Page 20
Six Months Later
C assandra
The realms did not end. They didn’t break under the weight of prophecy or burn beneath the fury of war. They bent and shifted, breathed, and began again.
The merging held. Alluvium, Runic, and Quietus now exist in a fragile harmony, not unified but woven. Trade flows between them and magik is shared instead of hoarded. The borders are no longer walls, but thresholds.
Peace, it turns out, is not quiet. It’s work. Every. Single. Damn. Day.
****
T he air in Quietus feels different now. It is no longer tainted with raw malice or unchecked hunger, but it is still thick with old magik. Shadows cling to the jagged mountains like memories, and the black stone citadel looms ahead, half-ruined, half-reborn.
Niko stands beside me, one hand resting at the small of my back, the other holding the sealed charter. The Threefold Accord. The agreement that will finally stop the cycle of silence, blood, and war between our realms.
“They’re waiting,” he murmurs, nodding toward the long ceremonial hall where the Quietus-born are gathered.
Demons, shade-walkers, and things that once lived only in nightmares. Now, they kneel. Not in fear but in respect. Maybe acceptance. Or perhaps in curiosity. After all, they’ve never had a queen who didn’t want to erase them.
I raise my voice. “Quietus will no longer be exiled.” The words ring out like truth. “Your magik is not a curse, it is necessary. Chaos balances order. Shadow sharpens light. I do not come to rule you but to recognize you. As equals. As a realm with its own crown, its own voice.”
The crowd doesn’t erupt. No, it holds its breath.
Behind me, the new leader of Quietus steps forward, Riven, a shadow kin born of dusk and wrapped in diplomacy, and once Nyx’s apprentice, now unbound from her legacy.
He bows deeply. “In the name of Quietus, I accept the Accord.”
The moment he signs, magik seals the document. A ripple spreads through the air binding Quietus, Runic, and Alluvium in shared law and open travel.
An hour later, from the cliffs of Quietus, we use a portal to travel to a quiet, little town in Alluvium.
The Coven meets us in Bantry Bay, where magik now sings through the streets.
Earthbound witches and Runic scholars greet one another with cautious hope.
Trade vessels shimmer into existence across new ley lines, carrying spell-inked contracts, enchanted grain, blood-metal, healing dust, peace, and more.
Amara watches beside me. “You did it.”
“No,” I say softly. “We all did.”
And for the first time in three thousand years, the realms are not at war. They are in communion.
****
I walk through the gardens of the new Citadel, barefoot, as I’ve come to prefer. Magik hums in the air, not dangerous or wild. Just present. Like a living entity.
Children train with tutors from all three realms. The council chambers are rebuilt, much smaller now, intentionally so. Niko insisted that no throne ever be too high to hear a citizen’s voice.
I kept the scars. Not just the ones on my skin but the ones magik left behind, carved deep into my soul. The ones that remind me what it cost to get here. What it cost to win.
Niko finds me under the tree where we first kissed after we chose each other. He still walks like a king, but now he smiles like a man who never wanted to be one. He wraps an arm around my waist and pulls me in close.
“I’m told your speech to the Alluvium delegation made half of them cry,” he says. He wasn’t present for the speech, having snuck off to see Jolene at my old café, the one she took over, and get his favorite sweet treats.
I laugh. “They were sandwiched between a demon-born general and a Runic historian with opinions about hand gestures,” I say. “They didn’t stand a chance.”
He laughs softly before he falls quiet.
I lean into him. “What is it?”
He presses his palm to my stomach, gentle. “Nothing,” he murmurs. “Just listening.”
And there, barely more than a flutter, I feel it too. A spark. Small, warm, and new. A new fluttering heartbeat. I look up at him, my breath catching.
“You knew?”
“I hoped.”
****
L ate at night, after Niko falls asleep with his palm on my stomach, I sit and marvel how far we have come. I started this journey in Bantry Bay, just a regular witch with a bakery living her boring little life. And then I met a Fae prince, found out about a prophecy, and upended my whole life.
Now I’m a queen. One queen ruling three realms. Not because a prophecy said so but because I chose to be. And now I get to choose this. Peace, legacy, and a future not written in fire or stone but in blood and in love.
The fire dims and the castle falls quiet, and just before I close my eyes beside Niko, I hear her voice. Not in the room and not in the wind. But deep in my mind, soft and certain.
“One prophecy ends... another begins. The child of the Threefold Queen shall not bind the realms but awaken the stars.”
I sit up, my heart racing, my hand instinctively resting over our unborn child. A girl, I know in my heart of hearts. Deep down I also know she isn’t just a future queen.
She is the spark that will light the next fire.