callan looked down at me, a beautiful smile warming his face as he leaned to kiss me. “Spring.”
“Spring,” I repeated, kissing him again as I held his face between my hands.
I never wanted to stop kissing him, but we had much we needed to do. Together.
He glanced out at the wrens and the tiny plant again before he turned and carried me away to face our future.