by Jaye Shields
Sparrow grabbed an extra pillow and launched it at the bedroom door. “A near-death experience doesn’t even earn me some privacy?” The sound of her aunt’s chuckling faded, but the smile on Sparrow’s face grew.
Rowen laughed. “Courting it is then. If I’m not mistaken, the lover’s holiday in your realm is right around the corner, is it not?”
Sparrow nodded, her mile too wide for words to escape.
“Alright, let the courting begin.” Rowen dove into her lips with expert passion, carefully navigating her injuries. “I love you.”
“I love you back.”
Epilogue
The green hills of Hy-Breasal welcomed Sparrow once more. Only this time, she wasn’t trying to pretend she wasn’t head over heels for a certain knight. Rowen smiled over his shoulder at her as she clung to his back piggy style.
“Why didn’t I let you carry me the first time?” The stone stairwell of the infinite incline seemed much more romantic this time around.
“Melissandra claimed you planned it that way so I’d be forced to watch your backside.” Heat from his blush tickled Sparrow’s cheek as she nestled against him. “Only she didn’t use the word backside.”
From the top of the hill Melissandra called out. “Are you spilling all my dirty secrets down there?”
Sparrow smiled at her aunts, who were barely visible at the top of the epic climb. Duncan had teleported Melissandra and Morgana to the top of the hill to wait at the base of the castle. Michelle had insisted on enjoying the hike, so Duncan climbed with her, hand in hand.
Just ahead of Rowen and Sparrow, Sodor and Zeth listed off the names of other soldiers who could join them in storming the fortress that still held Pyrrhus.
“He came to our aid once — we will do the same for him.” Sodor smashed a strong fist onto his palm. The loud thwack made Sparrow wince. It was difficult to be completely happy when she knew her friend was still in the fortress. Although they’d slain Mord, Sabin and Rowen couldn’t take the whole fortress on by themselves.
“I should have tried to release Pyrrhus when I had the chance. I wasn’t thinking clearly.” Rowen’s voice escaped in a low whisper. Sparrow pressed a kiss against his cheek in reassurance.
Sabin glanced back. “Two days hence, we’ll be ready. We’ll discuss our plan of attack with the king before he leaves on his honeymoon.”
“I can’t wait to see Egret in a wedding dress.” Tera grinned back at Sparrow from where she walked several steps ahead with Sabin. Her cheeks smiled with a post-honeymoon glow.
“How is she gonna wear a wedding dress?” Sadness burrowed into her at the reminder of her mother’s death.
As she focused ahead, Sparrow noticed Sabin wink at Tera before leaning over to kiss her fully on the mouth.
Rowen sensed Sparrow’s unease and halted, setting her on stone stairwell. His strong hands wrapped around her and kissed her with enough passion to quell all worries. His lips explored her own until butterflies took flight rendering Sparrow’s body weightless in his arms.
“Be happy, my love. This is a joyous day.”
“Kiss me again and I promise to be joyous.”
Rowen swept her off her feet, twirling her in the air as if she were a doll. The wind danced against her cheeks as the scent of lavender became a whirlwind around her body.
“Now come, my love. Your mother awaits.”
As if on cue, Sparrow noticed a body approach her aunts at the base of the castle. She quickened her pace, trying to get a look at the familiar outline.
“Who’s that?”
But Rowen didn’t answer, only smiled ahead.
As they neared the top of the hill, the woman her aunts embraced became clearer and clearer. Sparrow didn’t dare hope, afraid the beautiful image was just a mirage.
Rowen squeezed her hand as they reached the base of the castle. Her knees threatened to give out as her mother rushed toward her with open arms.
“I’ve missed you so much!” Egret rushed toward Sparrow and threw herself against her daughter. As the body pressed against her, she could only be shocked. Sparrow inhaled the scent of rose and lavender entrenched in her mother’s soft hair. Her mother smelled real.
Her mother’s hands gripped Sparrow’s shoulders and held her at a distance. Sparrow could finally examine the beautiful face before her. “Mom.”
Tears sprang free as Sparrow rushed into her mother’s arms once more. “How is this possible?” Her words muffled as she buried her face against her mother’s chest, but she didn’t care. She wasn’t letting go. Nothing in the whole wide world felt as good as her mother’s warm body molded against her own.
“The night I left you Sparrow, I became an angel. But your father fought for me.”
“Fought for you? How?” Sparrow still didn’t budge from within her mother’s arms.
Egret pulled Sparrow away to cup her cheeks. Happy blue eyes smiled at Sparrow. “Breasal took me to Heaven himself, but refused to leave me there alone. He was granted his wish, Sparrow. I am an angel in heaven, but I am corporal in this magickal kingdom. And in my own world I am a ghost.”
“Oh my God.”
“Exactly.” Egret smiled and held an arm out, beckoning someone. Sparrow watched King Breasal find his way into her mother’s arms.
The King looked younger than her mother in appearance, but they both glowed with such happiness that they appeared made for each other, carved out of clay into happy lovers. Sparrow took in Breasal’s face for the first time in weeks. He was still handsome as ever, but she saw traces of worry in his gaze, and his kingly stance had been reduced to a nervous balancing act.
“Sparrow, it brings me great happiness to see you well.” The formality in his voice made her realize that he was afraid she would reject him as a father.
Instead of answering, Sparrow threw herself into his arms. “A father could give a daughter no greater gift than her mother’s happiness. You’ve brought her to life in more ways than one.”
Sparrow pulled away and looked at her mother, who was in tears. Wetness also arrived in her father’s gaze. Sparrow was moved by his flood of emotion and hugged him once more. Her mother’s arms encircled them too, followed by the warm bodies of Morgana and Melissandra joining the embrace.
Surrounded by so much love, Rowen’s unique presence still reached her, smiling for her, his love radiating in her core. When the hug ended, Sparrow found her way into his arms.
Egret smiled beside King Breasal, the two a picture of royal happiness. “So, are you all ready for a royal wedding?”
Sparrow gazed at her family, finally complete. The man beside her filled any whole that may have been remaining. Sparrow leapt into his arms for a world-melting kiss for the first of many best days of her life.
Talk about a happy ending.
About the Author
Born and raised in the grunge capitol, Jaye took her love of music and poetry from the Pacific Northwest to California. Now she lives in Alameda, a quaint island town in the Bay Area. With a degree in Anthropology — emphasis in Archaeology — she’s itching to climb some more pyramids. Her previous claims to fame include being a bass player for a grunge band called the Hymens, being mistaken for Britney Spears while in Tokyo, and commercial modeling. She insists the commercial still counts even though her lines were cut. When she’s not writing, she’s either at her day job or taking long walks along the Alameda beach and gazing at the outline of San Francisco in the distance. Oh yes, and her heart can generally be found in Paris. www.JayeShields.com
More From This Author
(From Secrets of the Fog)
“Tera!” A voice echoed through the crowded coffee shop. “We’re running out of flour and the delivery guy hasn’t arrived yet.” Sparrow Reed shouted her name again, an edge of panic laced in the complaint. “Tera! We’
re almost out of scones, for cryin’ out loud.”
Agrotera — Tera to her friends — gracefully navigated between the new coffee grinder and the break table, making her way from her office to the petite barista’s side. She beamed with pride as she glanced around her busy café on Park Street in the charming island town of Alameda, California.
At nearly six feet, Tera towered over the frazzled barista. “You know what they say, darling Sparrow, here today, scone tomorrow!”
Sparrow laughed. “I’m pretty sure that is not what they say, and scone is nowhere near a close enough pun for that to work.”
Tera tightened her ponytail of long, auburn hair. “So are you singing tonight or what?”
“Yeah, I’m going to sing a swan song for our disappearing scone supply.”
Tera winked at Sparrow. “Swan song. Is that supposed to be a bird pun or something?”
“No, Tera,” her barista said impatiently.
“C’mon, I know it is!” Tera giggled like a twenty-seven-year-old trapped in a teen’s body. Make that a 270-year-old — after all, she was nearly three centuries old. “I love shape shifter puns.”
“How many times do I have to tell you? It’s called mystically gifted.” Sparrow reached out to swat Tera on the bum since she couldn’t reach anywhere else on the tall body. Tera filled with warmth as she evaded her best friend. Sparrow had been the one to encourage her to make this coffee shop happen. After all, the friends knew each other’s secrets. For she was really Agrotera, a Dryad of the Muir Woods. And Sparrow was a mortal-born Wiccan.
Sparrow was an angelic-looking girl with long, lightning-blond hair and fair skin. She also had a wicked knack for baking scones. Although she looked like the girl next door, most of the twenty-seven-year-old’s back was artfully inked with a variety of birds. When she was born, her coven of Wiccan-born aunts gifted her with an enchantment, the first of her tattoos. The magic left the marking of a sparrow inscribed into her skin, a marking that now glowed on the occasions that she desired to fly.
With help from an enchanted birthday lotto ticket from “Anonymous,” — a.k.a. Sparrow’s aunts — Tera had found the down payment necessary to secure her spot on Park Street for the coffee shop venture. She still taught at the martial arts studio, but offered her hour of Goddess Style martial arts for free. After all, that was how Artemis would have wanted it.
“Hey, girls! Come down here.” One of Sparrow’s aunts peeked from below the hatch leading into the coffee shop basement. “It’s important.”
Sparrow glimpsed at the customers, met Tera’s gaze, and then shrugged. Her aunts were an unpredictable lot. Tera called out to the kitchen. “Keep an eye on the counter for a minute. Sparrow and I are going on a five-minute break.”
Tera opened a trap door in the hall and descended into the basement. Only Sparrow and the aunts had the spare key to enter her hidden arsenal. Flipping on the light, she inhaled the scent of dust and metal. Guns, swords, stakes, and boxes of bullets filled the room. Ah the sweet smell of self-defense.
“So, what’s up with the mid-day hidden meeting?” Tera raised a brow at the ritual set up on the ground.
Between their big, curly gray-blond hair and ample curves, Sparrow’s aunts, Morgana and Melissandra, took up the majority of the floor space. The younger of the two pointed to the entranced sister, her eyes rolled back and closed to half-mast so they looked like tiny white crescents. “Bad news. Sit down, sugar.”
“Why does this feel like an intervention?”
Melissandra chuckled. “The only one that’d ever need an intervention is Sparrow and her addiction to karaoke.”
“You weren’t complaining last night when I did some Stevie Nicks,” her friend shot back good-naturedly.
“When the planets align once more, there will be a new cycle.” Morgana’s feminine voice whispered ominously in the dimly lit room. Candles flickered, and the scent of smoking anise hung in the basement arsenal.
“Well, duh.” Sparrow smiled through the gloom. Leave it to her best friend to make light of ill news.
She heard Melissandra deliver a shark slap to the back of the Sparrow’s head. “Don’t interrupt your aunt when she’s having a vision. Besides, this rarely happens. It’s important.”
“The portal is buzzing with an arrival. I didn’t see who it was, but I felt the desire. The entity wants to destroy all of Artemis’ children.”
“Great. Someone wants to wipe out all the Dryads?” Tera was shushed by Melissandra only a second later, so she dragged her fingers over her lips to focus on the foreboding message.
Morgana Reed’s eyes were a stark white contrast against the dark space of the room as she embraced the vision. Warmth surrounded Tera as magickal electricity emanated off Morgana.
“There will be a new cycle, when High Gods and Goddesses can visit the Human Realm once more.”
“High Gods?” Sparrow’s raised an eyebrow, and even in the dark, her blue eyes smiled with mischief. “Like, under the influence?”
It was Tera’s turn to smack her best friend.
Morgana’s voice interrupted them, the eerie, distant tone demanding attention. “There is more. Your mom is concerned for you, Tera. An ancient Goddess will be coming for you.”
Silence. Not even comedic relief from Sparrow.
Finally, Morgana’s eyes became focused, the whites giving away to gray-blue irises. “Is there something you haven’t told us, Tera?”
In her nearly three-hundred years of life, Tera had never known family like the Reed Coven. With her own mother MIA, Sparrow and her family had given Tera a new outlook on life. She never would have been able to brave the modern world without them.
She hated to admit that she had a secret that could endanger their household.
“C’mon,” Sparrow put a hand on her shoulder. “We already know you’re not human. We’ll be with you no matter what your bad news is.”
Tera sucked in a breath, and looked at her dear friends around the table. “Before my mother left me, she warned that she wouldn’t be able to visit the woods for some time.”
“The Goddess of the Hunt was taking a vacay?”
Tera smiled a little at Sparrow’s reference to her mother. The family knew about her origins as a Dryad, born from a tree with the blood of Artemis, the Goddess of the Hunt. What they didn’t know was that another Goddess was looking forward to seeing Tera as well.
“Artemis warned me that someone else would be coming for me: Eris, the Goddess of Chaos.”
Silence.
“I’m pretty sure that chick must be responsible for the state of my closet.” Of course, Sparrow would be the one to break the ice.
Morgana chuckled, color returning to her round cheeks as the effects of the ritual passed. “I don’t think chaos is the right word to describe your closet.”
“Destruction would be more like it.” Melissandra pinched her niece’s cheek adoringly.
“Anyway,” Tera continued, realizing her adoptive family didn’t grasp the severity of the situation. “I’ve never met any Goddess besides my mother, but apparently this Eris is strife incarnate.”
“And she’s got your number?”
“I don’t know exactly what she has. Besides centuries of wreaking havoc under her belt, I mean. She caused the Trojan War for crying out loud. Imagine what she could do in the twenty-first century.”
“Could she find you here?” Morgana didn’t hide the worry in her tone.
“I don’t know.”
In fact, all her mother had told her was that Eris had been dying for centuries for a chance to get back at Artemis, and hurting one of the Hunt’s children was the best way to do it.
“I guess Eris has always hated Artemis,” Tera added.
“I get that,” Sparrow nodded. “I read about Eris in m
y Greek mythology class.”
“That you failed?” Morgana snuck in the playful jab at her niece.
“It was a D-.” She wasn’t fazed. “Anywho, Eris was responsible for starting most of the wars back in those days. Her name is notorious for death. But your mom, the Goddess of the Hunt, receives praise when she takes a life.”
Tera narrowed her eyes at her best friend, and smacked a curled fist into her palm jokingly. “You’re supposed to be on my side.”
“Of course I am, Woods.”
Tera cringed at the nickname Sparrow had given her. “This is a serious concern, Birdie, and I told you, I loathe that moniker.”
“You’re born from a tree, and you’re so hot you give guys instant wood. How is that not perfect?” A smack from one of the aunts connected with the back of Sparrow’s blond head. “Ouch!”
“Anyways, since you guys are obviously so concerned with the imminent danger … ” Tera heaved a sigh.
“Go ahead, darling.” Morgana smiled fondly.
“Artemis told me that Eris spends a great deal of time looking for Artemis’ other children, other Dryads. But I guess they’re very elusive. I’m the only one that has left her tree to come out in the open.” Thanks to an ability to sink into a hollowed tree, it was easy for the race of women born from the Goddess to hide.
“So you’re an easy target.” Morgana’s voice was gentle, but laden with worry.
“Auntie, nothing about Tera is easy.”
“It’s true, Morgana, we all know Tera can kick some serious butt. Our fair Dryad does it on a daily basis.” Melissandra pinched Tera’s cheek.
Tera couldn’t help but beam with pride — nothing beat family raving over her abilities. Being born and trained by the Goddess of the Hunt had its perks. Kicking-butt abilities and a green thumb were her natural gifts.
But even so, she didn’t think either of those talents would be good enough to go against Strife herself.
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