Epilogue
’m roused from sleep by the sounds of muffled thuds and grunts. A bodyI falling. Someone crashing against my bars and then the telltale slump of them dropping to the ground. I sit up, trying to discern what’s happening through the webs of darkness coating my sight. It’s been several days since Atlas threw me in here, and I’ve seen neither him nor Gabriel since.
But now a figure looms beyond the bars of my cell and some instinct tells me no one invited him here.
A Fae male, tall and broad, stands with his hands planted on his hips. I think he’s wearing armor, though it’s hard to be sure. When he moves into the light produced by a single torch outside my cell, he smiles, a mischievous glint in his eye.
“You’re quite the pain in my ass lately, you know that?”
I blink. “Me?”
He gestures to someone who also moves into my vision, her hands circling the bars of my cell. Another Fae. Slim and petite, she wears a full black skirt
that hangs to her knees and a black leather corset. Fingerless gloves cover her hands and she glows with a colorful aura that surrounds her like a halo. She flicks her wrist, and I hear the click of the lock.
“You’re coming with us, darling,” the male says, his stance casual despite the fact that it’s becoming obvious he’s here to steal me from the Sun Palace.
“Who are you?” I ask, standing up and pressing myself to the wall.
“Call us interested bystanders.”
The female rolls her eyes and backhands his thick biceps. “Stop scaring her,” she says, and then gives me a kind smile. “We mean you no harm.
We’re here to get you out of Aphelion.”
I frown. “Why should I believe that? Of course, you’re going to say you mean me no harm.”
She lets out a puff of air and plants her hands on her hips, mimicking the male’s stance. “Well, that’s true.”
“You can come willingly, or we’ll make you,” the male says, still smiling, while he folds his arms across his wide chest. There is no menace in his words, but I understand them for the threat they are. The female sighs again
and tosses him a dirty look.
“Look, you’re not doing so well in this place. I hear Atlas isn’t…happy.”
She gestures to the cell walls. “So, what have you got to lose?”
She has a point there. The female moves, and I catch the flash in her black eyes. Ribbons of color. Emerald, crimson, and violet. Suddenly I’m seized by
a strange bone deep melancholy for a place I’ve hated for so long, but is also the only home I can remember. I long so much for Tristan and Willow.
Though our lives weren’t enviable, at least we had each other. Even if they
were only an illusion, seeing them in the maze sliced deep into that chamber of my heart that I keep reserved specifically for them.
I take a tentative step forward, understanding she isn’t really giving me a choice. I already know Atlas won’t let me go willingly. He’s probably scheming right now for a way to break Apricia’s claim to the Sun Queen crown. One way or another, Atlas is going to try to get what he wants. The way he threatened me in the throne room told me I won’t be safe here ever again.
“Okay,” I say, emerging into the light.
The woman dips her chin. “Excellent choice.”
Before I have a chance to protest, I’m whisked away by the male, his powerful arms lifting me and tossing me over his shoulder. I don’t bother objecting or fighting him off. I agreed to this, and my options are rather limited right now.
I feel the cadence of his steps as we steal down several darkened corridors and eventually emerge outside, the crash of the ocean sounding in the distance. I’m deposited into the back of a carriage with plush velvet seats.
The male grabs my wrists and lashes them together with a thick leather cord.
“Hey!” I complain, but he ignores me, his movements quick and efficient.
A bag is placed over my head, my muffled protests also going unheeded.
Next, he ties my ankles together, and I’m starting to wonder if I should have taken my chances with Atlas, after all.
I feel the carriage dip as someone else enters. “Is that really necessary?” I hear the female Fae ask.
“Yes,” the male replies. “Sorry about this, sweetheart.”
There is a sharp pain in the side of my head, and then there is nothing but blackness.
When I come to, I’m being carried again. The world is dark and quiet. I’m set down on the ground, my heart thudding in my chest. I’ve made a terrible mistake.
Finally, someone pulls the bag off and I shake my head. Slowly, my eyes
adjust to the gloom. We’re in a stone room with a small window providing the only light from the moon outside.
Someone is standing in here with me, his posture casual and his hands tucked into his pockets. A male Fae with long black hair and dark eyes steps into the light as the air is swept from my lungs.
The Aurora Prince tips his head, cunning crafted into the exquisite lines of his expression, his gaze sweeping over me from head to toe. His black eyes flicker with those jewel-tone hues that are the reminder of so many things
I’ve lost.
But in that moment, a thread, one made of fate, made of fortune, made of an ostensible sense of possibility, spirals its way through the room. It stitches a new story into the crumbled remains of a legacy that was shattered but
never forgotten.
I am a prisoner, but I am no longer caged.
“Hello, prisoner 3452,” the prince says, a smirk tipping up the side of his mouth. “Welcome back to The Aurora.”
Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it. If you're dying to find out what happens next, you can pre-order Rule of the Aurora King today! Watch for it in early 2023.
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