Epilogue
VAUGHN
ABOUT A YEAR LATER…
Silence had always held weight. Whether it was good or bad, I always knew the truth could be found where words didn’t exist. I had learned the importance early. Maybe too early.
Now, silence felt different. It filled the halls of our new home. In the halls of a kingdom that had been burnt and rebuilt thanks to me. It was in the soft rhythm of breath that filled the space beside me, here and safe.
I awoke to it.
Not to Penelope’s screams anymore, but to the absence of them. That was everything. Especially after Lawrence’s death. I was so afraid the trauma she’d endured would stay with us. And in ways it would, but the nightmares hadn’t lasted for more than a few weeks, and for that, I was grateful.
I felt a lot of that lately.
Penelope lay on her side, facing me. Her hand was resting just beneath the small curve of her stomach. The bump was subtle, but it was there. Real and unmistakable. And amazingly… not planned. Quite the opposite.
But here we were. Sixteen weeks.
I hadn’t stopped counting. I couldn’t stop when all my fears revolved around the woman and child who were mine.
My fingers moved before I could think, tracing over the roundness of her stomach.
Over the life we’d created together. There had been a time when that thought would have shattered me.
When the idea of losing another piece of us would have hollowed me out completely.
Now… it steadied me. My family was my anchor.
It was my life. It had to be. I had lost everything before.
My family. My bloodline. Status. It was those things that I had thought made me strong.
I had been wrong. It was this. Her. Us. This was strength.
But it hadn’t been at first. It took a lot to get to this point. The transition hadn’t been seamless. It still wasn’t. Maybe it would never truly be, but I felt we were making headway, and wasn’t that what power was?
Growth.
Evolution.
Progression.
And boy, were things moving at a fast pace.
The Order was thriving under Penelope. Everything was falling into place, and our connections—our friends—grew closer by the month.
But where I felt the pull of a coalition, I’d never allow my line to make the same mistake twice.
Alliances were to be monitored. And those close to me, and those I loved, would be watched even harder.
To love was to lose, but not in my story.
Not anymore.
My gaze returned to Penelope, still asleep, still mine. I kept my hand on her stomach as I lifted my other to trace her cheek with my thumb. She opened her eyes, a smile coming to her face through barely opened lids. She took my hand up, bringing it to her mouth to kiss against.
“It’s too early. Come back down here and hold me. Love me. Never stop loving me.”
“Never.”
My heart squeezed, and I lowered, pulling her into my arms.
I was complete.
I was hers.
And after everything… she had chosen me.
And I would spend the rest of my life proving to her that she didn’t make the wrong choice.
Safety for her was my priority. It lived in the lines that would forever be branded into my soul.
Into my being of who I truly was. I may have been king, but I’d never let anyone forget where I came from. Or who I was beneath the crown.
I was the Unavowed.
I was—
The shadows above kings.
I was—
In the blood that silence brings.
I was—
The truth they feared to find.
I was—
The wrath they’d left behind.
Once again—
Born to rise.
Forevermore—
The kingdom in disguise.