Epilogue
Elara
The Wedding Day
The sun bled gold across the hills, a molten sky pouring itself over everything it touched.
I stood before the mirror in my bridal suite, watching a woman I barely recognized blink back at me.
White lace. Pearl pins. A veil that looked like it belonged to someone untouched by darkness.
And yet here I was—a woman carved from it.
My hair was swept into soft waves, threaded with the pearl comb Alexander had chosen. Not because it was beautiful. But because it “looked like something a queen would wear. His words.
I lowered my gaze to the weight in my arms—our twins. My daughter nestled at my chest, my son curled in the crook of my elbow. Warm. Alive. Innocent. Proof that even broken things can build something holy. Behind me, Sammy sniffled dramatically.
“You’re glowing, bitch,” she croaked. “Like—divine glowing. I hate you.”
I laughed softly, but the sound wavered. This wasn’t just a wedding day. It was a resurrection. “I never thought I’d stand here,” I whispered, brushing a finger across my daughter’s cheek. “Not after everything I crawled through to survive. What we have both done.”
Sammy moved closer, adjusting my veil with the steady hands of a woman who’d held me through hell. “You didn’t survive,” she corrected, voice like steel wrapped in silk. “You transformed. Elara.”
My true name. My first reclamation of power. A knock sounded. Aiden stepped in, dark suit, darker smirk. “You ready to ruin my brother’s entire emotional stability with one walk down the aisle?”
I grinned. “Oh, absolutely.”