Epilogue
Alira
Ten years later
Mom, I don’t know what kind of plant this is. I’ve been looking through Dad’s book and can’t find it,” Elyiru complains. Her dark hair has already grown past her hips.
I bend down next to her to examine the leaves. “Hmm. This is a tricky one, isn’t it? Why don’t we ask your father?” I pat her head, and she lets out a long sigh.
She loves to figure things out on her own, but she still has much to learn from her father.
“Kalel? Could you help us over here?” I call out to him.
He’s sketching out a mushroom he found growing along one of the tall, wide oak trees that grew where Alzhor’s castle once stood.
The rubble and half-standing columns make my old kingdom look like ruins from ancient times.
In a way, I suppose that they are. Half a millennium is nothing to blink away.
Moss clings to the sides of buildings that still partially stand, and trees from Florum Forest have all but devoured the holy land.
Kalel turns and gives me a warm smile. Our son is asleep on his chest, strapped on with a blanket that we learned how to weave into a holder.
Since waking up from the statues, we’ve learned so many things.
The entire world is different; so much changes with each generation of mortals, and with the demons and demigods too.
I glance down at my hands and frown. It’s odd because, unlike Mortem, we didn’t get to experience a world together.
It was like taking a long nap. So much so that I wasn’t even groggy when I awoke.
Neither was Kalel. If anything, I was confused why we were standing in the field where so many of our people had just died.
But when I looked out across the field of blue waving grass and a stunning new world to take in, there were no bodies on a cold black slab of rock.
The jagged onyx land had evolved into a wondrous blue sea of tall grass.
So beautiful that it looked like the ocean.
Devicit behind it, not destroyed or turned to rubble.
It was the opposite. The entire kingdom was consumed with life.
My heart fills with warmth as Kalel brushes a strand of my starlight hair back and gently hands me our son. He resembles me more than Elyiru does. She takes after her father with her dark hair and amber eyes, but she has my curiosity for the world, my heart.
Kalel kneels beside me and Elyiru. “Ah, this one is easy to get mixed up with the others.” He goes on to explain the fungus to Elyiru, but I stop listening before it gets too technical.
I accepted a long time ago that I wouldn’t bother with learning all the herbs in the forest. That’s his thing, and I love him for it.
It was initially hard after we woke up from our long rest. Kalel’s palace had burned down long ago, and along with it his apothecary. We searched for our old friends and only found them when we visited the cemeteries tucked away in a beautiful garden located in the center of the kingdom.
Nikolai had left a message for us on his gravestone, in case we ever returned. “We were able to live peaceful lives because of you. If you ever come back, go. Live the life you two deserve.”
We wept for them. And for all the time missed. Devicit was no longer Kalel’s home, and it wasn’t mine. We didn’t want anyone to know that we had returned, so we set out and found the cottage that we had stumbled upon in our early days.
Fate, some might say.
We return from our day trip in the woods and head back to our cottage. We added a few rooms to it over our first few years here. Kalel was able to make the pathway more hidden so no one could find us unless they had clear directions.
I sip my tea and smile, warmth growing in my chest as I watch Kalel put our children to bed. He kisses each of them on the forehead before returning to me and dotting my head with kisses too.
“Do you think they still tell stories about us in the kingdom?” Kalel muses as he takes my cup of tea and sets it down on the table. He pulls me onto his lap and wraps his arms around me lovingly.
The funny thing about lore is that it always stems from something at least a little true, and in the few times a year we make a trip to Devicit and walk amongst the civilians, we always hear the stories about a demon and a demigod who protected the kingdom.
How their statue mysteriously vanished a decade ago.
“I think they will for a long, long time,” I say, smiling as Kalel kisses me and runs his hand over my hip.
“I wish Nik and Tessa could’ve lived long enough to meet us in the new world,” he murmurs, eyes softening a bit with remorse.
“We will meet them again in Mortem. Someday, far from now, my love.” I press my forehead to his. But that’s still a long way to come.
Devourers live a long time.
As do demigods.
Somewhere far away, in kingdoms of mortals and demons and demigods, they tell our tale. One of suffering and hurt, understanding and forgiveness. How gods’ games can be thwarted, even against such cruel fates.
Once upon a demon’s heart…
The End