Epilogue
Bryn
M y mate has no fear or common sense and I’m worried for our lives.
“This vehicle is a death trap, Adelaide. Are you quite sure you’re allowed to drive it? At this speed?”
She chuckles and turns down the Rage Against the Machine song that is blaring on the radio as she takes a sharp turn. I yelp and grab the frame of the black car she said was called a Jeep.
“Hands on the wheel, a chroí!”
I’m in the front seat while En and Ossy are snuggled in the back, the wind whipping their hair behind them. I wish I could enjoy the sight of them but I’m rather too concerned that Adi is going to get us killed.
“I could take us through a mirror, you know!” I yell over the wind and renewed music.
“What fun would that be, Bryn?” asks Nairna as she leans forwards between Adi and me.
“Goddess above, sit back ! Do you have your fool belt on?”
“Chill, Bryn. We’re almost to the city.”
I close my eyes, breathing deeply, hand still gripping the frame. “The city” being the center of the US government, Washington DC. It has taken us a few months to find acceptable housing. While Adi’s done well investing her stipend from her years as a princess, it’s her and Orla’s combined ambassador salary that is allowing us to purchase a small compound north of the city. Commute times, as Adi has explained to me, don’t really matter to us, but as a show of good faith, we do need to live in the general area.
Adi has decided to lease out her altogether precious but small apartment above her coffeeshop in Boston. I installed a large mirror in the back of the coffeeshop so she can get to the shop whenever needed.
Filib found a small apartment in the city proper. He is also paying a boarding fee at a prestigious horse stable so he can have some time in his waterhorse form without needing to travel far. He’s been almost useful since getting to DC. He’s pretty good at kissing ass, not shockingly. I may be growing passingly fond of him.
Adi has said that the meet and greets with US officials are going really well, much to our surprise. She and Orla are planning on hosting a gala for a local non-profit in a few months as a way to get more good publicity.
Nairna has become fascinated with engines. She’s apprenticing with an auto mechanic. She looks hot as fuck in her overalls. She’s also learning bellydance with Adi. Her grey skin has taken on a luscious depth from her time outside. She loves to swim and sunbathe.
Osmund promptly went and adopted a mutt from the animal shelter and named it Lucky. Lucky is actually pretty cute, though he’s scared shitless of En in her dog form. Ossy has recently started taking on clients as a private fitness coach and seems to be enjoying it. He’s also got quite the plant collection started.
Me? I have three different strains of sourdough starter growing in our fridge. I also go down to the park twice a week to play chess with the elderly men who gather there. Oh, and I’ve started learning American Sign Language. The ability to fully communicate without speaking seems a prudent skill to have. I’ve been training with Adi’s kendo sensei as well.
Adi is very excited to soon be sharing a living space with Orla and Sean and little Isla. I can tell she misses Rory, but I bring him and Weyland, and the twins, through every Tuesday for dinner and board games.
Despite our—minor, in comparison to court bullshit—challenges, our Adelaide has been unreservedly beaming, brimming with joy at having escaped court with all of us. She has a smile at the ready all the time. And she’s insatiable in bed. Not one of us minds even a little.
None of us have felt the call of our Goddesses since everything happened. No disturbing visions plague me. What future awaits us? Will we be required to serve the whims of our deities once more? Will Adi and Rory’s plan of connecting with the US government settle the Upper Council? We truly don’t know.
But I do know that I wake each morning surrounded by my mates. And that we’re starting to discuss a marriage ceremony. My aura dances whenever they are happy. I smile when I hear them laugh. My soul sings when they come to snuggle against my body. I didn’t think I would ever be this happy, and I’ll easily kill whoever or whatever it takes to stay this way.
The End
OR IS IT?
“Tilly, wait!” you might be saying.
What about the Upper Council? What about the overthrow of the US government?
More pieces of the larger puzzle will be revealed in the next trilogy of the Tangled Auras novels, starring none other than Weyland’s lawless brother Elias and his orc husband out in FEC5. It should be published first quarter of 2025.