Ever After (30 page)

One year later . . .

 

“G
ideon.”

I turned away from the reports on my laptop and swiveled my chair around, a smile growing on my face when I saw the vision of loveliness standing in the doorway of my study, the warm glow from the fire casting a soft light upon her creamy skin. Naked, she strolled toward me, her hair alluringly disheveled from sleep.

I extended my hand to her. “What brings you from our bed, lass?”

“Your absence.” Arabella took my hand and let me draw her down onto my lap.

I smoothed my hand down her arm, everything male in me distracted from my work by thoughts of far more pleasurable activities. “I won't be long. I need to finish these reports before the meeting tomorrow.”

With mischief twinkling in her eyes, Arabella reached around me to save my document, then shut down the laptop. “I think it can wait, love. The fairy dust distribution business isn't going to come to a screeching halt if you come to bed.”

Much had changed in the months since Arabella's
fading.
The king had abdicated his throne to Lavender and had taken the new additions to his brood out to The Refuge to recuperate. And Guinevere had gone with him.

It'd taken a few weeks of dedicated wooing for the king—now returning to the use of the name Lancelot in civilian life—to win his lady love back to his arms, but once there, she'd consented never to leave. They were married soon after and had already seen fit to add a wee one to their already substantial family.

Preferring to dedicate his time to his family, the king also turned over the distribution business to me, insisting that I run it for him. He still serves as CEO, but leaves all the day-to-day operations in my hands. We've not had any additional security breaches since I took over.

Ivy, shaken by her experiences, decided to join her father and his new wife at The Refuge and currently serves as nanny to the younger children. And I've heard rumors that she's taken quite a liking to The Refuge's new school teacher—a rather odd but likable gentleman by the name of Ichabod Crane.

Lily stayed in Chicago, continuing her studies on all brands of magic in her never-ending quest for knowledge, but she's been making frequent trips to Las Vegas. For research—or so she claims. But there's certainly more to that story. And I imagine someday she'll be willing to tell it.

Fabrizio's still missing. I was able to track him to the antique shop to which Reginald had banished the mirror, but there was no record of who'd purchased the relic and so the trail has once more gone cold. But Arabella hasn't given up hope that someday we'll find him and that there will be a way to break his curse.

The Huntsman, too, is still AWOL. There've been reported sightings, but no one has been able to confirm it was really him. He remains a shadow, a threat that the FMA continues to monitor. One day he'll slip up. And someone will bring him down. And if that's me . . . Well, then all the better.

The Seelie mansion was razed after the fire, and I immediately began to rebuild. But it will stand empty when finished except for when the king and his family visit. Arabella prefers the coziness of our stone cottage on the grounds, and so that's where we live, happy in the life we've created. For although much has changed since I held on to Arabella in that icy water, refusing to let her slip away from me, one thing remains the same.

“I love you,” I told her, pulling her close for a lingering kiss.

When my hands began to roam over her skin, she pulled back with a grin. “Come to bed, love. You have a promise to keep.”

I raised a single brow at her. “Do I now?”

“I believe you promised me that we would make love every night, Mr. Montrose,” she purred, smoothing a hand over my bare chest. “And it's already two
A.M.
Tick-tock.”

I chuckled. “Aye, that it is, Mrs. Montrose.”

With that, I shot to my feet with her in my arms and charged up the stairs two at a time, making her giggle. But her laughter faded when we entered the bedroom and I set her gently upon our bed. A heartbeat later, I'd shed my clothes and was slipping between the sheets to draw her close.

For a moment, I peered down at her, still marveling at the fact that she was alive and well and content to love me. I smoothed my index finger along the silver chain around her neck and down to the pendant that lay between her breasts, a visible symbol of the strength of the love that bound us, the love that had saved us both.

It seems there'd been something to what Lavender had said about Unseelie magic being stronger than we'd been led to believe after all. But it wasn't just Unseelie magic that was so powerful, it was also the power of our love, the unwavering loyalty that made us so true and noble of heart. And although I couldn't confirm it in any of Merlin's texts, I believe it was the combined strength of my heart and Arabella's that had kept her from her journey to Avalon back in Make Believe and had helped her at last find her way back to me.

When the king had allowed me to create my pendant in the Here and Now, the gift he'd given me was far greater than I could've ever imagined. For in infusing that silver with my magic and my love for Arabella, I'd created the most powerful talisman an Unseelie could possibly forge. And when I'd opened my heart utterly and completely, had accepted her in without hesitation, without reserve as I'd cradled her in that damnable fountain, I'd poured every ounce of my love into that moment—and
that
was enough to overpower Mab's curse.

I couldn't help the grin that curved my lips. I'd never been one for the romantic clichés that seemed to pervade the Tale world—both in Make Believe and in the Here and Now—but in this case I would be forever grateful that love truly
did
conquer all.

“I love you, too,” Arabella whispered, drawing my gaze away from the pendant and up to her face. She smiled then, a tender smile that brought dimples to her cheeks and filled my heart with a happiness I sometimes wondered if I was worthy of. But then she drew me down to receive her kiss and all other thoughts vanished. At that moment, she was all that mattered.

The little thief in my arms had stolen my heart, and in doing so had given me a treasure beyond all imagining.

Kate SeRine (pronounced “serene”) faithfully watched weekend monster-movie marathons while growing up, each week hoping that maybe
this
time the creature du jour would get the girl. But every week she was disappointed. So when she began writing her own stories, Kate vowed that
her
characters would always have a happily ever after. And, thus, her love for paranormal romance was born.

 

Kate lives in a smallish, quintessentially Midwestern town with her husband and two sons, who share her love of storytelling. She never tires of creating new worlds to share and is even now working on her next project. Please visit her at
www.KateSeRine.com
.

eKENSINGTON BOOKS are published by

 

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Copyright © 2014 by Kate SeRine

 

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First Electronic Edition: August 2014

ISBN: 978-1-6018-3250-4

 

ISBN-13: 978-1-60183-325-9
ISBN-10: 1-60183-325-3