Page 87 of Mane Squeeze
“It’s truth,” Lillith said. “I don’t want your titles. I don’t want a seat at your table. I came because I was summoned. And because the Echoes told me peace matters. That balance has to be rebuilt, not ruled.”
“Why should we believe you?” another fae asked.
Lillith raised her hand.
Magic flared—not violent, but bright. A shimmer of runes danced across her skin, glowing faint gold and blue.
“This is what’s left of the Echo sigil. Their mark. Their blessing. I didn’t steal it. I earned it.”
“And the realm is still intact,” Dominic added. “Because she fought for it.”
They didn’t move. Not right away.
But slowly, Lillith turned to Faelar. “You lost the right to decide who I was the moment you stopped seeing me as your daughter.”
He didn’t speak. He couldn’t.
She turned away from him, back toward her aunt. “I offer peace. No more than that. No less.”
The High Matron looked at her long and hard. Then finally, she nodded.
“You are dismissed, Lady Verdan.”
The guards did not escort her out.
They bowed again.
When she walked from the chamber, no one stopped her. Not even her father.
Because Lillith wasn’t the girl they remembered. She wasn’t afraid. She wasn’t small. She was a myth now. A story whispered in the dark to remind them that once, a girl called the ancient spirits and they answered.
Outside the gates,the breeze caught her veil, tugging it loose. Dominic caught it before it flew, tucking it back into her braid.
“You were incredible in there,” he said.
“I was terrified,” she admitted, leaning into his side. “But I think I needed to be.”
He brushed his knuckles along her jaw. “You’re a legend now, y’know. They’re probably going to name a holiday after you.”
“Maker help them,” she groaned.
“Lillith Day. Free cider and protective wards for all.”
She laughed then, the kind of laugh that had carried him through battlefields and shadow-riddled dreams.
“What if I don’t want to be a legend?”
“Then be mine,” he murmured, pulling her close. “Just mine.”
She kissed him, slow and deep. And when they finally parted, she whispered against his lips, “That part was never in question.”
They mounted their horse and rode back to Celestial Pines. Back to home.
To the town that would one day tell tales of the girl who set the forest on fire for the boy she loved. And the shifter who came back roaring, just to hold her hand.
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LILLITH
