“Just catching up.” I rub Iridiel’s muzzle.
“Well catch up with your mate. I’d like a grandchild myself.” She gestures toward me. “I don’t know what they’d turn out to be, but I certainly do know how you go about making one. Get on your back, girl.” With that, she bustles out the door and into the cold.
“She’s your mother?” Iridiel huffs.
“In every way that counts.” I brush his mane. “I hope Parnon visits soon, maybe then she won’t be so crabby.”
“I miss that grumpy sand man.” Iridiel closely watches my progress. “No tangles. I want it perfect.”
“Diva.” I roll my eyes and keep brushing.
He turns as the outer door swings open and a large, handsome, utterly irresistible high fae strides inside.
I give Iridiel one more stroke and run to Gareth.
He catches me in his arms and lifts me to his face. “I woke, and you were gone.” He gives such amazing glower. Like, the best glower that ever glowered.
I dot kisses on his frowny lips and frosty cheeks. “I didn’t want to wake you.”
“Don’t leave me, my beloved. Do that again, and there will be consequences.” He returns my kiss with a feverish intensity that sends tingles all the way down to my toes.
“I’m definitely doing that again,” I think down the bond.
His growl melts every bit of me until I’m panting into his mouth. I clutch the soft furs at his shoulders and squeal when he squeezes my ass.
“Maybe the winter realm isn’t so bad after all.” Iridiel clip-clops over to us. “Up-close action is always a thrill.”
“Horny beast,” I say.
“Yes, I am.” Gareth doesn’t let me go, holding me tight and kissing me with more love than I ever thought I’d find.
He is my heart.
And maybe it doesn’t matter what I am, as long as I have him.
Epilogue II
Dust stirs outside the gates of Cranthum. The moon is bright above as the city sleeps peacefully for the first time in a millennia. Everyone inside is free. Not all are happy. Not the former masters and not those who profited off the slave trade. Not Silmaran, who still mourns for the half of her soul that now lives on in the Glowing Lands. Parnon keeps watch over her, wipes her tears and comforts her when the nights are too dark, too lonely, and there are too many thoughts of the one she lost.
But Silmaran and Parnon are not the only ones awake at this hour.
The wind carries doom in its whispers and swirls, and dark figures make their way across the sand, each of them drawn to one particular spot. Their death rattles dissipate over the dunes, and no one but the scorpions and sidewinders see them as they drop to their knees in a circle.
One of them removes a vial from his sleeve, the blood inside flickering with blue magic in the moonlight. The undead fae groans as it pours the blood onto the spot where its master perished. The others bend down and touch their foreheads to the ground in reverence.
The sand takes the offering, drawing it down. It meets the finest grains of essence, mixing with them as the creatures rise and back away.
Though they no longer see, they stand guard as a small funnel forms, spinning red and blue, growing larger as it twirls inside their circle.
Cursed blood brings forth a cursed life. Shathinor’s evil lives on, just as his son does.
A fae materializes from the maelstrom. Cenet drops to his knees, his body torn and dead in more places than not. He is what is left. He is not Cenet anymore, not really. He is his father. But more than that, he now knows what he must do.
Struggling to his feet, he turns his eyes toward the north, toward the winter realm, toward his sister.
Hi fae lovers! Thank you for reading Gareth and Beth’s story. More books will be coming in the Fae’s Captive series (one little piggy needs a happy ending and so does a certain dark warrior who’s saving himself for his fated mate), and I’ll send a newsletter when they are up.
ALSO! There will be MORE fae stories set in Arin, but in the night and day realms. The first book in that series should be out later this year! More news soon, but trust me when I tell you that you want to meet the day king. He’s golden and swoony and so, so alpha.
And finally! more Omega Academy is on deck in the next few months as well.
Much love to you, friend!
Lily
