Epilogue
EPILOGUE
Lucenna
L ucenna cast her magic into the Essentia Dimensio . The glowing purple net spread into the darkness far and wide, but for the third time it faltered and faded away. It was no use.
Sighing, Lucenna opened her eyes. “I can’t find him. He’s been veiled.”
Klyde stood with his arms crossed at the edge of the cascades flowing over the cliff. He was quiet, simply staring out at the sun setting on the horizon. The ends of his blue tunic rippled in the wind. Without his mercenary coat, he seemed vulnerable, like his armor had been removed.
It was neatly folded with her satchel resting beside her. Along with his weapons. The emblem of a bird’s skull stood out on the dark blue fabric. Once a symbol of what united his family.
“I’m sorry, Klyde.”
“It’s not your fault, love.” He rubbed his face. “I should have known something was wrong. Tavin’s right. I am a liar. I should have told him the truth a long time ago.”
Everyone lied at some point, but she couldn’t fault him for lying to protect his nephew. The one thing Klyde had always been honest about was how he felt about the people he loved.
His clenched fists trembled. “I fear what he will do to him…”
“We will get him back, Klyde.” Lucenna brushed his cheek, his tired eyes meeting hers. “We know where Tarn is headed, and the portal could only take them so far. It’s a long road from here to Harromog Modos. If we take the train, there is a chance we’ll stop him before he ever reaches the Wishing Well.”
His eyes lightened with sudden awareness. “There is an Elder Tree at the heart of Naiads Mere.”
Lucenna gaped. “Are you sure?”
“Aye, its deep below in those waters. I’ve seen it. Well, I’m certain I did. I was a little distracted by the beautiful half-naked nymphs attempting to drown me.”
She arched a brow. “Are you trying to make me jealous?”
He grinned. “Is it working?”
She swatted him arm. “If we reach it, we could use that Elder Tree to jump to the wishing well rather than trekking across the desert.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
She pivoted on her heel toward the direction of forest in the direction of their camp. “I’ll tell the others.”
But Klyde took her hand and spun her back to him and kissed her. It was an aching kiss, one that felt like goodbye.
Lucenna pulled back a little to search his eyes. “You’re going after Tavin alone, aren’t you?”
It wasn’t really a question because he had already decided.
Klyde looked down and his brow furrowed. “On the day Tavin was born, I swore to never abandon him. He doesn’t know what kind of man Tarn is or what he would do to him for his own gain. I must find him as soon as I can, and I can only move fast if I am alone.”
She nodded reluctantly, but she knew this was the right call.
“Once Tavin is safe, I will return to you. Then I will help you find your Moonstone and take down the Archmage.”
Lucenna gasped softly. “What?”
The speckles in his eyes gleamed like sunlight glimmering on the ocean. “My wicked storm. You will blow through the empire, and I plan to be right by your side, watching as you do.”
Merely hearing that gave her courage. She would return to Magos one day and knowing he would be there gave her all the strength she needed.
But it also scared her.
After thinking he had died yesterday, she never wanted to feel that crushing weight in her chest again.
“It’s too dangerous, Klyde. That small mage battle in Dwarf Shoe is nothing compared to a full out war with magic.”
He tucked a lock of silver hair behind her ear and said in a voice as warm as a summer breeze. “I have faced many dangers in my life, Lucenna. This one is no different except in only one thing. I am fighting to protect someone I love.”
Her eyes watered and she whispered, “I told you not to tell me that…”
“You have bewitched me, lass. How could you expect me not to fall hopelessly in love with you?”
As Lucenna looked at this wonderfully ridiculous man, she knew in that moment, she wanted him forever. It was a frightening feeling, but for once she was not afraid of the future anymore. Because she was ready to have him.
To be with him. To call him hers. Whatever fear she had of opening her heart to him had been washed away beneath the gentle tide of his gaze. She had never expected to fall in love with him either, but she did.
She was in love with Klyde.
With the cunning, playful, protective, deadly, patient, gentle man who intruded into her life. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t a mage. In many ways, they were completely different, but her heart chose him.
Not because he was ridiculously handsome or because of those damn dimples that appeared every time he smiled at her. And certainly not because he had a mouth that made her see stars.
It was because Klyde looked at her like she was the very moon of his sky and didn’t expect anything more than that.
Clutching his shirt, Lucenna rose on her toes and pressed her lips too his. He kissed her languidly, softly at first, sweet and gentle, but she gripped his forearms because she had never wanted sweet.
Then his hands tangled in her hair and his mouth responded urgently, with a need they had both been starving for. His groaned against her lips and she felt it rumble all the way down to center. He may not have had any magic, but he knew exactly how to make her lose herself blissfully, completely, and utterly in him.
She was going to miss him. And the way he kissed her, as though he intended to memorize the very shape of her mouth.
Why had she resisted him for so long?
Lucenna laughed against his lips.
“What’s so amusing?” Klyde asked, resting his forehead against hers.
“You were right.”
“I normally am, but what about this time?”
She leaned back a bit and brushed her fingers over the stubble on his jaw. “About what would happen if you shaved.”
Klyde’s lips curved in that sly, cocksure grin that she thought she had hated. “I did say you would fall so helplessly in love with me.”
“That it wouldn’t be fair.” She smiled. “I wonder, who fell first.”
“I was mad for you the moment you held a knife to my throat, and all I could do was beg the gods. Whether it was for mercy or for thanks, I still do not yet know. You have me by the bollocks, woman. They’re yours now.”
She squealed with laughter. “How romantic. I suppose I will keep them as long as I have everything else attached to them.”
Klyde grinned at that, but as he gazed at her it wavered, the first sign he of the worry she knew had been building inside of him. He sighed and cradled her hands in his. “Lucenna, there is something I need to—” He froze, staring down at her fingers. “What happened to your ring?”
“I took it off.”
His eyes widened. “Why?”
Lucenna smiled at him shakily. She had removed it last night after nearly losing him. It was the moment she knew she loved him. “Because of you.”
But Klyde didn’t look happy. All she saw on his face was pure panic.
And fear.
“When did you remove it?”
She frowned, confused. “A few days ago. I am not going to marry him anymore. I don’t need the ring.”
“Yes you do!” He riffled through her satchel franticly. “Where is it? Put it on, Lucenna. I need you to put it on!”
“Klyde, stop, you’re scaring me.”
The orb in the grass by her feet pulsed white as her temple throbbed with Lucien’s alarm. Klyde glanced past her, and his breath shuddered.
Lucenna whipped around. Amber eyes looked back at her. The shade belonged to face she had nearly forgotten and had wished to forget. The sight of him froze her on the spot.
Her mind stuttered, not sure if what she was seeing was real. She didn’t want to believe the one in black robes standing a few feet away from them was real, even as the immense might of his power pressed against her very being like a wall of stone.
His name fell from her lips in a soft gasp. “Everest…”
The crown prince of the Magos Empire gazed at her the way he always had. But now she recognized it for what it was—conniving and emotionless. Everest smiled at her, and she felt the ire behind it. A spike of dread sent a cold rush through her entire body. So cold that her skin rose with goosebumps.
Red Essence bled into Everest’s eyes as magic spiraled from his hands, and she knew why he had come.
And what he was going to do.
Klyde shoved her roughly out of the way. She hit the ground. The next seconds were stretched into minutes. Breaths stretched into infinity. Time slowed with only the streak of red light blazing past her—because the attack wasn’t meant for her.
A grunt whooshed out Klyde.
They both stared at the crackling spear of magic that pierced straight through his stomach and out his back. Then there was blood. So much…blood. It bloomed from his tunic like a bloody rose, soaking through the fabric. A whimper caught in Lucenna’s throat.
She couldn’t speak, couldn’t breathe.
That shouldn’t have been possible… she then felt the glass vial of the four-leaf clover around her neck instead of his.
“Thank you for returning her to me, mercenary,” Everest mused. “But I’m afraid your services are no longer required.”
Seventeen words.
Seventeen knives that cleaved into her heart.
Lucenna shook with cold horror and disbelief.
Blood leaked from Klyde’s trembling lips as his wet eyes lifted to hers. They shone with remorse and so much he wished to say. But told her only one thing.
“On your feet, lass…”
Then red magic wrenched him thought the air.
He sailed over the cascade and his body vanished into the mist. Gone to where she could not follow.
Lucenna’s mouth opened with a soundless scream.
No sound tore from her throat.
No air passed through her lungs.
Her body could no move as every part of her shredded apart.
She couldn’t think past the pain demolishing her from the inside. Couldn’t do anything as Klyde vanished from her life. Her chest burned. She couldn’t breathe. Her vision blurred as all grew dark. She hardly felt the crackle of red Essence envelope her limp body.
“There you are, my sweet,” Everest said with an easy smile. His red eyes glowed with cold satisfaction, and he caressed her tear-stained face. “Who knew that damn ring would be such a hindrance to me, but alas I found you. As promised.”
With a wave of his fingers, a containment sphere formed around her, and she was lifted into the air. Then came the terrible declaration Lucenna had been running from for the past four years.
“It’s time to return home.”