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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

S he didn’t want to go home, but she had to.

Tavia needed to know if they were really gone.

“Are you ready?” Lucius asked, as they stood in his living room once again, Wiley on her shoulder.

Tavia dressed in her comfortable leathers, and Lucius in a more informal outfit. Tavia nodded and gripped his hand. Then she pressed on the rune and visualized her cottage in the woods, hitting the portal.

She gasped, and the transporter rod fell from her hands.

“No!”

Lucius grabbed the rod before it hit the ground and chased after Tavia who sprinted through the portal.

Her dreams had been real.

She fell to her knees as she gazed upon the burned-down cottage.

It happened.

They’re dead.

And I wasn’t here to save them.

There were no sparks or smoke, so the fire happened some time ago.

“Stay here,” Lucius said, gently touching her shoulder as he passed. “I'll go inside and see if there's anything in there.”

Tavia gripped the grass and ripped it from the ground, crying because she absolutely knew that he was going to walk in there and find something.

The door was open, and half of the cottage, which they had built with stones, was still there. Lucius went in to the ruin.

After a few agonizing moments, he came out coughing.

“They're not in there,” Lucius in between coughs .

“What?” Tavia said.

“They're not there. No bodies. Even if they were burned, there would be remnants—bones. They weren't in there.”

Tavia scrambled to her feet, wiping her eyes. “That means they're alive.”

“Yes.” Lucius' eyes widened. “Oh my . . .”

Tavia turned around, looking at the large lilac tree, and there was a great comfort in seeing the dryad stepping out.

“Axelia!” she ran forward, wrapping her arms around the dryad.

“I've never seen one in real life,” Lucius said.

The dryad was taller than Tavia, her skin as green as the grass, with spindly legs made of a mixture of twigs and leaves.

With wide eyes, Tavia asked, My parents?

They are safe. I can take you to them. They have been waiting for you, worried that you would come and find this place gone.

Tavia looked back at Lucius.

He couldn't hear what Axelia was saying because dryads only spoke telepathically and only to people they wanted to hear.

Are they in the dryad realm? Tavia asked.

No, but they relocated to a new home. When you're ready, I'll take you to them.

“Thank you. I... I need a moment.”

Certainly. I'll return.

Lucius continued to stare at the dryad, completely amazed.

Tavia walked over to him. “Will you come with me into the dryad realm?”

“Who would ever turn down that adventure?”

“We're just going to see my parents. We won't stay there. But you don't have to come if you don't want to,” she said.

Lucius eyed her, his brow furrowed in a serious expression–one she wasn’t used to from him. “Have you not realized it yet?”

“Realized what?”

“Do you not feel what I do?”

“Oh,” she said, her ears heating with emotion. “I thought it was just because you were a good kisser.”

He laughed. “I'd like to think I am, but there is much more to what is happening between us. And if you think for a moment that I'm going back to that estate without you, you're wrong.”

“What now?” she asked.

“Well, let's say hi to your parents, make sure they're okay, and then whatever you want to do next.”

“So that's it?”

“Oh, and of course,” he added, “I believe I owe you a bag of coin.”

Tavia smiled because she still wanted that bag of coin.

Wiley chittered on her shoulder, and she kissed Lucius gently, then grabbed his hand.

“You're going to love the dryad realm,” she said, tugging him toward the dryad as the tree bark wavered.

Axelia disappeared, and Tavia pulled Lucius into the dreamy world her mother had taken her to when she was younger. Tavia was no longer mystified by the sentient flowers and the giggling daffodils .

Lucius’ eyes widened at the vibrant green surroundings that blazed with life. He gripped Tavia’s shoulder.

“This is unlike any portrait or painting. It's like living in one,” he said.

He scooped Tavia into his arms, causing Wiley to jump and glide onto a nearby fern three times the size of a normal one. Tavia looped her arms around Lucius’ neck and giggled. “I never thought I'd ever come here.”

“My mother seems pretty chummy with the dryads.”

Lucius arched a brow at her. “You do know that that's not normal, right? The dryads don't befriend just anyone.”

Tavia shrugged. “I don't know . . . they seem nice.”

Lucius eyed her and moved his face close to hers.

“I think there's more to you than even you know,” he whispered, his tone teasing.

Her parents had been nobodies living in the woods, poor, and their only friends had been a bunch of dryads.

“How about you meet them first?” she suggested .

“Yes, well, do you think they'll be annoyed that you married without them?”

Lucius carried her, and she didn’t have any desire to be put back on her feet.

“Married?”

“Yes, well, we're married, aren't we?”

“It was a fake marriage,” Tavia reminded him.

“Well, then I guess I'll just have to propose properly, in some grandiose gesture, and wed you in front of hundreds of guests,” Lucius teased.

Tavia flinched at the idea, but not at staying married to him. She cringed at the idea of having some grand wedding in front of strangers.

She had few friends, except her mother’s friends and now Lucius—and Wiley, of course.

The dryad took them to a tree and pointed. Through there.

“Maybe I should go first, alone,” Tavia suggested.

Lucius put her down and grabbed her hand. “We'll do this together.”

They stepped through the tree into another quiet forest, this one by a babbling brook. A puff of smoke came from the stone chimney, and the front door opened.

Her mother ran out.

She looked just as Tavia remembered her—her long silver hair, which she had finally stopped dyeing, her pale skin, and matching eyes. She ran with tears sliding down her cheeks, arms wide open, and Tavia ran to meet her.

“I thought you were dead,” Tavia said.

“Oh no, sweetheart,” her mother replied. “Your father decided to cook and burned the whole cottage to the ground.”

Her mother pulled back, crying, and hugged her before stepping aside.

“And who is this handsome male?” she asked.

Lucius gave a slight bow.

Tavia smiled and said, “That's my husband, Lucius.”

Lucius eyed her, and his grin spread across his entire face.

“You've been busy,” Tavia’s mother said, hugging her.

“Yes, I have. ”

“Your father will be so happy to see you. He’s out hunting but should return shortly. Come inside and I’ll make us some tea,” Tavia’s mother said, turning away and starting to walk toward the front door.

Tavia stepped up to Lucius, gazing up at him with a question in her eyes.

He got down on one knee, took her hand, and kissed it.

“Yes,” he said.

She hadn’t asked a question, but she knew what he was agreeing to. She kneeled before him, squeezing his hand.

“This doesn’t make any sense . . .” Her voice trailed as she muttered the phrase out loud, confused by the overwhelming emotions spinning inside her.

Lucius pulled her closer, stroking her cheek. “I have sat in darkness for a hundred years, and I would do it again if it meant you would always find me. I know what I want, pretty dove, and it’s you.”

Before she could respond, he tugged her forward, claiming her mouth with his.

And though it seemed impossible, she felt the same. She couldn’t imagine wanting anyone else, no matter how ridiculous it seemed. With Lucius by her side, she truly believed that everything would be fine.

They kissed, an unknown sentiment solidifying between them. A bond that couldn’t be made with words, but something deeper, magical.

They had started off as partners, pretending to be married, and somehow, they had fallen in love.

Lucius hugged her, kissed her a bit more fiercely before finally separating.

Tavia didn’t know what they would do next, but together, they walked toward her parents’ home, an entirely new future waiting for them.

The End.

If you enjoyed this swoony fantasy romance, check out To Sway A Vagabond : The final book in the Tempting Thieves Collection.

If you enjoyed this friends-to-lovers adventure set in an Epic fantasy World, you can read The Moonlit Woods where the battle to close the Rift begins.