Epilogue
ONE YEAR LATER
My red silk cloak falls over my shoulders, down to my feet, the hood covering my face as I walk up the ivy-covered stone steps.
The small Nexus-filled village is quiet, not many here now, but everything else about this ancient place feels the same.
The ancient trees echoing around me when the wind blows, fire lanterns lighting my way.
Nothing but the darkness and the stars above me to guide me to my mates. To my home.
I was fifteen the last time I did this. Fifteen and scared. Now there is nothing more I want in the world than this moment. We have waited too many years for this.
I walk up the steps until I find the temple.
The ones with the images of the Gods, once carved in stone and wrapped around the top, have now been changed.
We do not worship dead Gods anymore, not since we have told the world the truth about them.
They do not make our mate bonds—the bonds are chosen by fate and by the stars.
Now, a snake winds around the top of the temple, glittering black runes sparkling across her spine—the mark of the Morrigan Goddess that many people now believe in—and many pray to fate now.
Or to the stars, like I do. Life has been…
ours. It might not be perfect, it may have its ups and downs, but I am happy for the first time in my life.
I never once let myself think I would have this life, this chance at a new beginning again, and a world to live in that is safe. My mates and I? It is home.
Music plays softly. Our favourite song, the one we dance to on lazy nights, when we drink and play games, when all there is is laughter in our apartment.
When it’s almost like we are normal and just a strange group of people in love.
It’s been a year since we moved back to the academy and started rebuilding Starlight City.
A year since we became alphas for Starlight and took on the responsibility, the love that came with it.
A year since we started our life, and all the joy that comes with our choice to be happy.
The nightmares are still there sometimes, but I’m never alone when I wake up, and the love I feel soon chases away the haunting memories of my past.
We have made the academy our home, and so has our family.
Annie and Issan have moved in downstairs in the staff rooms. Feyre now lives with us as a herbology teacher, and we are building her a greenhouse, just like the one I saw in the vision of the future.
We don’t have many students, only twenty, but we have more sign-ups for next year already.
It will just take time. Franklin attends a local school set up for children in Starlight, and I love the kid.
I won’t ever take the place of his mother, but I will protect him as my mate’s son and make sure he knows I’m here.
Plus, it helps that he has a whole family of us to turn to, and he seems happy.
Even if I’m sure Nibbles prefers him to me.
I’m still salty about that, but Boba loves me and only me.
I walk through the archway to the temple, past the rows of pews, and nod my head to the priest in respect.
I don’t know him, his face covered, and all I think about is Alek for a second.
But Alek is behind the priest—along with my other mates.
Moonlight trickles in through the open arches onto them, and warmth fills my chest. I’m determined not to cry… yet.
“Gwenieve.” The priest says my name like a whisper, speaking it to the wind, to whatever is left out there to judge us now. I’m out of breath, just like I was all those years ago, and I’m nervous, even though there is nothing but happiness waiting for all of us.
The basin is made of pure diamond, and the strange water in it still radiates magic. People don’t usually get a redo at their mating ceremony—not everyone does—but the priest, when we asked, said yes. Uncommon. It’s hardly like we are normal.
My mates’ blood shimmers in the water of the basin. It buzzes, calling me closer like I can sense it is theirs. Mine.
“Welcome, Gwenieve. Although you are late of age and this is not your first mating ceremony, today we all celebrate and leave the past behind. The past is a lesson, but for this, it has brought you together in love and fate. When you cut your palm and give yourself to the stars, the stars will fortify your bond between you and the six others chosen as your mates. Your starlight will be mixed eternally, and where you go, they will follow. Only the Gods themselves will ever be able to part you. Your power will mix with your mates’ powers.
You will become a conduit for all six powers as you grow in age, and you will use the powers you gain to protect the people of the Nexus. ”
The funny thing is, we never needed to share blood.
They’re just as powerful as me, and our power just echoes between us all already.
The priest carries on. “Since the dawn of our people, we have come here and offered our blood to the Gods. Now we offer it to the stars and fates, with more knowledge than ever before. Your mates have all given their blood, which is already in the water. Do you accept your mate bond, Gwenieve?”
Instead of my heart breaking, I look at each of my mates, a smile breaking across my face.
“I accept the mate bond with all my heart and soul.” I feel it click between us—something warm in my soul, a deep, unmistakable connection—as my blood drops into the water from a cut on my palm.
“I know my fate, and I have made my choice forever.”
I say the words, changing what I said when I was just fifteen years old and fixing it. I would never reject them again. My mates come to me, our bond glowing like the brightest stars in the sky. We are forever starlight.