The old man almost gave me a heart attack at twenty years old.
I helped Artemis stand. He was a bit wobbly but shooed me off, telling me he was fine.
Now that I knew no one that I cared about was dying, I finally allowed myself to process everything around me. Peering around the garden, I noticed the dismembered body of Novus and the carnage of the fight inside the castle, and I just wanted to get away from it all. The beautiful stained glass was all broken. Cracks ran the length of the marble walls, and bodies littered the garden.
Brayden turned to me. “Tell me what you need and I’ll get it for you.”
I nodded. “A shower. To see my mother. To marry you. In that order.”
His grin made butterflies take flight in my stomach.
“Granted.”
Brayden was my soulmate, there was no scenario in which I wanted to live without being his wife.
We had a kingdom to rebuild, a people to call out from hiding, and a lot of work ahead of us, but it would be fine so long as we were together.
EPILOGUE
Brayden bought my mom a new beach house, this one bigger than the one we grew up in, and mortgage free. I’d been spending every day there with her and only going back to the Ether Realm for dinner with Brayden via portal egg every night. It had been two weeks since we took back our kingdom. True to my father’s wishes, Brayden and I were waiting to share a bed until our wedding night—much to my dismay. Our big Ether wedding with the entire kingdom in attendance was today. I was devastated that my mom couldn’t attend seeing as though she didn’t know what the Ether was. So that she could be involved in our union, we were having a small civil wedding at the Bonner County Courthouse tomorrow, with a reception afterwards at my mom’s.
The wedding was in an hour and Maddy and Leah were in my dressing room in the castle, eating the delicious food display my handmaids had left out.
Yes. I lived in a castle and had handmaids now.
How cool was that?
The snack table was covered with dried figs, grapes, cherries, and imported cheeses from Earth.
Leah popped a grape into her mouth and surveyed my elegant dressing room. One entire wall was floor-to-ceiling mirrors. Along the other walls were racks upon racks of dresses and display cases of crowns. This room had been hidden from Lora and the other Fae Lords. In fact, Brayden’s and my entire marital wing had been hidden behind a secret bookshelf door.
Leah sighed as she inspected a large emerald-jeweled crown. “I mean, I’m cool with being Wren and all, but it would have been nice to be queen for a day.”
Maddy and I laughed.
“Anything you want is yours, sister,” I told her.
She perked up at that and pulled the emerald crown off the display shelf to examine it more closely.
There was a knock at the door and then it cracked open. Blake and Natalie peeked their heads in. When they saw me in my wedding gown they both squealed in excitement, jumping on the balls of their feet.
“You look amazing!” Natalie said.
“Very queenly,” Blake told me.
I smiled. “Thank you.”
“Nervous?” Natalie asked as she approached.
I shook my head. “Can’t wait.” Now that my memories were healed, I remembered marrying Brayden in every lifetime, and I couldn’t wait to do it again. For the last time.
It was the month of weddings actually. Castiel and Leah were married last week; Maddy and August’s was next week. We were spacing them all in an effort to give everyone breathing room, but it was still crazy. Leah, Maddy, and I had joked about having a triple wedding, but Brayden said the kingdom wouldn’t allow it. They needed to see their queen and king come together properly as protocol dictated.
I understood. I was living under different rules now in the Ether as opposed to my life in Sandpoint. Blake had discovered that she was able to help heal Leah’s memories, like she’d done to mine. So now Leah remembered being Wren and everything felt like we’d just slipped back into our old lives.
Brayden’s mother and Maddy’s father had come down from the mountains. Wolves that had been hiding in fear for centuries came out to Moon Valley to be free once again.
There were still some fae here but they had all pledged their allegiance to Brayden. Without the Fae Lords they wouldn’t be staging a coup anytime soon.
