A chance that I can’t wait to take.
Epilogue
CORAL
“Okay. Our teatime has definitely been upgraded,” Lyra laughs.
I grin. “Having additional company is really nice.”
Iris winks at me. “I think that teatime has become my new favorite thing.”
I blush. “Me too.”
The three of us have been connecting around our tea for a while now. Well. Iris and Lyra have been coming over, and they’re often here when I test out new ideas. Like right now.
I’m working on a new concept for tea. I grow all the herbs still, and all the flowers, but instead of just sitting at a table, I made a couch out of lush mounds of willows, woven together and padded with a cushion of daisies.
“How do you even think of these things?” Iris waves to the room around her.
Shrugging, I sip my tea. “It just comes to me.”
“It’s amazing, Coral. It really is,” Lyra says.
I agree.
Since Nolan and I found out that we were fated mates, my powers have gone absolutely haywire. I’m able to do much more than coax plants to grow. Now, I can pretty much make them do whatever I want.
Unfortunately, I am a royal faerie. As such, I’ve been added to a whole network of faerie royals and retainers that I really couldn’t care less about. A pair of water spirits, apparently the traditional heralds of faerie royals, the same two who apparently issued the favor to Thorne, confirmed it about a month after the attack on Oakwood. They also brought us news about the group behind it and the attack on my hive in Seattle.
Well. They tried to bring us news.
Neither of the herald-water spirits understood at first. It took a lot of listening, and a weird increase in the humidity in the room, until Thorne was able to clarify that it was a hit listed on the dark web.
So clearly not a faerie, as none of us can really use computers, as evidenced by the water spirits who kept referring to the ‘human plague’ in their statement. They meant the internet. Faeries don’t use it, let alone the dark web.
Eventually Thorne and Nolan figured it out. There are mages who target fae royals, of which I am one, which was kept from me until it could be confirmed. I was supposed to be tested a long time ago, I just never did, because I just managed to perfectly evade the testing process on my travels. My parents, airy as they were, kept forgetting to reschedule the test. The water heralds told me that I was lucky.
It’s hard to feel lucky when everyone I knew died in this process.
The pain of that is settling for me, though. I never thought that it would. Parts of it never will, but I can feel it healing, slowly, scabbing over like a cut on the side of a tree.
Oakwood is helping.
I wanted to remain alone for so long, it feels… odd, to be part of a community again. But being part of the pack is healing me. Slowly, but surely.
I miss other faeries a lot, now that I’m emerging more into the social world. I’ve talked to Nolan about going to other hives, to visit. Or, if there are others who were targeted by the mages, I want them to come here. With us.
Nolan, of course, agreed. Thorne is on board, too, as long as we can make sure the pack is safe.
I can definitely make sure. It’s part of the perks of being a royal faerie, I guess. They will answer to me.
I tried it out on the heralds, and both water spirits immediately started jumping up and down when I commanded it. They were weirdly delighted, because it’s kind of intrinsic that faeries respond to a royal. Still, the water spirits did the official power test, confirming that I am, in fact, a princess, so that it can go in the records. They offered to take me with them, so I could learn from other fae royals how to act. I wouldn’t be able to take Nolan with me, however.
My mate had a lot to say about that. As did I. I told the heralds that they could bring other faeries here, but I wouldn’t be leaving my mate.
The other faeries were annoyed, but they ended up leaving and promised to spread the word in case there are others like me who need somewhere safe to go. I think they’ll follow up on it. I commanded them to. It felt odd.
I won’t say that I like commanding other faeries, but it was helpful in that moment when I wanted them to leave.