It was for nothing though. Eden was ready for him.
She threw out her hands and met him, Magic against Magic. Only hers was infinitely stronger. And she had a hell of a lot of friends on her side. In the next second, her husband, her brother, Jericho, and Sebastian stood with her. Together they thrust Terletov back, overpowering his pathetic Magic with sheer might and force.
His feet slid on the smooth dirt floor, his arms flailed wildly. And just as the walls shook and large rocks began to fall down on top of us, just as the Magic below bellowed out a hungry groan of warning, just as Terletov’s eyes glinted with promised victory, they gave him one, final push and he disappeared over the ledge.
His scream followed him down, shaking the still volatile atmosphere.
“Duck!” Eden screamed.
It wasn’t over yet.
I dropped to the ground, Sebastian landed on top of me, shielding me with his body. I slammed my eyes shut when the whitest light invaded this dim room. Electricity crackled at an ear-splitting level and I could feel the hot tendrils of it swoop down and burn the back of my legs and head. Sebastian covered the rest of me, so I knew he took the worst of it.
I worried about the babies, but I had to believe their parents would keep them safe.
For long minutes the Magic from the other room flooded this space and with one last scream and Magical maneuvering from Eden, she thrust the tainted Magic into the pit. Because even with Terletov’s tampering, even though he had managed to turn this Magic dark and evil, Eden still controlled it. She was still linked to its very core. And when she commanded it to do something, the Magic obeyed.
Terletov’s final screams echoed up to us. The Magic groaned a more pleasant sound and finally the ground stopped shivering.
In the wake of all that action and excitement, silence fell on us heavier than ever.
It was over.
Sebastian eased his weight from me and I rolled over to take inventory of my friends and make sure they all survived. He held out his hand to me and pulled me to my feet.
I watched Olivia and Roxie hand over the two babies to their desperate parents. Both Eden and Kiran fell to their knees, cradling their beloved children against their faces and hearts. Avalon and Mimi followed after them, wrapping their arms around the couple and little ones.
I couldn’t stay away. Screw family moments. I loved these people too.
I jumped on top of them, careful of the babies. But I was too anxious to touch them all and reassure myself we had all survived, so I couldn’t stay away.
Sebastian’s chest pressed into my back and his arms wrapped around my stomach. We all stayed like that a long time. Just holding each other. Just taking in the moment.
Finally, Sebastian pulled back and announced, “I’m officially retired. If this happens again, count me out.”
We broke into adrenaline-filled laughter.
“You can’t quit now,” Avalon told him. “You finally made yourself useful. If anyone sits out next time, it’s Talbott. A whole lot of good he did this time around. I thought he had oaths and all that crap.”
“I did have oaths, but between high school and this, I quit. I’m too old for this crap.” Talbott’s voice boomed from the crack in the wall and we all looked up to see a very healthy looking Lilly tucked into a very relieved looking Talbott.
“Sorry, we’re late,” Lilly said sweetly.
We all laughed some more and stood to our feet. “You haven’t even seen your godchildren yet,” Kiran tsked. “We’re going to revoke your godparent privileges.”
Talbott grinned at them. “Do that and we’ll ask Avalon to take over responsibilities of our little one,” he threatened.
There was a long pause while we all absorbed that information. I broke the silence with a very intelligent “Nu-uh!”
Lilly beamed at me and placed her hands on her stomach. “Yes,” she confirmed.
We rushed her all at once, and then realized where we were and decided it was probably better to take this conversation to the surface and away from Terletov’s dead body and the destruction around us.
The babies still bleated their complaints on the way to the surface, but soon they would have the comfort they wanted and all of their needs fulfilled. We chatted animatedly as we went, all of us excited to have finally won this long sought after victory.
In the catacombs, Sebastian tugged on my hand and held me back from the happy crowd of our friends anxious to get someplace they could talk.
I stayed with him, drinking in the sight of his gorgeous body and his warm hands on mine. I was transfixed by the look of absolute adoration he showed me.
“I’m glad you didn’t die,” he told me once we were alone.
I looked around this crypt that I knew he hated and smiled at him. If he were this desperate for some alone time with me, I could play nice and give him what he wanted. “I’m glad you didn’t die, too.”
He leaned in and placed a gritty, dirty, very seductive kiss on my lips. He tasted like sweat, earth, and blood, but also like him. I hummed my approval.
When he pulled back, his eyes had darkened with desire and his Magic vibrated with something heavier than love, deeper than eternity. “I thought I’d lost you,” he confessed.
“You won’t lose me again,” I promised him. “This is it, Bastian. I’m yours forever.”
“Marry me,” he sighed. I didn’t respond. I couldn’t. My eyebrows had shot to my forehead and my heart had stopped beating.
“What?”
“Marry me.” It wasn’t the love-struck plea I had imagined all of my life. Instead, his words came out a forceful command that would not be argued with or ignored. “Sera, I can’t stand the idea of us being apart again. And I refuse to entertain the idea that you don’t think I’m committed to you like before. I want to be with you, from this day on. I love you. I’ve always loved you. You keep me in line; you keep me alive. You challenge me. You accept me. You see through me, but you also see me. I have never met a more loving, beautiful soul than yours. And I would be nothing without you. Marry me, Sweetheart. Let’s make this official.”
I couldn’t see for all of my blissful happiness. Oh, and because of the stupid tears. I threw my arms around his neck and pressed my body into the safety of his.
“Yes,” I told him and I hiccupped again, “Yes!”
His arms squeezed around me, becoming a stronghold that kept me standing. “I love you, Sera.”
“I love you too, Bastian.”
Endless minutes passed as we basked in each other’s happiness and shared secret kisses that were a preview of what more was to come.
“Ready?” After a long time of just being with each other, present in this incredible moment, Sebastian took my hand and started leading me to the surface.
“I am.”
“Good,” he sighed. “Because Kiran already has two children and now Talbott is going to have one of his own. I don’t want to pressure you, but we can’t let them win.”
I looked at him and tried to gauge if he was joking or not.
I was shocked to find that for the first time in Sebastian’s life, he was completely and utterly serious.
Oh, my.
Epilogue
Another Year Later
Sebastian
I plopped onto the couch, cake in hand, birthday hat tightly strapped to my head. The tiny string cut into the underside of my jaw and I wanted to throw the damn thing on the floor and stomp on it. But since it seemed to make the little savages in the highchairs happy, I kept it on.
“They’re adorable,” Seraphina cooed next to me.
“They’re very messy,” I informed her. She slapped my arm with the back of her hand. I wiggled closer to her and enjoyed the press of her side against mine. Sylvia’s seating was the extra stuffy kind and we sunk together in a delicious tangle. Our Magic bounced around the room in happy union and buzzed with all the vibrancy of true love.
Somehow, despite our stubborn per
sonalities and equally selfish tendencies, we’d managed to put ourselves aside and find our true love bliss.
And I had to say, it was worth all the trouble to get to this point. I had never been this happy, this peaceful… This settled.
“They’re one,” Seraphina reminded me. “It’s their first cake. I think they’re supposed to be messy. That’s the whole point.”
“They’re royalty. Shouldn’t they know how to use a spoon by now?” I raised a challenging eyebrow. Surely, I had used silver by the time I turned one. “Is it too much to ask for some civility?”
She snorted. Actually snorted. “You’re such a snob.”
I kissed the tip of her nose, making it sticky with my frosting-coated lips. “It’s why you love me so much.”
She didn’t object. In fact, some might say she encouraged my behavior by moving her lips to mine and showing just how much she loved me. She tasted like sugar and everything sweet and I could have easily never stopped worshipping her perfect mouth.
“Enough, you two! Get a room.” Avalon’s grumpy voice cut through the lust-induced haze Seraphina had encouraged with just some minor kissing.
“Someone’s cranky,” I sniped at him, while I reluctantly pulled myself from my beautiful fiancée. That’s right, fiancée. I had made it official as soon as I’d had the time to design her rather large ring. My sister might have a moral issue with diamonds, but my lovely bride-to-be did not. I’d asked her after a lovely meal made in her Seattle condo. No grand gesture. No fireworks or big hoorah. Just the two of us over a candlelight dinner in a place where no one in the Kingdom bothered to look for us. So much of our relationship had been tied up in our friends and Kingdom business. But when we decided to share the rest of our forever together, I had wanted it to be just the two of us.
She said yes. I didn’t even have to kidnap her.
Seraphina sighed at my departure, as she should. But then she saw who hovered over us and shoved her plate of birthday cake in my lap. “Give me, give me, give me!” She wiggled her greedy fingers at my sister and her whole body came alive.
“Thank god!” Mimi cried and shoved another bleating thing at us. “I need a break!”
“They keep us up all night,” Avalon whined, trying to pawn off another one on me. I reluctantly set the cake to the side table and looked at the red-faced troll that was apparently my nephew.
Seraphina settled back against the couch and drew her legs up so she could cradle the little beast in her lap. I looked over at the girl and thought she definitely had the better looks of the two. Although, since both resembled me to some degree, they were obviously stunning creatures.
“Ajax won’t go to sleep and Bea won’t stay asleep. It’s been h-e-l-l,” Avalon explained. “There is not enough Magic in the world to get me through this.”
My nephew Ajax, whose name meant “strong warrior” and was named after his stand-in grandmother, Angelica, and his grandfather Justice, and my niece, Bea, short for Beatrix, who’s name meant “blessed,” were as feisty and strong-willed as their parents.
I loved watching the King and Queen suffer, just as much as I enjoyed watching my cousin and his bride suffer. Ah, parenting.
“Don’t look at me like that, Bastian,” Mimi snapped. “One day this will be you!”
The two month old in my arms gurgled his approval. And with that angelic sound, I looked to Seraphina and realized that I couldn’t wait.
The other set of parents walked into the room and collapsed onto the sofa. Talbott and Lilly had their hands filled with a set of five-month-old twins. The two girls were named Eliza, after Lilly’s middle name and her deceased grandmother Elizabetta, and her identical sister Vera.
Ileana’s words replayed in my head, “Twins and twins and twins and twins.”
We were missing a set. I didn’t have to be Psychic to know that Seraphina and I would be joining the parenting ranks soon after our next-month wedding.
“I can’t wait,” I told Mimi with a genuine smile.
She smiled back at me and fell into conversation with Lilly about feeding schedules. Avalon closed his eyes and appeared to fall asleep while standing and Talbott sat by his wife’s side, a place he rarely moved from, and simply watched her with rapt fascination.
Kiran and Eden hovered over their cake-covered children, snapping pictures and talking with the animated women that filled the rolls of grandmothers, Angelica, Sylvia, Annalisa and my own mother.
Titus, Xander, Xavier, Roxie, Jericho, Olivia and Ophelia laughed together as they filled plates with delicious food Eden had set out.
My friends. My loved ones.
We were all together under this one roof in Omaha, Nebraska, sharing life and relishing peace. The last year had been spent rebuilding the Kingdom and salvaging our world from the destruction Terletov had wrought.
It had been an exhausting year, filled with heartache, healing and hope. It had been a wonderful year, filled with new life, a happiness I hadn’t imagined I would ever experience, and peace.
The road to get here had been a painful battle that cost us much, but gave us much in return. It seemed only right that we would end this journey in the place that it began.
“I can’t wait to add our own to this party,” I whispered to Seraphina while we both gazed at these adorable creatures that had captured our hearts along with all of their peers.
“Me either.”
“I love you,” I promised her.
She leaned forward and pressed her forehead against mine. “I love you too, Bastian. Forever.”
And when she said forever, she really meant it. The Magic was restored. Fully. Completely.
Universally.
So, at this point, there was only one thing left to do. I leaned forward and kissed her. It was the start of forever, but the end of this chapter.
And from that moment on, we lived happily ever after.
Because after all, this is a love story.
The end?
I hope you enjoyed the conclusion of the Star-Crossed Series. I started writing this series in 2009. Reckless Magic was the first book I published and the book that began this self-publishing journey. I am sad to leave this world behind, but excited for my future projects. I couldn’t have left this world with a better love story than Sebastian and Seraphina. They are one of my favorite couples of all time. I hope you fell in love with them as deeply as I did.
Keep reading for a sneak peek at my next adventure, Adult Contemporary Romance.
Please enjoy an excerpt from The Five Stages of Falling in Love, coming January 27th, 2015.
Acknowledgments
To my God. Thank you for this opportunity, for this passion… for this drive that will not stop. Thank you for teaching me to rely solely on you. Thank you for showing me the beautiful in everything and in every word.
To Zach, thank you for everything you do so that I can work. You take care of the kids, you clean the house, you make meals and you remind me to focus. You remind me to walk away. You make me laugh and you make me want to be better. You are the reason I published Reckless Magic to begin with and the only reason I’ve been successful. You have encouraged, supported and laughed with me during this entire journey and I know I am the luckiest woman in the world to have a man that cares so very much. I believe in this dream, but you make it happen. You are the very best man I know and I am so blessed to be in love with you. Sarcasm is the new sexy.
To my kiddos. You guys are it. The reason I do this. The reason I work so hard. The reason I will always work hard. Thank you for loving me anyway.
To my mom, thank you for always being there for me and encouraging me when I am down and cannot find the point. Thank you for encouraging me when everything is right. Thank you for loving this series from the very beginning. Thank you for pushing it on everyone you meet and know. Thank you for the incredible number of babysitting hours you gave me so I could write the Star-Crossed Series from beginning to end. You are the most wonderful mom an
d nana. I am blessed by you.
To Kylee, Ashley, Diana, Bridget, Brooke, Candice and all the guys from Greenlife for taking a chance on this series. You were the first people I knew that read the Star-Crossed Series. You made me hope that this could be real. You made me believe that I could be an author. And you supported me when nobody knew who I was. Thank you. Your support, encouragement and excitement mean more to me than you’ll ever know.
To Lindsay, thank you for being such a great friend. Thank you for never reading a single word I’ve written, but for supporting me anyway. Thank you for convincing so many people to read my work. Thank you for never hugging me.
To Pat, thank you for designing such amazing, memorable covers that have become so synonymous with the Star-Crossed Series. Thank you for working for free. Thank you for believing in me enough to create something unbelievably beautiful and eye-catching. Thank you Sarah Hansen, from Okay Creations, for designing covers five and six. You’re one of the best in the business and I was so fortunate to get to work with you.
Thank you Caedus Design Co. for designing The Redeemable Prince cover. You took my concept and turned it into one of the most beautiful covers I’ve ever had. You are so talented. Thank you for sharing that with me.
Thank you, Jennifer Nunez, for editing the first five books. Thank you for putting up with all of the crazy capitalization and adding phone numbers. Thank you for loving these characters and reaching out to me. Thank you for being such a great friend.
To Carolyn, thank you for taking on the monumental task of editing for me. From the very beginning I have been a work in progress. You have taught me so very much over the years. You made my words make sense and you made them better. Thank you for your patience, your critical eye and your constant devotion to not just correcting something, but helping me understand the whys of it. I have grown as a writer with your help. And I thank you for that.