Page 123 of Rogue's Paradise (Covenant of Thorns 3)

I took the baby from Puck, who gave me a jaunty salute and wandered off to tempt Isabel with a yellow flower. Our daughter, who’d been working her way up from fussing to the full-blown bellow I now recognized, stopped in midcry and stared at Rogue with fascination. The two pairs of unearthly blue eyes met and fused.

“Your firstborn child, Lord Rogue,” I said formally. “AsIpromised.”

He smiled, in pure delight, and caressed her cheek with one finger, just as he did with me. “She’s perfect.” Then his gaze flashed up to mine. “But don’t think this finishes things between us.”

“No?” I kept a straight face, though I bubbled over inside, with love. With joy. With utter relief that everything had come out okay—at least for this moment. “I’m quite certain this means all bargains between us are settled.”

He snagged an arm around my waist and pulled me close, the baby between us making happy noises. “Then I shall have to trick you into new bargains.”

“You can try.” But I couldn’t keep my arch attitude and gave in and kissed him. “We need to name her.”

“Yes. Names are powerful things.”

“You were well named, it turns out. The rogue, the wild card that brought a tyrant down.”

“And you, my queen for a new and golden era.”

“I can only hope. Though ours are portentous names. It might be nice for our daughter to have a simple one.”

“That’s easy. She is what I hoped for all those long, empty years. What you have brought to me.”

“Oh yes?”

“Eden.”

“So be it.”

And that made three.

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