Page 73 of House of Embers (Royal Houses #5)

Chapter Sixty-Four

The Homecoming

With a heavy heart, Kerrigan flew Tieran to Waisley, holding her father’s ashes. They’d used the portal to step into the House of Shadows and back in a matter of hours. She hadn’t had to use a drop of magic. It was revelatory, and there were already talks of them needing to be heavily monitored.

What she had done was a gift; what came out of it was bureaucracy. As with all things.

She was on the new government council to determine the state of affairs and already had a litany of issues to discuss about how to use the portals. But as the leader of the resistance and a council member, she’d bowed out for the weekend. Everyone needed the break.

Rebuilding was going on at a rapid pace.

The workers, no longer subjugated, wanted to fix what Bastian had broken.

Not to mention the coin the council was sending their way for doing it.

That sure helped everyone around. The city would feel the scars from the events that transpired for a long time, but it was beginning to heal. That was the first step.

With the weekend off from her duties, Kerrigan had thought about staying the whole time to watch over Clover.

She was in a sort of stasis, with Amond’s magic holding her between life and death.

He and Darby alternated with the healing, but the chronic illness that had plagued Clover seemed to be tipping her closer to darkness than light.

But Fordham had insisted that there was nothing more that could be done. He was right, and for now, Kerrigan needed to put her father to rest.

They landed in the clearing inside Corsica Forest and trekked the short distance to Waisley, giving Tieran and Netta the weekend off as well. Kerrigan still wasn’t sure if they were an item or not, and maybe it wasn’t any of her business as they sorted it out.

When her estate came into view, tears ran down her face.

“Home,” she whispered. “I still can’t believe they didn’t burn it to the ground.”

A scream came from the back door, and a half dozen people charged at Kerrigan and Fordham, brandishing kitchen knives and pitchforks. Kerrigan pulled up her shield and reached for her magic at the same time.

“What the…”

But then she stopped as she recognized many of the people rushing them. Kerrigan nearly dropped her father’s ashes.

“Benton?” she gasped. “Bayton?”

Kerrigan released her shields, handed Fordham the ashes, and was dashing across the lawn toward her attendants.

“It’s me,” she said, waving her hands. “It’s me.”

The staff slowed to a stop as their jaws unhinged at the sight of her. “Kerrigan?” Benton asked.

Then Kerrigan collided with the half-Fae’s body, pulling her into a tight hug. Bayton jumped into the embrace, and all three of them turned in circles, crying hysterically.

“I thought you were dead,” Bayton sobbed.

“You were just gone!” Benton said.

“I looked everywhere for you two,” Kerrigan told them. “We won. We won the war. Bastian is out of power, and there’s a new government in place now. Half-Fae and humans and dragons are on the council.”

Benton swiped at her eyes. “You did it, miss. You really did it.”

“I can’t fathom it,” Bayton gasped.

Kerrigan held them at arm’s length. “Have you been here all along? How did you escape? And how is Waisley still standing?”

“We fled as they were rounding everyone up. We’d already been in contact with all the other House of Shadows half-Fae that you sent this way, and we trekked through the woods to them,” Benton explained.

Bayton picked up where she left off: “And we were all sick and tired of our bad treatment, so when they came for the House of Cruse and Waisley, we defended it best we could. They burned down an outer building, but we got the flames out on the main house and have been doing reconstruction on it in the meantime. We wanted it to look nice for your return.”

Kerrigan had to sit down. Tears were not enough—her entire body collapsed in on itself.

The fact that they had protected her lovely home with their own lives when they could have hidden and done nothing was beyond her.

She couldn’t stop the tears from running down her face, imagining her father’s return to this place. How much he had loved it until the end.

Fordham came to her side and offered her a hand. “You engender such devotion.”

“How did I earn this?” she whispered as she came back to her feet.

“By showing them humanity.”

Benton and Bayton tittered over her, ushering her toward the house.

They left her father’s urn on the mantel, and then Kerrigan let her attendants do what they did best. They drew a long, hot bath and combed through Kerrigan’s knotted hair until it was silky.

Once she was out of the bath and dry, they got her into a fine green silk gown and led her downstairs where dinner had been arranged.

Fordham appeared then in a black silk suit with a smile.

He bent at the waist to kiss her hand.

“You must tell us of the wedding plans,” Bayton said with a giggle. “Will it be here?”

Kerrigan glanced around at her estate. The house that she had loved and hated in equal measure for how she had been discarded but that now felt like home. She couldn’t imagine doing it anywhere else.

“Yes.”

***

After dinner, Kerrigan reclaimed her father’s ashes and went with Fordham back outside. They walked down the forest road in silence, watching the horizon turn to a shocking view of pinks and golds and violet. Only before they came to the town of Lillington did their feet finally slow.

She had been wondering where she would like to scatter his ashes, and nowhere felt exactly correct. Her father loved Waisley, but it had dark times for him as well. The forest had always been his home, but the world had rejected him. Where could she do it?

It hadn’t been her suggestion that had won out.

It had been Anya’s.

“Thank you for allowing me to do this as well,” Anya said, her hands clasped across her stomach. “I know that my time with your father was…”

Kerrigan held up a hand. “You don’t have to explain.”

Anya stepped forward and put her hand in Kerrigan’s. “I want to.”

Kerrigan looked to Fordham and then nodded.

“I loved him, as a young woman with everything I had in my heart, but it became clear that his love for me was transactional. I was a prize that he had won. The woman he had brought up from nothing. We were young. We were stupid. I chose Lorian.” She choked.

“I know,” Kerrigan said.

“When Lorian died, I thought I would never find joy again. I felt that I had deserved that and then…Kivrin.” Anya’s voice broke on his name. She choked on her words as tears marred her brown cheeks. “Kivrin put light back into my world.”

“He did,” Kerrigan agreed with a sniff. “You put light back in his.”

“And we are worse for his loss.”

Kerrigan nodded in agreement.

Anya rubbed at her cheeks. “I may not deserve the honor you are giving me, but I am grateful. I never thought I would return to Lillington, and I treasure every moment I had with Kivrin before his death.”

“I’m glad you’re here,” Kerrigan said honestly.

Then they linked arms and continued into Anya’s hometown.

Together, they met what family she had left in the town, the people here who had known Kerrigan as a child, who remembered last Geivhrea when Kerrigan and Fordham had been named king and queen of the village.

There were significantly more children roaming around the roads, as if that blessing at the winter holiday had proven incredibly fruitful.

And then once she saw her people, who had intermingled seamlessly with the House of Shadows folks, they continued down the road.

Here was the turnoff to Rosemont, the capital.

This was the start of the House of Cruse.

The crossroads for her people. And the home that she would keep. That her father had always kept.

From here, she could see Corsica Forest and the town and Waisley beyond. From here, she could see it all—just like her dad would have wanted.

Kerrigan opened the urn and let the wind catch her father’s ashes. Let him rest among his lands. Let him reign among his people. Let him rest where he had once ruled.

“Goodbye,” she whispered. “Goodbye, Father.”