Page 24 of Court of Dragons and Twilight

I smile. “Congratulations.”

“Tell me you’ll bring your own children to meet ours one day on Earth,” he demands. “I don’t want you to never come to Earth and see us.”

“Aww, you saying you love me?” I tease him, and he rolls his eyes. “You could stay here in Ayiolyn. I’d like that.”

He huffs like an old man. I suppose he is one, being an ancient god, but he looks like a late-twenties supermodel with crazy dark vibes. “My home is on Earth with my mate. Humans are so easily scared. There’s nowhere else I’d prefer to be.”

A laugh escapes me, knowing he’s deadly serious about frightening humans for the rest of his life. Phobos literally has a Halloween-based island that runs all year round. He somehow lured his mate there, from the stories he told us before he left. He opens a portal, one on the ground, and it’s weird. “It’s a gift.”

I peer into it. “I’m confused. What is a gift? Where does that lead?”

“It’s a doorway to hell.” He grins like that’s a present.

“You want me to go to hell? Well, Uncle, it’s lovely to see you too, but…” I grin.

“Snarky sarcasm suits you. I’d be annoyed if I hadn’t taught you that myself. Now come on.” He walks into the portal and down the steps. Reluctantly, I follow him, trusting my uncle. The steps go on and on, and my legs hurt by the time we come down what must be a thousand steps into a place that’s actually very beautiful. If this is hell, then God knows what heaven must look like.

A big ancient house takes up the centre of the huge cavern, and purple fires burst up into the air all the way around it. Everything glows a deep purple, and it’s so bright it hurts to stare for too long. The house itself is green though, the darkest shade, with exotic plants and trees all the way around it. Phobos doesn’t lead me to the house, but around it to the back, along a stone path to where a massive garden stretches for miles belowwith a small lake in the centre. The purple light reflects off the black shiny stone above, and I look down at the natural pool, which is red and black instead of blue. It glitters like someone threw a dozen buckets of glitter into the water.

It’s not empty.

Arty and Kian are in the water, and they’re laughing, splashing each other. Just having fun like they didn’t die to save the world. I take a step forward, but Phobos grabs my arm to stop me. “You can’t communicate with the dead. It would confuse them and cause them pain. Their life is over, and their afterlife is to be shared only with the souls they love. Hades and Persephone wanted you to see this so you can tell Lysander he is well, because you were her sister in every right known to the gods.”

Arty. Her hair is wavy and wet, and she looks so carefree. So, so happy. Tears fall down my chin, dripping onto my hands. “You could have brought Lysander here to see for himself with me.”

“The water king cannot come. The invite was only for you, as this takes great magic,” Phobos softly explains. “There are not many alive who get a glimpse of death and live to tell the tale.”

“Thank you,” I whisper to the gods that rule hell. I watch my friends for a long while, knowing this is the last time. For a second, I see the moment I met Arty in a room in the castle and how joyful she was, how alive she was. I remember her like that, remember her light and how that light eventually led to her saving the world. Because she did. She saved them all, even if most of the world won’t remember that in the generations to come. I am going to tell my children about her and Kian and how they loved each other so much.

“They are honoured guests. Making such a sacrifice of their lives means that they will live like royalty. Their souls remain forever here. So will you, when it is your time,” Phobos explainsto me. “They will never feel pain, never want for anything ever again. True peace in death.”

There is nothing I could have wanted more for them. “I feel guilty that I get to live, and they don’t.”

Phobos wraps his arm around my shoulders. “Only natural. I sensed your guilt and struggle. I asked for this.” He kisses the top of my head. “You were my practice child, and I’m proud of you.”

“Practice child? Please don’t tell me you’re going to train your own kid like me?” I shove him away, and he roars with laughter. I smile at him when he winks. “Aphrodite and Ares, where are they?”

His eyes drift over and look out in the far distance. I follow his line of sight to where there is a pit. A black pit with strange red creatures that almost look like three-headed dogs that guard all the surrounding way in a circle. Inside that darkness, something awful sends shivers down my spine. “They are burning in hell forever, and they will never leave.”

I don’t spend too much time dwelling on that as I look back, it’s enough to know they are dead and suffering for their actions. Tears keep falling down my cheeks, and Phobos leans over, wiping one away. “Come on, niece. Death is not always ugly. It can be beautiful. That girl down there, all she ever wanted to do was to have someone that’s worth dying for. She found you. She found him.” He smiles softly. “Kian wanted to find someone to fall in love with, and to give his brother a reason to make everything better in the court he grew up in. He did both. Lysander will change the court forever for his brother, and never again will the Water Court know brutality. This is a happy ending, even with death. Death can be stunning.”

Arty looks up and I feel like she can actually see me. She smiles so widely, only for a second, and then she turns back to Kian, kissing him softly. “Goodbye, Arty.” I hope my whispercarries to her, to her soul, because one day, I will find her again. “It’s time to go,” I whisper, my voice broken with emotion. When I get back, I go straight through the doors and go to Lysander. His eyes widen as he wakes up. He smiles at me, although groggily, and wraps his arms around my waist. There’s so much sadness in his eyes that never goes away. I curl up onto his lap. “I just saw your brother. He was swimming with Arty in a lake in hell. They’re happy.”

“What are you talking about, spirit witch?” he groans into my neck.

I lean into my mate and sigh. “Just that everything is over, and the ghosts are happy.”

EPILOGUE

“Elle, do you want a lemonade or a Coke?”

Arden’s shout echoes across the deck, and I lean back, smiling at him. He is tanned from the sun and shirtless to show it off. “Coke, please!”

He heads inside to the cooler, and Lysander catches my gaze as my purple hair blows across my face. I tuck it away, seeing a few dark strands coming through. “I will never understand your excitement when Phobos and his family come with those as gifts.”

“Hey, if you didn’t grow up in the human world, you wouldn’t get it,” I mutter before sticking my tongue out at him. His eyes darken and he nearly gets hit in the head by a flying ball thrown by Terrin. The two of them are terrors when they play ball, and the one time I took them to a football match on Earth flashes into my mind. They completely forgot the other players were human, and the match was for charity. They destroyed the pitch and set it on fire. By accident, according to them both. Terrin laughs as Lysander glowers at him. “Fucking cheater.”

“Don’t be distracted, then, dickhead.” He taunts Lysander like it’s a sport. The two of them have become best friends over the years, and it was an unexpected friendship. Terrin helpedme guide Lysander through his grief, and on the darkest days, we just stayed together. There is something perfect about just staying together when you don’t want anything more than that.

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