Page 17 of Court of Dragons and Twilight (Dragon Crown #5)

EPILOGUE

“ E lle, do you want a lemonade or a Coke?”

Arden’s shout echoes across the deck, and I lean back, smiling at him. He is tanned from the sun and shirtless to show it off. “Coke, please!”

He heads inside to the cooler, and Lysander catches my gaze as my purple hair blows across my face. I tuck it away, seeing a few dark strands coming through. “I will never understand your excitement when Phobos and his family come with those as gifts.”

“Hey, if you didn’t grow up in the human world, you wouldn’t get it,” I mutter before sticking my tongue out at him. His eyes darken and he nearly gets hit in the head by a flying ball thrown by Terrin. The two of them are terrors when they play ball, and the one time I took them to a football match on Earth flashes into my mind. They completely forgot the other players were human, and the match was for charity. They destroyed the pitch and set it on fire. By accident, according to them both. Terrin laughs as Lysander glowers at him. “Fucking cheater.”

“Don’t be distracted, then, dickhead.” He taunts Lysander like it’s a sport. The two of them have become best friends over the years, and it was an unexpected friendship. Terrin helped me guide Lysander through his grief, and on the darkest days, we just stayed together. There is something perfect about just staying together when you don’t want anything more than that.

The chimes echo in my ears as I turn back to the water and continue watching it, my feet in the cold seawater of the Air Court. A massive statue was constructed by Emrys two years ago, and it’s beautiful. It makes a constant noise. Thousands of little chimes are attached all the way around a stone tornado, spinning up into the sky. Every chime is for a family that was lost, a name written on the chimes to echo forever. They were handmade by the survivors of the Air Court and placed here for everyone to come and see.

I watch it from our royal floating house, right on the lake itself. It’s our favourite place to come, especially this time of year, around the time that the Air Court fell five years ago. It’s a hard time for Emrys, especially considering he lost everything this day, and it was something he was forced to watch through Ares’s hold on his body. This place belonged to his family and now to him, and we all love it here. We have a home in every court, something public and something private. Emrys’s mum was lovely enough to stock it with food and drinks for us, like she does every year.

This is our only home in the Air Court. The floating castle was destroyed by Ares’s death, and none of us wanted to go back to the ruins, especially not Emrys. He is haunted even now by the memories that come back to him, but on those days, I stay at his side from dawn to dusk. Thankfully, there were more survivors than we knew about. People hid and waited for Emrys to come for them.

“Here you go,” Arden hands me a Coke in a tall blue glass with a tiny lemon and lots of ice, just how I like it. “Sure you don’t want any wine? I brought your favourite here.”

“It’s a bit early for wine,” I lie. I always want wine, but I won’t be having it for a long time. Arden kisses the top of my head as Emrys calls him back to the BBQ, where he and Grayson are bickering over how to spice the food. Laughter carries to my ears from across the lake, and I look over at the other houses and the children running across the deck. The Air Court population is coming back. Slowly but surely. It reminds me of the Spirit Court, which my mother tells me every day that it is getting back to how it was before the court fell. But better. Bigger. Peace was always the goal and, oddly enough, I know we have it.

Terrin kept the crown of the West long after the battle was won. We are finally united with them, something no ruler of Ayiolyn has ever been able to do. We have regular trade routes set up and even a dragon rider academy in the West for anyone who wants to train a wild dragon and join the army. Many of our people who don’t have magic go across the borders to train there and with our blessing. We have a peace agreement in place that will last indefinitely.

Overall, I did everything that I promised, and I hope that our actions last for the generations to come after us. I hope Arty and Kian are proud of us. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think of them though and the loss we took. The warm breeze blows across my body as the sun shines down, and I smile at the sky. I know they are happy, and I remind myself of that.

“Did you see Hope’s kid climbing the wall yesterday?” Arden asks Grayson. “He is so fast, and Hope looked mighty pissed off. Livia had to grab him and bring him down. Again.”

I grin to myself. Hope’s son, Laurent, is a rascal and breaks every rule he possibly can. I love him. He lives in the Water Court with his parents, but they regularly bring the three-year-old over to mess up our castle as well as our place and test the patience of the castle’s never-ending snack deliveries. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many different types and flavours of cake.

I glance over my shoulder at my mates. Lysander is grinning. He loves this place. Even if he moves the house near the waterfall every night and pretends he didn’t do anything, just to piss off Emrys. Arden, who is not a huge fan of a floating house on water, still smiles every time we agree to come here for a few weeks to be alone. We are working in his court for a spell breaker for his grandfather, and I know we are close. It doesn’t matter how many years it takes; we won’t forget him. Emrys loves being in his court, and Grayson comes here more than us now. His sister has married an Air Court guard who survived the gods, and they bonded over the recovery of the courts. He is a good kid, and he is terrified of Grayson. I regularly remind him Gray is all bark and no bite. I especially reminded Gray how much his sister loved her boyfriend when he came to ask Gray if he could ask her to marry him last year. They got married a month ago, and they are currently travelling around the courts on a honeymoon.

My grandmother and Cronus love this court too, and they made their home on one of the islands, which is mostly forest. They claimed it for themselves as a reward for helping in the war, and none of us really wanted to disagree. Especially when they took their dead army there, which all of us were very glad about, as the rotting bodies really smell after a while. We wouldn’t have won the battle at the Spirit Court without them, and I get to see my grandmother regularly. It is nice when we come here though; it’s just us, without the pressure of all the courts, the pressure of everything that we end up having to do when we go into any of the big castles despite having very good ruling councils we leave behind. Livia is the leader of mine, and she chose everyone in it, along with my mother.

I stand up and raise my arms above my head after putting my Coke down. I’m dressed in the sluttiest bikini I found on a trip to Earth last year with Hope and Livia. They all look, and the heat of their gaze makes my skin pebble everywhere. Tonight is going to be fun. Five years together, and every single time they touch me, nothing has changed. The same fire, the same burn, and the need for more. It’s endless. I pull my cover-up on, throwing it over my shoulders. “Can we talk?”

They go silent and watch me, all of them frowning at my tone. “Everything alright?”

I never quite get used to all of their attention at once, and it makes me want to stutter over my words. I mean, there have been several drunk nights where I’ve had all of their attention at once in a naked way, and I struggled to walk the next day, but it was amazing. At this time, though, I’m more nervous. I’ve been using my magic to hide the extra scent wrapped around me until we got here and were alone. I found out three days ago, and it worked out well that all of them have been so busy with royal duties. I push the magic away, stopping it from protecting what I’ve been keeping hidden. It takes them a second. Lysander’s eyes widen first, a look of shock that leaves him silent. That’s a first. Emrys walks over and kneels in front of me, resting his head on my stomach. I feel him shaking slightly.

Arden has tears in his eyes, but he is shocked too, and it’s Grayson who speaks first, awe marking his words. “Are you pregnant?”

“Are there babies in there? As in more than one?” Terrin whispers as Emrys kisses my stomach. I run my hands through his hair. “Yes. Two. Twins.”

“The babies smell like all of us,” Lysander whispers, but there is love in his voice. Like he loves them already, like I do. I might not know their names, what they sound like or what their favourite thing is, but I know I’d do anything to find out. To be there for their first steps, first laugh and every first. It makes everything worth all the fighting we’ve been through. “How?”

“Magic.” I wipe my cheeks. “Somehow, someway, these babies are a part of all of us, and they are our future.”

“You’re going to be the best mother.” Grayson comes closer and kisses my cheek. They crowd around me, my mates, the fathers of my children, and my kings.

We are a court of dragons at peace, and it wasn’t something I ever thought would happen. Could happen even. The rest of the day, we spend on the deck, eating and talking about our future children, and I spend all of it imagining what my boys are going to be like. What they will sound like when they laugh or what will be their favourite toy.

I can’t wait to tell my mum and grandmother if they don’t know already. The pair of them were asking strange questions about timing and life a week ago when we met up, and I thought it was odd. The pair of them always seem to know everything beforehand, but I expect they will be delighted. I never told them about the twins and how I knew about them. That knowledge was personal between my mates and me. And the matron, but none of us have seen her since I went into the darkness, which is now gone. The space it was is just a room now, but the castle is still very much alive somehow. We all speculate that the castle itself is now what is left of the darkness and Matron. But who knows?

“Are you sure you’re not tired?” Arden questions, leaning on the door to our massive bedroom. The bed is enormous enough for all six of us to easily sleep in it, with cream bedding, big pillows, and cushions that Emrys picked out. We often don’t all share the same room, as we all like our own space now and again. Terrin walks in behind Arden, patting his arm. “I was just checking on our mate to see if she is tired or not.”

“I’m pregnant, not sick,” I pout, watching Arden. “Close the door?”

He shuts it without even blinking. Terrin pulls his shirt off at the same time, and both of them descend on me. Arden and Terrin together? It’s one of my favourite times. Lysander likes me alone. Emrys and Grayson sometimes prefer me together, but Arden and Terrin? This is normal for us, and I love it. I love every second of their attention. Terrin reaches me first and shadows. His magic, which he has a good control over now, makes my bikini completely disappear.

I gasp as he picks me up and lays me gently on the bed, climbing over me to kiss me. The moment his lips find mine, heat explodes through my body and burns up my spine. Terrin kisses down my neck, then my chest before kneeling between my legs and parting me. Terrin looks at me like I’m his own personal goddess, and Arden groans. “Fuck, I’ll never get bored of seeing your pussy.”

I don’t get a second to reply to Arden, who has lost his clothes and is climbing onto the bed. Terrin flips me over, pulling me up on my knees and immediately sinking his tongue right onto my clit. Careful, trained strokes of his tongue have me panting and building to an orgasm in seconds, and I know he won’t stop, not until I’ve finished at least two times. Arden usually likes to make me beg first.

I moan as Arden kneels in front of me, grabbing my chin, and I lean forward to take his hard cock into my mouth. His hand tightens on my chin, his other hand finding my hair and guiding my movements to how he likes it. I can barely focus on Arden when Terrin sends me crashing into an orgasm, his masculine laugh echoing through our bond in my mind. “More, mate?” I love when he uses our bond to sense what I want, how I want everything. I know Arden does the same, and I love to peek into his mind to know what he wants right now, how he is feeling. The mate bond is truly an honour to have, and I never want to lose our connection.

“Always,” I moan back to him in my mind, even when I know we want the same thing. More of this. More of us. Us, never ending. I hear him scuffling, moving until the tip of his hard cock presses against my opening, pushing before he completely sinks into me with a groan. His pleasure blasts down the bond in a wave, mixing with Arden’s pleasure and mine. Terrin holds my hips as he slams into me, and Arden groans in a way I know he is close. I suck on his cock a little more, and he groans, taking his cock out to come across my tits. Another orgasm slams down my spine, and Terrin stills with me, filling me with his own finish. We all fall back on the bed, and I nestle in the middle of them. Their warm bodies are perfect to lie between. Terrin kisses my forehead. “I love you.”

Arden’s arm rests across my stomach, his fingers tracing my belly as I use my water powers to wash everything off us and air to dry us and move a blanket across the room, laying it over us both. Arden keeps his hand on my stomach the entire time, and I look up at my fire king. “They will be kings of the courts.”

I imagine that future, our children ruling in peace, and I realise it’s all we ever wanted.