“Good, count me in.” He helps me to my feet, spins me in a circle, and then tucks me under his arm. “I think I like this version of the future.”
I look toward the door where the people I love are waiting for me. My heart is full, and for the first time in my life, the unknown does not feel like something to fear.
It feels like possibility. It feels like choice. It feels like standing on the edge of something vast and beautiful with people who would catch me if I fell and laugh with me when I inevitably tripped first. I squeeze Eron’s hand once before letting go. “Come on. I have people to reassure before Theo breaks thedoor down, Nash growls the castle into submission, and Hart pretends he isn’t pacing.”
“And Malachi?”
I grin. “Probably smiling and making inappropriate jokes.”
“As he should.” Eron offers me his arm with a flourish. “Lead on, fairest future.”
I take it, smiling as I reach for the handle.
Never again will a fairy tale bind us. I fought, bled, and died for love, and I would do it all over again.
Because love is the greatest adventure of them all.
The Final Chapter
One annus and a few diurnals later…
Daphne
“I will murder every last one of you while you sleep,” I snarl at the quad of muscle wearing variations of amusement on their stupid, pretty faces.
Theo smirks.Yes, you’ll still be pretty even when you’re dead, which is going to happen any tempo...
“Breathe between the contractions,” Genie reminds me.
I glare at the mystical being who will be godfather to the first and only child I will ever birth, because there is no way in therealm that I am ever going to put myself through this again. I’m great at adoption—just ask my friends.
“Why can’t we be more seahorse?” I growl.
Gwyneth pauses as she pats my damp forehead with a cool, damp cloth. “I’m afraid to ask.”
“The males do all this, and birth not one, but loads of the little suckers.” Her lips twitch as I yank on Malachi’s arm and growl. “You could have been a seahorse. Why weren’t you a seahorse?”
“Should I call for the doctor?” Eron asks from the mirror against the wall. “She seems a little more chaotic than normal.”
Yes, call the doctor. I need some of those happy juices. Anything to make this stop.
“No, all is well. It’s the most natural and wondrous thing,” Theo replies.
I glare at him. “Then you do it.”
“Maybe if you lay down?” Nash encourages.
I grip the post at the end of the bed and cradle my bulging stomach.
Pain. It’s just pain. I’ve survived worse, although I can’t think of what just this tempo. Death, I suppose. Drowning too. No, this is still worse. It’s down my legs, in my back, around my stomach, and for some unfathomable reason, my left earlobe is throbbing.
I grit my teeth and do what I’ve been told. Breathe. Just breathe. In, out, in, oww.
Freaking bunkum poop on a stick. That’s not normal. It can’t be. How we haven’t died out as a species when this is the cost of continuing the population, I will never know.
“I want no more sausage ever again,” I growl. “It should be classified as a weapon of floof destruction. From now on, I shall only consume lettuce.”
“Should I get her some?” Malachi murmurs.
