Epilogue
KAEL
Ihad never expected to find peace. That the shadows might one day soften into light, making room for forgiveness and quiet. That the storm inside me could become an ally rather than the enemy clawing at my ribs.
Evie slept soundly in my bed, soaking my sheets with her intoxicating scent of roses.
It had been three months since our first kiss, and she lived in my quarters now.
I could hear her soft, rhythmic snoring through the ajar window as I stood on the balcony.
That gentle sound had become the one sure thing that could lull me to sleep.
I lifted my gaze to the night sky. Stars peppered the heavens in a sweep of silver, the sight near magical. But not half as magnificent as my little doe.
All my life I had believed that whoever loved me must stay away from me. I had seen myself as an agent of terror and proved it often enough, turning armies to ash, casting the sick into pits that had become nests for my storm.
For years I had thought control was salvation.
That I had to keep the wolf caged and the storm within if I wanted peace.
Then she looked at me with those wide, dark brown eyes, seeing the best in me when I had never dared.
And I learned that control was just another kind of cage.
That all I had done was deny what I was and bury what I had been.
I had become the man locked in a cell in a prison of his own making.
At first I had warned her I would destroy her. But in the end, she had shattered the cage and freed the truest shape of me. The man who had wanted nothing more than to be loved for every facet, every deed, every scar.
The world still saw me as the Court Wizard they feared, but she saw the man beneath, breathing new air in steadier winds, and somewhere between storm and echo, her heartbeat found mine.
I fiddled with the tiny red velvet box in my hand, turning it once, twice. Perhaps it was nerves. Perhaps eagerness.
Back in Sud, I had managed to catch time alone with her parents. I posed the question to her father. Her mother nearly bounced on her feet. Her father made me wait long enough to earn my answer before granting his blessing.
Sud tradition required that if I wished for Evie’s hand, I must present a ring. So I went to the colored markets and purchased one, gold, with a mounted azurite stone cut in the shape of a shield. Teal, her favorite color.
I opened the box and looked upon the ring. It caught the starlight and threw it back like her eyes always did. Tomorrow, I would make my ask. I felt no fear. I knew she would say yes. My little doe never resisted me.
I had already told my sister, Naila. She insisted we wed by Fae custom, and I agreed. We would host the ceremony in the rebuilt Vall?ne when the first acacia flowers bloomed.
Tomorrow the king had requested private counsel with me. It was outside our usual appointments, yet I would use the moment to tell him I planned to marry Magister Evangelina Corvo. He would offer no protest. The other magisters might need a firmer hand, but I did not mind.
I had until death parted us to win them over.
And for the first time in my life, I welcomed the days ahead. All of them.
For the storm within me, once chaos, now rose quiet and sure, ready at last to roar beside hers.
I returned inside, set the velvet ring box quietly upon the nightstand beside her, and slipped into bed next to my Evangelina.
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This concludes Evie’s arc with the Court Wizard, but the world doesn’t end here.