Epilogue

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Epilogue

**•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚ ˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚*

Alone.

He was alone.

His chest constricted painfully, his heart thundering so violently he feared it may shatter within the dark cavern behind his sternum. Pawing uselessly at his breast, he found little reprieve, not when he knew that she was gone.

It ingrained itself within his bones- that knowledge, that pivotal component of his very existence, the reason he lived and breathed.

Lillian was gone.

The shadows in his peripherals swarmed him, inhaled towards him, and he staggered against something solid. The wall.

He could scarcely recall where he was, only aware that he was here, now, and what had come before had rendered him incognizant of everything else until this moment. The hallway was dark, muted light slowly devoured by the encroaching shadows. Of night? He wasn't sure, but it felt... wrong. It felt suffocating, foreboding, and he pushed himself upright, the brand on his arm burning with a ferocity that made his eyes water.

His body felt heavy, too sluggish, as he stumbled through the hall. A weight lingered on his chest, over his heart, as his lungs struggled to pull in an adequate breath. Perhaps he was suffocating...

Somehow, he found an exit and he staggered outside, the sky tumultuously grey above him. Before him- steps. The peripherals of his vision blurred, the distant roll of thunder meeting his ears and a vague static in the air compelling the hairs on his arm to stand on end. The descent was fluid, his legs moving with an urgency once his focal point cleared to a form at the bottom. No, a figure.

Blayne.

His boots were loud as they crunched on the gravel beside the other male who was on his knees, his shoulders slumped forward. His hair veiled his face, preventing Aëghan from deciphering his expression but the air was ripe with it- despair. Desperation.

"She's gone."

The words were listless, flat. Resigned.

"Who?" But Aëghan already knew the answer, he didn't need further confirmation. The beastkeeper's hands were palm up on his knees, a dainty bonnet in one, the lilac ribbons dangling limply in the other. Millie had been wearing it before she had gone riding with the others.

His eyes caught on the flutter of material nearby. There, in the gravel, a pastel shawl with embroidered lilies on the edges.

He'd gifted Lillian it the day after she had told him they were expecting...

The earth met his legs as they folded beneath him, his fingers clutching desperately at the silken fabric of the shawl and hauling it to his chest as if it alone could ease the vice that was set on cracking each one of his ribs. Beneath his skin, the dragon shifted, enraged and grieving, and he felt the power surge through his veins, splitting skin and bone and flesh.

And he let it.

Aëghan jolted awake, his torso lifting from the bed as if struck. Instinctually, his hand glided across the sheet, finding no one beside him.

He panicked, the dream or premonition so achingly fresh in his mind he had yet to orientate himself correctly.

Lillian's chambers were dark and cool, the fire having died behind the hearth some time before, and he turned on the mattress, bolting upright. Lillian was gone.

Silence met his ears, a dull pounding of his heartbeat echoing across his consciousness, yet the prevalent ache and constriction was absent.

It was then he recalled that she had left the bed some time ago to seek counsel with her sister, despite the lateness of the hour. She had kissed him, ignored his cajoling to return to the sheets with him despite having spent the entire day there, and left him to sleep.

He could sense her still- a light presence, faintly content and indicative that she was close by- and that made him relax. The tension in his muscles eased and he absently rubbed at his chest, the remembered ache from the premonition and the past three days leaving shadows of memory that he still found disturbing. That weren't quite so easy to dispel.

But it was a dream- or a premonition... that thought he couldn't bear. No, Aëghan decided, it was merely a dream- a vivid, unwanted dream. He'd never allow anything to take Lillian away from him. Not again.

He needed to see her. Perhaps he was unnerved by the experience, or perhaps he simply missed her, but he needed the reassurance of her presence, or at very least the sight of her. It would help, he reasoned. He could seek her out and appease the irksome uneasiness that lingered on the perimeters of his thoughts by setting his gaze on her, and then he could leave her once more.

Resolved, Aëghan swung his legs from the bed, sending Miss Felicity stalking away indignantly once she had tossed him a reproachful look over her bedraggled shoulder. He had brought the cat with him when he had collected Della and Enorae just that morning, yet already there were several complaints from the staff about the violent nature of the creature. Reasonably, he suggested that it was due to her sudden eviction from a territory she was familiar with, and that seemed to appease most who crossed paths with the feline.

He was lying, of course.

The cat was a cantankerous little shit.

Before he sprinted from the chamber, he remembered that some of the females may not take well to his nudity. However, he hadn't a stitch of his own clothing in this chamber- yet. He supposed he had better discuss with Lillian such logistics pertaining to a more permanent sleeping quarters arrangement for the both of them since it was frowned upon whenever he showed up naked somewhere.

He found one of Lillian's gowns, a lacy peignoir that momentarily surprised him and made him wonder briefly whether she had acquired such a thing with him in mind. Unfortunately, it was much too small and barely pulled close over his shoulders. It did the job, he conceded, noting that the important bits of his anatomy were covered.

Feeling he was decent enough to be seen in polite company, he swaggered from the room and made a beeline for her.

He sensed where she was and it was easy to find his way about the expansive house. The passages were dark and devoid of life at this hour, and he detected the femininely soft and cheerful voices of the women long before he came across the chamber they occupied.

It was one of many parlour rooms at Ravensfield, the door left slightly ajar to allow a wedge of light to fall across the floor. Aëghan hesitated, foregoing entering and disturbing the convivial repartee transpiring within, and contented himself with simply listening for the time being. Edging around the side, he could make out Lillian and her peers.

They were clustered together around the hearth, suffused with the glow of the warm light of the fire, and he found the scene... endearing. She sat with her legs tucked to her side, leaning against the arm of a chaise longue, while Millie curled tightly to her side and rested her head on her sister's shoulder.

Addilyn Holt had also cracked an invite to whatever little gathering it was, for the other woman sat on an armchair opposite with her legs curled under her billowing night gown. All three ladies cradled crystal glasses of some sort of liquor, and that made him smile.

Lillian certainly was becoming more relaxed when it came to disobeying the dictates of her rigid comportment.

"I wish you would have told me you were marked," Millie protested softly. "It would have been nice to have another person to commiserate with."

"At the time I hadn't a clue who it could be," Lillian snorted. "You would have called the largest manhunt in England and brought males from across the globe to our front door to find out who it was."

"That doesn't sound half bad," Addilyn murmured, a thoughtful smile on her face. "It would be quite the event!"

Millie rolled her eyes. "Do you ever think of anything other than matchmaking, Addy?"

"Not," the other woman said slyly and brought her drink to her nose, "if there are remarkably handsome young males in the nearby vicinity."

"Oh, God-"

"What? You cannot tell me honestly that every lady doesn't deserve to be adored by a man who actually wants to administer it?" Addilyn scoffed softly, finishing the contents of her glass and fishing for the half-full carafe that was beside her. "The fae males are gnawing at the bit at a chance to find their heartmates, and more than that- a woman to devote his entire existence to. It's quite romantic."

"I believed the marks to be a rare occurrence," Lillian said, a small frown of contemplation pulling a line atop the bridge of her nose. Aëghan's lips quirked at the sight, more than familiar with the expressions she wore when she was considering something well. "Why would they aspire for one if it hardly ever occurred?"

"Rare, indeed, yet two human sisters sport it in this very room." Addilyn's brow arched over her eye. "Even though you've chosen to keep yours a mystery, Lillian, the appearance of Millie's is significant enough. There is not a fae male in this realm who would not want his union blessed by a god."

Lillian toyed with the rim of the glass in her lap, and he noted the faint tremble of her fingertip as it traced the smooth edge. Certainly not as prevalent as before, but always a part of her. There was no tension rippling from her person, so he relaxed in the knowledge that she was comfortable conversing with the others.

"That god must have a foul sense of humour to match my sister with the lizard who threw me in a cage with the Valkyrie," Millie groused, earning her a playful nudge from Lillian's elbow.

"He had his reasons," Lillian teased. "Should I get him to apologise to you? Have him crawl on his hands and knees for your forgiveness?"

"Now that you mention it," Millie's face lightened at the prospect, and Aëghan feared he had heard enough- because truthfully, if Lillian asked it of him, he would likely end up doing it just to please her.

He pushed open the door and entered the study, heading directly for Lillian and ignored the wide-eyed shock from the others. "The only person who could bring me to my knees," he drawled, quirking a lazy grin at Millie, "is your sister."

"Oh, spare us, please." Millie glanced heavenward for a moment; her voice exceedingly dry. "I believe I have been subjected to enough lewdness involving my sister in one day to last me a lifetime."

"Jealous?"

Millie threw him a scathing look. "This is a girls only gathering, Aëghan. You were not invited."

"Oh, indeed? And what is this little gathering anyway?" He came to stand behind Lillian, allowing his fingers to trail through the strands of her that fell over one of her shoulders. She tilted her neck back to regard him, her beautiful face gilded with the golden firelight before her. "And should there not be another in attendance- Miss Cotton? Rather unfair of you not to include her."

"Midnight musings and port," she informed him, smiling. "It is to be a new tradition, though the name could be in need of some... tweaking as we couldn't seem to think of a liquor that began with M."

He thought for a moment. "Mead."

Lillian glanced at Addilyn. "We strained our minds for over an hour and he provides it within seconds," she remarked dryly. "And where is Miss Cotton? She has a remarkable tendency to be everywhere when one least expects it, yet I haven't seen her since I left Ravensfield."

"Love can addle the mind," Addilyn agreed, taking another sip of her liquor and side-eyeing the cushion beside her. "And Miss Cotton has returned to London accompanied by one of the C'lainn twins."

"The name hardly matters. He should leave," Millie reiterated. "We are discussing secrets no male should be privy to."

"Ah, yes, how could I stand to not know all the secrets to seducing a tailed lover?"

Lillian snorted on her drink.

Millie's eyes popped open wide, and then she looked at her sister accusingly. "I cannot believe you are in love with this fool."

"The two of you bicker like a proper pair of siblings," Lillian told her warmly. "He is already your brother, Millie- the nature of your relationship shall have to rest on jibes and underhanded insults until you both can reach some sort of compromise."

Millie harrumphed and folded her arms. "Well, a certain level of begging for forgiveness would be a start," she muttered.

"Not tonight," Aëghan quipped and hoisted Lillian from her cushioned perch effortlessly. He swung her into his arms and she grappled with her glass of port, an indignant sound of protest leaving her lips. "I have more important things to attend to- like adoring my heartmate and making sure she feels the full force of my devotion."

He thought he spied Addilyn blush, but he was more captivated by the colour scouring Lillian's cheeks as the present company recognised that their conversation had been heard.

"Eugh," Millie made a sound of revulsion. "Again, I reiterate, you really do not need to divulge me of every sordid thing you intend to do together."

Aëghan carried Lillian across the chamber towards the exit. "May as well grow accustomed to such forward displays of affection, sister," he taunted over his shoulder. "I don't intend to stop, and I am certainly not going anywhere."

"You are terrible," Lillian said, failing dismally at preventing her lips curling in a smile.

"Christ, Aëghan's peignoir leaves nothing to the imagination," Millie said with repugnance.

"I am," he agreed, marvelling at the feel of Lillian held close to his chest. "But you like that I am."

"I suppose I certainly cannot be terrible," she admitted, "so it is only fitting that I live vicariously through you."

He was walking quickly down the same passage he had traversed earlier in search of her, the dream that had awoken him a distant and unwelcome memory. "Oh, I think I can bring out a little bit of terrible in you," he murmured suggestively.

There was intrigue glinting from the depths of her luminous eyes, even as it appeared juxtaposed against a pretty blush of coyness. He so enjoyed challenging the stoic comportment that made up the fundamental parts of Lillian Adams, because when she allowed some of her barriers to come down, he felt as if he had been bestowed a rare and priceless gift.

Her fingers curled around his neck, her cheek dropping to rest on his shoulder as he nudged open the door to her chamber. "I do love you, Aëghan," she told him, her voice a quiet purr against him, "everything and anything that you are. Do not doubt that because we are withholding marriage-"

"Hush." He knew and he didn't need her reasoning behind it- they had known each other little more than a handful of days, and Lillian had baulked physically at the prospect of marrying before. They had time aplenty- he didn't need his gifts of premonition to know that it all lay before them and more. And besides, he was rather fond of a bit of secretive dalliances. It would be undoubtedly fun trying to coax her into scandalous positions where the threat of being caught was at an all-time high.

Presently, he was more than content to adore her as they were.

He set her in the bed, her hair splaying on the white pillow beneath her head, and he tossed the ridiculous peignoir aside before climbing in beside her. "All I need is your love," he said, a level of tenderness in his voice he hadn't believed himself capable of before, "and nothing else. Even if I said it in jest before, I am devoted wholly to you- all of me, everything and anything that I am, is yours. And I don't intend to lose you again, Lillian."

Her smile made his entire body warm, and then she was reaching for him, her arms encompassing his shoulders and pulling him down to his lips. In that moment, as he moved over her, he forgot about the dream entirely, sure that nothing could ever be strong enough take this from him.

His feelings for her transcended the most powerful surge of magic, and that made him confident, sure of himself.

He could adore her forever.

~The End~

A/N

And that's a wrap! But L & A will be making further appearances, don't worry. 

This story also marks the completion of 10 (mostly unedited) works. Geez...

Thank you so much for the consistent support, it really helps drive me forward with the story, especially round the parts that I find particularly sluggish to get through :) 

And if you haven't, please consider voting, following, commenting etc as if does mean the world to us writers. Especially of a more indie genre like this! 

So much love, 

Ash x 


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