Chapter Sixty-Seven #2
I took the eye of the goddess out of my bag. Lysimache had mentioned that she had buried it in the earth, so I assumed I would need to do the same.
“Before you do anything with that, perhaps we should keep it and then we can live forever, together,” he said.
“We will have that in the next world,” I told him. I very much planned on having him all to myself for all eternity.
I put the eye into the earth, covering it up. I put my hands flat over the top of it.
“Do you know what to say?” Xander asked, and I nodded.
The goddess had been inadvertently instructing me on what to say since I’d first dreamed of her.
I intended to rely on my instincts here. Fortunately, I knew the right aspect to use.
“Dea Euthalia,” I said. The green, swirling magic came up through my hands, filling my entire body. I pictured Locris the way that the goddess had shown me in my dream. Full of trees, grass, bushes, flowers.
I started to tremble under the weight of it, but then Xander was there, touching me so that I could take power from him. It was like swallowing a bolt of lightning.
Our baby also tried to help, but I didn’t draw on her light.
I didn’t need it.
This was also what I had been made for. I closed my eyes.
The ground violently shook around me but I took the magic and directed it out, coaxing the earth to come back to life.
I felt it happening all around me, felt the magically dormant roots in the ground stirring to life and pushing up through the soil. The pain started but I held on. I would finish this.
Then . . . it was done.
Panting, I turned off the aspect and opened my eyes.
I had expected new growth.
But everything around me was as it had been in my vision. The trees were full size, the flowers blooming. We were in a forest, surrounded by a green paradise.
It was beyond beautiful. It was everything that I had hoped for, everything that I had dreamed about. No one in Locris would suffer from starvation again. We would grow our crops, and life would return.
Locris was saved.
I had saved it.
The enormity of it threatened to overwhelm me.
Fortunately, my husband was there to be my anchor. “Your own name?” he asked.
I nodded. “The goddess told my mother to use it for me.” The goddess had put this into place before I was born—she had named me after this aspect so that I would know to use it to restore Locris. “‘Euthalia’ means well blooming, flourishing, flowering.”
“You certainly did that. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it. I’m shocked that you’re still awake.”
“With you by my side, I can do anything,” I told him.
He kissed me and then helped me to stand. I was a little wobbly, but not too much.
We had begun to walk back to the palace when I suddenly saw a woman watching us. She was extremely tall, with silver hair and purple eyes.
Xander drew out his sword and put himself between us. I went down on my knees and tugged on his tunic to do the same.
After a moment he did so, and I said to her, “Thank you for the horses.”
Asteria, the daughter of the goddess, smiled so much like her mother that for a moment it took my breath away. “You were worthy of them because you asked for help for your sisters, and not for yourself.” She glanced around. “You did excellent work. My mother was right to choose you.”
Luna flew over to the goddess and landed at her feet. “Good morning, precious one,” Asteria said. “Aether dragons belong in my realm, with me.”
My heart froze inside my chest. “Have you come to take Luna?”
“She has bonded with you. I suspect that even if I did try to take her, she would just come straight back to you.”
Yes, Luna strongly affirmed in my mind, and I smiled.
But if she wasn’t here for Luna, then why else would she . . .
Oh.
“The sword,” I said.
“Yes. I have been sent to retrieve my mother’s sword.”
I took the sword out of its sheath and walked toward her with Xander right behind me. I handed it to her.
When she took it, the sword went back to its original size. She slid it into a sheath on her back.
“If you ever need the sword again, you may call on me. But I visited with my cousin, the god of prophecy, before I came here. He said you will never have need of it, and that you both are going to live a long, happy, and peaceful life. Loving and being loved in return. And his prophecies must come to pass.”
Tears welled up in my eyes as I realized what she had done. What she had given us. I didn’t even know what to say.
“Thank you,” I said, wishing there were another way of conveying the gratitude I felt for this gift. “And thank your mother.”
“I will. Take care, Euthalia of Locris.”
She shimmered into silver sparkles and then was gone.
Xander exhaled deeply. “This has been an extremely strange morning.”
I completely agreed. We resumed our walk back to the palace, and I said, “What do you think of the name Asteria?”
“For what?” Realization hit him quickly. “Wait, are you saying that you know we’re having a girl?”
I nodded and he let out a whoop of excitement and pulled me into his arms.
What about Luna?
I told him what my dragon had said, and his response was, “I think one Luna is quite enough.”
She made a huffy sound and then disappeared.
“You did it,” he said. “I knew that you would. You restored your home.”
“This was my home,” I told him. “It’s not anymore.”
“Oh?”
I smiled. “My home is with you. And it always will be.”
He kissed me for a long time, with so much tenderness and passion that he had to hold me upright.
Eventually we walked hand in hand back to the palace.
I knew there would be so many questions about what I had done this morning, and I was ready for them.
I had wanted last night to be about Haemon, so Quynh and I had decided to give my parents the news that they would soon become grandparents this morning.
We would stay for a few more days, long enough to see Haemon and Doria married, and then we would return to Ilion.
My husband and I had a nation to rule together. And I needed to meet with the archons about bringing on a new council member, preferably a woman, and how to implement our plans to send Ilionian girls to school.
I also had a dinner planned next week with my adelphia that I didn’t want to miss.
Xander smiled at me, his happiness infectious.
Asteria was right. I was going to have a future that was filled with joy and peace.
And most important of all—love.