Tears roll over my eyes and I let my head drop into my hands.
“Aurora,” Saint’s voice is soft, no more of the ire in his tone as he climbs back onto the bed, dragging me into his lap. “It’s over. This was is over because of your bravery. Yours and the other girls’.”
“I’m so sorry about Samuel,” I say as he pries my hands from my face. “He was killing you. I couldn’t…I couldn’t stop. Wemeant to capture him. I promise. I didn’t want to kill him. Well, I did, but I didn’tplanto.”
“I would’ve done the same exact thing,” he assures me. “I was prepared to kill him myself. He just beat me.”
“He beat us both,” I argue.
“You saved my life.” He leans his forehead against mine.
I swallow hard, relief and guilt and hope swirling together in my heart. “I couldn’t lose you.”
He threads our fingers and pulls our hands to his chest. “Never.”
“You forgive me?” I ask after we’ve held each other for a few moments.
“I’m so angry with you for putting yourself in danger like you did,” he admits. “But of course I forgive you. I’m in awe of you. Your courage. Your strength.” He sighs. “If there’s ever a next time, you have to promise to talk to me.”
“To be fair,” I say. “I did talk to you. I talked to all of you. If there’s a next time, maybe you need tolisten.”
He holds my gaze, a muscle in his jaw ticking. “Agreed.”
“Good.” I lean forward, almost timidly. I don’t want him to pull away again, but the last thing I want to do right now is argue.
His lips find mine in a rush, and it’s all I need to feel whole again. I pull away, hopping off the bed and reaching for his hand.
He takes it immediately.
“Shower first,” I say, guiding him to the bathroom. “Then we can meet with everyone. I’m sure…I know I have a lot of explaining to do.”
“We have time,” he says, turning on the hot water in the shower. “All the time we want now.”
“Really?” I ask, hope washing away every other emotion as we undress and step beneath the hot water. “We have a life now? No more wards?”
“Well,” he says, grabbing body wash to lather me up. “I don’t know if I’ll want to fully rid us of the wards.”
I sigh at his touch, gentle as he washes the blood and grime off my body, and then I do the same to him.
“But, we’ll have a life,” he finishes.
I grin up at him. “Where should we go first?”
He smooths his hands over my hips. “How about Italy?”
“Thank you,” Alek says from where he stands on a raised dais in the formal part of his estate. The grand ballroom is filled with noble vampires, assassins, hunters, and…family.Ourfamily. “Your votes and confidence in me to serve you as your king means everything to me.” He raises a glass of champagne, looking down at all of us. Lyric looks regal next to him, the power couple exactly where they should be, on the thrones.
“I know these times have been trying,” he continues. “But I’m grateful for the hunters and my assassins and my family, who helped bring an end to the terrible war we’ve suffered as of late.” His eyes find mine, and I smile sheepishly at him. “Thanks to them, we’re able to confidently say the Sons of Honor are no more, and we’ll be entering a time of peace you all more than deserve. And we will do our best to keep it for centuries to come.”
The crowd erupts into applause, and the talem working the event spread out to serve more champagne and pitchers of canned blood. Music filters into the room, the king’s speech officially over and the celebration beginning.
My heart feels more than full as I scan the room, noting the happiness and ease surrounding my new family. The hunters and the assassins and their mates. Daphne and the traineesI’ve come to know. Hell, even some of the stuffier nobles look relieved at the new era we’re entering. I know there will still be trials to overcome, things for the assassins and hunters to…hunt, but it won’t be like with the Sons, and that certainty is a bliss I didn’t think we’d ever be granted.
“This is all your doing, you know,” Saint whispers into my ear from where he sits next to me.
“You only say that because I’m your mate.”
He shakes his head, rising from his seat and tugging me off mine. We head to the dance floor, where Dagon and Annika dance among so many other couples. Saint draws me against him, moving us to the music.