Epilogue
Saphyra
A warm breeze that smelled like rain whipped through the tower windows, sending our newly installed white curtains billowing. Between the ripples of translucent fabric, glimpses of our castle and the village beyond shone bright under shimmering rainbow light.
Pale, peachy stone stretched out below my perch. The walls and turrets had been rebuilt as if nothing had ever knocked them down, and the arched gateways were repaired like new again. The place where I’d been born was starting to feel like home. The bad memories faded and fresh ones replaced them every day.
From my vantage, I could see the sheen of sweat glinting off Lex and Grey’s backs as they worked on the stable roof in the bailey together. Jared took pity on them and offered to help while Robin and baby Esme played near the newly replanted oak tree we’d transported here from the Pit.
Albion looked on from the bed of flowers shed planted in the courtyard. The reliable alpha had hung up her gun and picked up pruning shears as soon as the last of the traitors had been shipped beyond the defense shield. I couldn’t remember a time when the gardens looked better. The kitchen overflowed with tomatoes and okra, of all things. I never liked the slimy vegetable, but there was always more than enough to go around now. Surplus was carted across the river to the village that had sprung up out of the ruins of the fallen city.
Clouds danced on the horizon, promising a summer storm. I tapped the touch panel on the wall and sheets of glass slid down to cover the arched openings, keeping out the draft. The mechanism was nearly silent, but I still glanced at my nest, where it was arranged snuggly in the corner.
In the center of the fluffy blankets, Shadow napped with our twins held protectively on his tattooed chest.
Onyx, with her jet black tuft of hair and golden eyes that matched her brothers, seemed to watch me from across the room. Her fingers were tucked into Jasper’s curled fist while he slept.
My whole life, I’d been told that omegas had a hard time conceiving, and that twins were an impossibility. But there they were, rare and precious, both testing with a high likelihood of maturing into omegas themselves.
My hand fell to my rounded belly. So far, we’d been lucky. It probably helped to have four ravenous Star-blessed mates that couldn’t keep their hands to themselves. Or maybe it was just this place.
Violet waddled in, looking about ready to burst. She was less than a week from her due date and she wouldn’t slow down for anything, despite Maddox kidnapping her at every opportunity. “Axion requested your presence, ma’am. He said there was a holocom from Pharanax.” Her voice was low, but her eyes were bright.
I held back a squeal and hurried over to my nest. I pressed a kiss to the top of Jasper’s downy brown hair and then to Onyx’s obsidian curls. Shadow deserved a little longer to sleep. Sometimes I thought he loved them more than me, which was really saying something. When I went to stand, I noticed his lids were open a fraction and his midnight eyes pierced into me.
“I didn’t mean to wake you,” I whispered.
His smile was lazy and very sexy. It made me want to kiss it off his face, but… “There’s a holocom from Pharanax.” I leaned in to give him a kiss, but he caught my lower lip between his teeth and dragged the sharp points over the full curve of plump flesh, leaving me flushed and flustered.
“Better hurry, then.” He did his best not to wake the twins, and his words were so quiet, I almost couldn’t hear them.
But I understood him just the same. I spun on my toes, my airy gown floating around my bare feet and rushed down the stairs, hurrying past a grinning Violet and into Ghost’s office.
I tried to play it off, but he could feel my excitement through the bond. I wasn’t fooling anyone. “I was told there was a call for me?”
He grabbed my wrist and tugged me onto his lap. “If I knew you’d come this fast, I’d try that more often.” He nuzzled the silver and blue mate mark his bite had resolved into, sending tingles shivering over my skin.
The holocom blinked on, and staring back at me was my purple-haired best friend, Lyrah, the new queen of Pharanax.
“Just because you send me extravagant gifts doesn’t mean I’m not still mad at you for dragging my head of security away,” I teased, wanting nothing more than to reach out and hug her, but she wasn’t really there. The holocom she’d gifted us displayed a 3d holographic representation of the people on the call.
She grinned. “We both know he was only the second in command and there wasn’t much dragging from my side. Plus, you’re safe and secure inside your sentient rainbow bubble. You don’t need Fenix as much as I do. But listen, the holocom isn’t entirely a gift. It’s more a gesture of good faith. I want to open trade negotiations, but the council is being all stuffy as usual. So I figured we’ll just run the numbers ourselves and call it a day.”
Ghost rested his chin on my shoulder. “Did my brother put you up to this?”
A pretty blush darkened Lyrah’s cheeks. “Arkyn didn’t have anything to do with this. Well, not much anyway. Okay, he brought up the idea, but I decided to do it.”
Ghost snickered against my ear.
We’d been trying to set up trade for a while, and it was slow going with her council involved. But more than that, I missed my friend. It had been too long since I’d seen her last. “Let’s schedule a time to meet and go over details.”
“How about now?”
“You’re here?” I nearly screamed with excitement. I had so much to show her. She hadn’t even met the twins yet.
“As long as your shield doesn’t try to pummel us, we can be there in less than an hour.”
“It only does that when people are trying to assassinate me.”
“Great. We’ll see you soon!” Lyrah’s holocom went blank.
I hopped off Ghost’s lap and squealed. “We’re having company.”
The sound of his laughter floated through the castle, following me as I ran down the steps and through the maze of stone halls. I hurried down a shortcut through the kitchen and liberated a honey cake from where it was cooling on the counter. My cook just shook her head with a fond smile.
I burst through the back door into the garden. A cool kiss of rain landed on my cheek and I looked up to the cloud dappled sky. Another droplet fell and my heart lifted as the distant sound of children squealing lit up the air with joy. I hurried up the rampart and was met with a vision of boys and girls rushing out into the fields of flowers surrounding the nearby village. Parents stood in covered doorways watching them play in the gentle storm.
The warm glow of lights flicked on from living rooms and store fronts as the clouds shadowed the sky. The rain fell harder, plastering my hair to my head, but I couldn’t look away from the little town growing from the ruins it had once been. Citizens laughed and danced in the streets, no longer forced to live and work in squalor. Gutters overflowed and the run-off splashed down from sturdy roofs into tiny tin buckets that spilled from one to the other, guiding the water to collection barrels. The drought was truly over, but it filled my heart with happiness to see my people safe and working in harmony with our home.
Ghost and Shadow joined me with the twins, and shortly after that, Lex and Grey arrived to wait for our old friends. Each of them brought something irreplaceable into my life, and I couldn’t imagine my world without each and everyone of them.
I was told that I had to choose one or risk losing my crown, but that was all a lie. I would have lost everything if I hadn’t listened to my heart.