“Could you please give it another name?”
“The chaos.”
“That’s worse.”
“It’s beside the point!” she groaned. “But, anyway, I love you too, Travus. I can’t see myself doing all of…this,” she waved her hands around, “with anyone else. I don’t thinkanyone else would have the capacity for it. Thank you for your resilience.”
He grinned as he pulled her in by the waist. “You know,” he said softly as the tip of his nose brushed hers, “and you might abhor me for it but…I rather enjoy how flustered you get.”
“Nothing new for you to revel in my discomfort,” as she rolled her eyes, but seeing the easy-going smile on his face softened her. With a soft look into his eyes, her fingers traced his jaw gently, grounding herself with the sensation of his stubble knowing that he was the only one who could see her in her entirety. “But I’m glad I met you, and…and that you’re the one that’s my mate. I really am.”
She gasped when his lips suddenly found hers, sighing against his chest as he enveloped her completely in the warmth of his strong embrace. She could feel the tension in her body melt away, finally finding ease in the fact that she had someone to rely on. Someone that could hold her close and hold her down when she got ahead of herself.
When he pulled away, she felt a spark of something familiar in her chest, one that she felt when practicing pure magic. Though it was perhaps a remnant, it made her happy to feel it after so long even if it was only for a second.
He kissed her cheek, then her forehead, then hugged her with a love-force she could feel inside that matched hers, as his true mate.
“We should go back inside before people miss us,” he said, to which she nodded. Grabbing his hand, she pulled out of the hug and walked with him back into the castle and toward the throne where her mother stood with Ivy in her arms.
The Fairy Guardian, upon seeing Aria, moved to hand Ivy over. Aria smiled as her daughter reached out for her with a soft coo.
Before she could grab her though, Ivy slipped right out of the Guardian’s grasp. Upwards.
Gasps filled the room as the Fairy Guardian screamed in delight. Travus panicked and shot forward, jumping to grab his daughter before she floated away any further. Aria, in a daze, watched a laughing Ivy, being brought to her encased in a shimmer of gold dust.
She cried. Relief, joy, exhaustion, it all caught up to her as she took Ivy into her arms, holding her close as she sank to the floor onto her knees. She sobbed and sniffled with happiness so overwhelming that she thought her heart would explode.
It was then she knew that everything would be alright. That she’d done her best and everything in her power to make things work.
All was well. There was order in the realm. The Faes and the Humans had found their rightful place. The ElvenKing had completely changed to a dutiful husband, father and ruler, since he no longer had to endure the curse of immortality.
And she found a life most unexpected to fulfill her long aching heart.
The End
