Epilogue
Riona strummed the final chords of the song. Their melody echoed through the air. An air of peacefulness settled over the rapt crowd of Unseelie. But she wasn’t done. The crowd waited. Anticipation filled the room.
Another song welled up inside of her, begging to be released. Her fingers danced across the lute strings. As the new song flowed out of her, Riona infused joy into her words and watched with a light heart as the spell was broken, and the Fae began to spin and whirl to her music. This song was meant for dancing and rejoicing. Smiles wreathed a vast sea of Unseelie faces. Even the queen sitting on her dark throne was tapping her fingers in time with the beat.
Her song was one of love. Everlasting love. She’d once thought love like she sang about was the stuff of children’s stories, but now she lived it every day. Her eyes scanned the crowd, searching for a tall, familiar form clad in black with flashing golden eyes.
He’d been conspicuously absent for a time during the evening, but he’d returned. Riona spotted him on the outskirts, almost in the shadows. He looked up, and their eyes met. An unspoken promise hung in the air between them. Riona smiled and bent over her new lute. It wasn’t the same. It didn’t have all the memories or the emotional attachment of her old one, but it was a lovely instrument. A new instrument for a new beginning, she’d told herself many times over to assuage the pain of loss of the old one.
Her swift fingers flew over the strings. She played until her fingers hurt and her voice was almost raspy. But she loved every minute of it. The sun’s rays crept across the horizon, signaling the start of a new day and the end of the old one. Riona stepped off the stage and walked her way through the crowd, looking for her lover. An arm circled her waist, and then her body was pressed against Aiden’s hard body.
“Let’s go home,” he murmured. His lips trailed down her neck. Riona tilted her head to give him better access.
“I don’t know if I can wait.” She shuddered in excitement at how the feel of his lips sent little tingles straight to her core.
Aiden laughed at her response, but his laughter was cut short as she escaped from his arms and sped away from him. She looked over her shoulder and didn’t miss how his eyes glowed with lust. She ran away from the crowd and out into the garden. Even with the breaking dawn, the Unseelie gardens were well-shadowed and the perfect place for a tryst.
With a deep growl, Aiden caught Riona in his arms, and she let out a peal of laughter.
Instead of taking her deeper into the garden, he sprung into the air with Riona held fast against him. Riona let out a noise of disappointment.
“Why did we leave?” Riona asked. She caressed his jaw with her fingertips.
Aiden only smiled cryptically in response.
“Couldn’t we stay a bit longer?” She wasn’t having Aiden’s mysterious behavior after a night of taunts, caresses, and unfulfilled promises that made her body ache with lust. She was wound up and hot with desire for him.
Riona planted little kisses in the wake of her fingers until she reached his lips. She kissed him softly and traced his lips with her tongue. Ever so gently she slid her tongue inside his mouth. Her kiss was hot and slow and branding. He let out a moan, and she rubbed her body against his. Her hand slid down his body until it reached his hard cock that was threatening to burst the seam of his pants. He wanted her just as badly. Aiden jerked at her touch.
“I want you inside of me now, Aiden. Not when we get home.”
“What my lady wants, my lady gets.” Aiden said against her lips.
Riona untied the opening to his pants with a smile. He hiked up her dress, and then his cock slid inside of her. Riona’s eyes rolled back in her head at the sensation of Aiden’s fullness sinking into her.
She wrapped her legs around him tightly, with his cock deep inside of her. She wiggled experimentally and then gasped at the sensation. Riona lifted herself up, and she descended back on him with a cry of bliss as he was buried to the hilt. His lips found hers, and he captured them in a searing kiss.
She rocked up and down on him as the pressure built. He thrust back each movement, sending her closer and closer. The wind howled around them, muffling their cries. She was at the edge, and then she was there. Riona threw back her head and screamed out her release as her body pulsed around Aiden. Then he was coming too. Warmth pooled inside of her. Riona closed her eyes and rested her forehead on Aiden’s chest.
They’d stopped flying and were just floating in the orange sky. Riona opened her eyes and looked out at the world. Stars were fading into the dawn as the sun rose. She sighed and laid a hand over Aiden’s heart.
“Beautiful,” she whispered, staring at the horizon.
“Yes,” Aiden agreed. She looked up to find him staring down at her instead of the dawn. He kissed her gently and shifted her body. Her dress fluttered around her legs as their lower bodies separated. With a deft movement, Aiden fastened his pants while his other arm was locked around her waist. He gave her a wink as his other arm found the back of her knees, and she became comfortably draped in his arms.
Gusts of wind buffeted them as they resumed their flight home. Riona drifted off, watching the rising dawn. Her eyes flew open as Aiden touched down.
“Sorry I wasn’t trying to wake you,” he murmured.
“I want to know why you were so intent on getting home.” Riona slithered down Aiden’s body.
Aiden opened the door but remained frustratingly silent. Riona stepped inside and looked around. Ava bounced over and Riona couldn’t help but smile at the cait’s excitement as she petted her. After a few moments of happy treading, Ava trotted over to where a large package lay wrapped in a shimmering silver cloth.
Riona glanced at Aiden askance, and he nodded with a smile.
She moved forward hesitantly. Her fingers traced the fabric. Underneath lay something hard. A very familiar shape. Riona sent a questioning look to Aiden. Why did he get me another lute?
He watched her with anticipation. She turned back to the wrapped lute and picked it up. Its weight so like another lute now lost. Riona’s smile fell a little. Her fingers trembled as she began to open it, and a familiar ebony neck peeked out from the fabric. Her fingers worked faster as she untwined the cloth, and it fell to the floor with barely a whisper. Riona gasped. Her mother’s lute sparkled in the morning light.
“How?”
“I went back to Loch-Gaar.” Aiden moved beside her.
“What?” She lovingly took in every inch of her beloved old friend. It wasn’t worse for wear, and the golden leaves winked at her as if in greeting.
“I went back. The villagers weren’t sure whether to run from me or run me out at first. I told them I would no longer be their patron, but I would lift the blight if they returned your lute to me. At first, I was worried that they’d destroyed it, but one of the Elders had kept it.” Rada. She’d cared for Riona in her own way. That was all Riona had needed. Aiden had given her more than her lute.
“You lifted the blight too?”
“Yes, and I made sure that they’ve been given a new patron. A brownie. He will help the villagers recover and show them kindness that I couldn’t.”
“Oh, Aiden. Thank you,” she whispered. She sat the lute down and turned to him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and smiled up at him.
“For you, my love, anything, but I have a request.”
“What might that be?” Riona asked.
“Will you sing for me?”
Riona let out a happy tinkle of laughter. “I will sing for you until you become sick of my songs.”
But he never did, and in time, their number swelled from two to three, then four. First came a girl with golden eyes and night black hair like her father’s who raced through the sky faster than the wind. Then a jade-eyed boy with wild red hair and a voice to rival his mother’s came along. There was always laughter and songs dancing in the air of their home. And winged cats. Many winged cats.