Epilogue
THE GUARDIAN
Light is harsh and unforgiving when one has lived in the darkness for so long.
Hope breaks through the dark, stirring something deep within me that has lain dormant for centuries.
Her name forms on my lips, but I can’t speak it.
Not yet. Maybe one day. It’s a cruel reminder of what I lost due to my ambitions and folly.
I had the world at my fingertips, and I lost it all in a blink of an eye.
My penance has come due. Six girls to start the trials. Six girls to bring upon redemption. Already five sit upon the throne of Mescos. Five enchanted humans, though vastly different in their abilities and personalities.
Rose the Leader.
Hettie the Ambitious.
Erin the Resilient.
Isabelle the Tenacious.
Evangeline the Compassionate.
All those traits she once carried so effortlessly.
I still catch glimpses of them in everything around me.
She’s everywhere, a shadow stitched into my every thought, taunting me, haunting me like a ghost that refuses to fade.
If she stood before me now, I’d tear my heart from my chest without hesitation and lay it at her feet.
It always belonged to her—always. Even when I let it harden, matching the unyielding shell of my body.
Even when the darkness crept into every corner of me, swallowing the man I used to be.
No matter how far I stray, my heart has always belonged to her.
One day, I will see her again.
I know this because every time I look out into my backyard, the garden blooms fuller with each match I make. Soon, it will be exactly the same as it was the last time I saw her.
But my penance is far from over. One woman remains.
Taivan is the last of the kings to receive his mate.
It has not been easy to find her, proving more difficult than the queens who came before her.
The future looks bleak, but not impossible.
The future pixie queen will have to make many sacrifices and test not only her love, but her morals as well.
She came to me in a dream. She stood beneath an arch of pale blooms, bathed in the golden warmth of a dream’s eternal afternoon, her copper curls tumbling in soft waves.
Her eyes were closed, as if listening to a song only she could hear, lips parted in serene surrender.
There was a stillness about her, a quiet strength that radiated from her.
She also wasn’t alone. Standing next to her, little more than three feet tall, stood a little boy with curly brown hair.
I haven’t found her yet, but I know she’s in Grym Hollow.
I can sense her, but she hasn’t sought me out.
That’s the rule. The women come to me. I don’t go to them.
I’m not in the business of stealing women for kings.
Patience has become an unwilling companion to me over the centuries, so I will wait until the time is right.
I must believe the timing happens for a reason I’m not privy to.
When I find the final queen, my time at Grym Hollow will be complete. There’s nothing left for me here. This town is my prison, but not for much longer. I will soon face my final hearing, accepting the fate bestowed upon me, and hope I breathe long enough to see her again. At least one more time.
I stretch my wings out around me, still getting used to the new heavy sensation of having them back.
I’ve spent a lot of time on my roof, looking up into the stars as if they will spell out my destiny or give me a warning for what is yet to come.
Of course, the mortal realm lacks magic, so stars are simply that.
Just billions of luminous spheres in the sky.
No omen or revelation of things to come.
That’s probably the most difficult aspect of this realm.
The stillness.
Humans are truly alone. No wonder many of them fear death. Little waits for them beyond this world.
For now, this prison is my home. A gilded cage draped in shadows, where days bleed into nights with no promise of release.
Time passes differently here, and I lost count long ago how much has passed.
I feel no longing for Grym Hollow, yet I carry a reluctant gratitude for what it taught me.
That place, and this strange realm, have stripped me bare, forcing me to see the truth in myself.
They’ve given me the hunger to change, and the rare, grounding gift of living in the present, and of standing firm in who I am instead of letting myself be devoured by the endless hunger for power.
In the distance, a siren wails in the night. Children are being tucked into beds by their parents, ready to dream. Someone cries into their beer bottle, while another welcomes a baby into this diseased world. Somewhere far from here, in a place I cannot yet reach, she stirs.
And soon she’ll be coming to kill me.