by Melissa Marr
Epilogue
A year later . . .
He knelt before her.
“Is this what you freely choose, to accept winter’s chill?” she asked him—the faery she’d fallen in love with so many years ago. She’d dreamed that they would be together forever, but not like this. It was so strange and beautiful that she couldn’t look away.
“It’s what I want,” he assured her again.
“You understand that if this doesn’t work . . .”
He paused, glancing at her with pain in his eyes. “I’ll still be here. If you don’t want to risk it . . . I’m still here either way. We don’t need to do this if you aren’t sure.”
“Keenan—”
“But I am willing to take the chance if it’s what we both want,” he said quietly. “I would spend eternity in the Winter with you, even if it means being your subject.” He paused before adding, “Irial and Niall say it should work.”
Discord says it’s a good idea. That’s comforting.
Donia pushed back her fears. “But if they’re wrong . . .”
“It’s what I freely choose,” he repeated.
She walked over to the hawthorn bush they’d planted together last year. The leaves brushed against her arms as she bent down and reached under it. Her fingers wrapped around the Winter Queen’s staff. It was a plain thing, worn from the countless hands that had clenched the wood.
Please let this work.
She stood and held it out to him; he wrapped his hand around it.
He clutched the Winter Queen’s staff—and she hoped. For a moment she thought they were wrong, as she watched him falter. She felt the tendrils of Winter slide into his skin, the shards of ice fill his veins. The staff was an extension of her, and she felt the pain of it all over again as Keenan’s body was remade.
With icy tears sliding down her cheeks, she knelt beside him and called his name: “Keenan!”
“My Queen,” he breathed reverently as his eyes filled with snow.
Unlike her, he was born of winter, so he wasn’t aching with the pain of the cold. In truth, he was more stunning in that instant than he’d ever been before.
“My consort,” she whispered.
He took her free hand in his. Bands of ice began to wrap around their arms, binding their wrists together. “Will you be my forever, Donia?”
“Yes. Will you share my life? My court? My forever?”
“Till death, my Queen.” Keenan sighed the words against her cheek; frost formed in her hair.
She pressed her lips to his, relishing the cold that lifted from his skin.
And the Winter Queen and her consort covered their winter garden with a fall of white snow.
The End
Acknowledgments
Once upon a time, I walked into what was reputedly “the worst bar in town” to listen to the blues. I said, “I like it here,” and a woman offered me a job. I wasn’t looking for a job, but I said yes. Years later, the Scramble Dog is still in my memories and heart. If you’re out there—Richard, Debbie, Rob, Taz, Swift, Kyote, Andy, Johnny, Becky, Sarge, Little Dave, Thumper, Grandpa, JW, August, and many of the rest of you—thank you for smiles, stories, dances, music, thrills, and rides. You’re not characters in my books, but sometimes I see your shadows in the background of my faery courts. I hope you’re all happy wherever you are.
Over the years, a lot of folks touched my life in wonderful ways, so thanks to: Cheryl, Dave, and Dawn for being here through everything; Gene for many things; Alison, Kara, Jeep, Adrian, Janice, and Scott for pool halls, parties, and dances; Scott K. for being so real; Byron C. for bad habits and good poetry; Ingrid and Robin for conversation, music, and bars; Jeanette, Richard, and Erica for faith and fabulousness; Hunter for ivy vines and intensity; Matt, Harm, Brian, and Stacy (from Raleigh-Durham) and Derrick and Ken (from Seattle) for table dancing, exhibitionism, and the unexpected. I’m grateful to have your fingerprints on my life.
This time, I’m not going to list any of you in my today. You know who you are, and you know I think my life is better because you’re in it.
But, as always and ever, the daily debt of gratitude is to Loch. I’ll never figure out how you keep from locking me in an attic somewhere when I’m lost in the story or in a mood, or how you know what I need before I do. I love you.
About the Author
Melissa Marr : Although I was voted “most likely to end up in jail” in high school, I decided to get an MA and teach literature and gender studies to college students across the country. Along the way, I’ve been unable to resist trying new things—including working an archeological dig, slinging drinks at a biker bar, and getting fabulous tattoos.
I call all of this research for my writing. To fill my craving for new experiences, I’ve lived in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Southern California, and Virginia, and I plan to keep roaming with my family as widely and as often as possible.
Please help feed my addiction to meeting interesting people by visiting me on the Web at www.melissa-marr.com or follow me on Twitter@melissa_marr.
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Also by Melissa Marr
Wicked Lovely
Ink Exchange
Fragile Eternity
Radiant Shadows
Wicked Lovely: Desert Tales
(Art by Xian Nu Studio)
Volume 1: Sanctuary
Volume 2: Challenge
Volume 3: Resolve
Copyright
Darkest Mercy
Copyright © 2011 by Melissa Marr
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
* * *
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Marr, Melissa.
Darkest mercy / Melissa Marr. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Sequel to: Radiant shadows.
Summary: The political and romantic tensions that began when Aislinn became Summer Queen threaten to boil over as the Faery Courts brace against the threat of all-out war.
ISBN 978-0-06-165925-6 (trade bdg.)
ISBN 978-0-06-165926-3 (lib. bdg.)
ISBN 978-0-06-205954-3 (international edition)
[1. Fairies—Fiction. 2. Fantasy.] I. Title.
PZ7.M34788Dar 2011
[Fic]—dc22
2010033584
CIP
AC
* * *
EPub Edition © 2011 ISBN: 9780062078377
11 12 13 14 15 LP/RRDB 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
First Edition
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