Page 10 of A Flame of Dragons and Gods
My father walks in, shutting the door behind him. He closes the space between us and pulls me into his arms, holding me tightly. “Wren... thank the fucking deities. Are you well?”
“Well enough, but?—”
“No buts. You should be in bed resting.” The castle shakes again, this time the door to my room rattling with it.
“What is that?” My mother asks as my father kisses the top of my head and tries to lead me back to bed. “Nothing but a male making trouble. I’m dealing with it.”
I slip out from under his arm and grin. “Tell me his name!”
My father frowns, but my mother smiles. “Hunter. He claims he needs to see you, but?—”
I don’t hear anything else as I walk to the door and pull it open. Hunter is standing right there — alive. All the air leaves my lungs as our eyes lock, purple and black shadows, his and my father’s, fighting against each other to hold him back, but it’s half-hearted. My father isn’t hurting him, and Hunter seems content to just stare at me as I stare back at him. “Let him go, Dad.”
The shadows disappear at the same time Hunter’s do, and his smile must be as bright as mine as he closes the space between us and pulls me into his arms. Relief has me sobbing in his arms, his head buried in my neck and my hair covering his face as his hot tears fall down my cheek. We stand like that for a long time, just holding each other and saying nothing. We survived the games, found our mates, and freed his people. This is how we begin again. I lift my head, searching his purple eyes for a moment. “You died.”
“Vampyre, remember? Our hearts can stop and start under trauma.” He kisses my cheek. “I told you we are for eternity. A dragon isn’t going to take you from me... now you. How did you open a portal?”
I explain everything that happened after he killed the dragon, as well as learning I can use his power, but it exhausts me. When I’m done, the corridor is silent and Hunter simply hugs me one more time. “You did it.”
“We did it.” I correct him. “You risked your life for me.”
“We both did that multiple times, didn’t we?” he murmurs. “I believe we can develop healthier habits going forward.”
I laugh, breathing in his scent. I almost forgot my parents are here until my father clears his throat. “I would like an introduction to your...”
“This is King Hunter, and he is my mate.” I turn and answer. My mother gasps in joy and my father smiles. “We found each other despite a few difficulties. Hunter is a good man, and I want you to get to know him too.” I turn to look up at Hunter. “This is King Ziven and Queen Story — my mother and father.”
“Nice to meet you.” Hunter respectfully nods.
“It would have been nicer if we’d met before you kidnapped our daughter.” My father points out, but there is no heat behind his words. No threat.
“They’re mates. What’s a bit of kidnapping between mates?” My mother joyfully laughs, coming over and gently pushing me aside to hug Hunter. “Welcome to the family. We are delighted to meet you, and I might not know you well yet, but I know you are good for my daughter because I haven’t seen as much light in her eyes as I did when she just woke up. I think she was waiting for you.”
Hunter looks at me, his eyes softening. “I was waiting for her too. For many years, and I will spend all the time I have left at her side until she bores of me.”
“Never.” I mutter, and he laughs, tugging my hand so I lean against his side.
My dad holds out his hand to Hunter, and they shake. “If you hurt my daughter... I’ll rip you to pieces.”
“Noted, but you don’t have to worry about that. There’s far more chance of her hurting me than me ever hurting her. I’ve waited hundreds of years for my mate.” Hunter answers. Little does he know, I plan to give Hunter a life, a family, and happiness until we are old and grey.
“Good. Now perhaps we should talk about the thousand or so refugees we have and what we’re going to do with them all.” Mymother suggests. “You are all welcome here, but they are very loyal to their king and queen. They wait for you.”
“I have an idea for our people,” I look up at Hunter, seeing the flash of pride in his eyes when I speak about our people. This is all he has ever wanted — for them to be free. To be given a chance to be the king they need and want... who he wants to be. They all look to me with bright eyes because I never wanted to be a queen, not until I was his queen. Now I have a perfect idea of where we should call home.
EPILOGUE
“King of the Dawn Dynasty, what do you think of our new room?” I murmur, stepping up next to him on the balcony as the light of dawn pours down on my mate. He is shirtless, a purple and orange blanket wrapped around his waist as he watches the sea. The sea is warm here and as I join his side, I decide I’m going to spend the morning swimming in it, hopefully with my mate joining me. Hunter and I have tried six different rooms in the castle, trying to decide which one is going to be our home. It’s taken nine years to build this castle from scratch with the help of my parents and many people whose input helped the Dawn Dynasty thrive along with its new people. We focused on building a town first for all the refugees who stayed in the Moon Dynasty temporarily until they could be relocated here. The Dawn Dynasty has never looked as bright, with its new crest of purple and orange, with the sun and the sea. We chose a small island, big enough to call home and for our people to grow. Alliances have been drawn, and there is no risk of war for many generations to come.
Laughter fills my ears, and we both look down, spotting my cousin Hettie carrying a pile of books from our libraries, withone of the new librarians at her side who I’m sure she has a crush on. Hunter finally tugs me to his side. “I love this room.”
“Me too.” I admit. Something felt right about this room from the second we slept in here. It’s not the biggest room, or the grandest, but it feels right. “I think we are nearly done with the grand libraries.”
Part of the draw of this vast castle we built from ruins was the many, many libraries. There were no books in the ruins, but the stone bookcases mostly survived. We repaired it all, adding orange stone to the castle as we built. Mazzis oversaw where we stored all the books of the world, and we make it possible for anybody to come here to learn and study. We want to make ourselves better in this world and help others with the books and knowledge here. Eventually we want the castle to become almost like an academy, a place of learning about dragons, magic, vampyres and fae.
“Two more need some work before we put any books in them, but you’re right. There will be nothing left to do but hold court and enjoy my mate soon.” He kisses the top of my head softly, his eyes still on the sea. “I wish my family were here to see it,” he whispers. “I wish they were here to meet you and see our future. I wish they had been there when we got married and seen a crown on my head again.”
I hold my mate tightly. “They were there in spirit. I choose to believe we aren’t alone, even if their souls leave their bodies.” He wraps his arms around my waist as I try to make him smile. “And more books have been rescued from the sea by my parents’ castle, and they are being carefully restored. I am hoping the book that you and your mother wrote will eventually be found. My parents have gone travelling for a month, but they have left people in control of the search.”
“We can rewrite the book.” He taps his head. “I haven’t forgotten a word about the god marked. That book was aboutyou, and my mother didn’t even know she was writing it to be a guide to her daughter-in-law one day.”
I lean up and kiss him, letting the warm dawn light wash over us as we embrace. Our future. Our ending.
