Saving the Fae (Daughter of Light #3) - Leia Stone Page 0,62

cold touched my ring finger, and I looked down to see a small, dirty pebble held against my finger.

“There, I put a rock on it.” He winked.

Laughter peeled out of me as Liam wrapped his arms around me and spun me in a circle.

Our story wasn’t perfect. Hell, it was downright tragic in some parts. But the ending, oh, the ending was going to be happily ever after.

Epilogue

Three years later.

I married Liam two years ago under the Tree of Life with only a handful of my closest friends in attendance. Then, we had a reception with the entire village and partied for three days. It felt like that tree and those crystals had brought us together, and we wanted to honor that.

Liam’s father was still imprisoned. Guards brought him three meals a day and the Queen had ordered plumbing with shower and a toilet to be added to his cell, which I thought was a mercy, considering all of the heartache he’d caused. Cain and a few of the little ones still visited him. They were too young to understand the bigger picture, and Liam didn’t discourage it.

The Queen had also created a portal from the tree in Wyoming where Mara was laid to rest, connecting it to the treehouse Liam and I lived in. We visited his mother twice a week for yummy homemade lasagna and casserole dinners. Tonight, we were going there to celebrate Elle and Cam’s engagement. His mother begged to host the party in her Wyoming house. I think she liked having all of us over.

I skipped along the bridge and onto the path that led to our small treehouse, waving at fae as I passed. The fae from Earth that I’d invited to rejoin Faerie had come, and after a few scuffles for power, they pledged their loyalty to the Queen. Not me. The real Queen. She’d taken her power back at my request and was training me to take over one day. Some of the fae had spread out in search of their own land. Some Winter fae wanted to live in Winter. Every inch of Faerie had been restored to its former glory. But most of them chose to stay here in Spring, to live in a community with all of us.

“Hey,” The Queen called, and I spun. “I wanted to catch you before you went to Cam and Elle’s party.”

She looked radiant in a long flowing blue dress. She was strong, compassionate, loving, and fierce. I’d learned a lot from her over the past three years. We’d grown close like a real family, how I imagined we should have been all those years had we not been robbed of time. I still missed my mother dreadfully, but the Queen had filled some of the holes in my heart with her steadfast love.

“Hey, I wish you would come.” I pouted, sticking out my bottom lip.

She nodded. “Me too, but I must meet with the farmers. There is a fungus issue with one of the crops.”

She extended her hands, and I saw that there was a little gift in them. A brown paper-wrapped box.

I smiled. “I’ll give it to Elle.”

The Queen shook her head. “No, it’s for you… about that thing we talked about.”

My heart warmed at her words. I found out yesterday that I was pregnant. I hadn’t told Liam yet, and the first person I’d run to for advice was her. We weren’t really trying, so it was a bit of a shock, but I was happy about it. Faerie was finally safe enough to bring a child into it. I’d told the Queen my concerns about how small our treehouse was, how the baby would be a royal and a seeker, and how that would change his or her life. That I would never keep anything from them and would tell them of their duties and powers from the day they were born, unlike my mother did with me. I didn’t want my child to grow up in the dark like I had.

“Open it,” the Queen told me.

I swallowed hard, fighting the urge not to cry as I tore the brown paper packaging. When I opened the box, I looked down at the little brass key.

“It’s to the Tree of Life house,” she said as my throat constricted with emotion. “I’ve been remodeling all year, trying to rid it of the bad memories it held. Elle will be moving in with Cam, and it’s high time I moved back into Spring