Then the water was gone, and Fable blinked. Then she blinked again. She looked around in startled wonder before her eyes fell on her grandmother, who was now shaking with her silent sobs.
“Grandmother?” Fable spoke for the first time since she’d been trapped in that glassy water, and I trembled all over, knees going weak. Feeling as though I might drop.
My girl was safe now. She was safe.
Thalassa shook her head but didn’t move otherwise. Her throat worked hard, and I knew she was fighting to keep herself sane. I felt the crush of her disappointment in her own actions as though they were a hammer blow to my chest.
“I forgive you,” Fable said, voice husky and thick with her own unshed tears, as she wrapped her lovely arms around her far-too-quiet grandmother. “I forgive you. I know you didn’t mean it. I know you didn’t.”
“I didn’t, Fable. I didn’t my beloved. I didn’t.” Thalassa’s words came out rushed and full of anguish as she collapsed into her granddaughter’s arms, and together, they cried as they both began to heal.
Oiwot stepped forward, looking as though he meant to interrupt them, grab up Fable and steal her away. There was shock and pain and sorrow written all over him. He was a broken man coming slowly back to life.
Stepping over to him, I clamped my hand on his shoulder and squeezed. He glanced at me, his expression dazed.
I shook my head. “Give them their moment.”
His jaw clamped shut, and I understood. If someone had told me to hang back after Thalassa’s awakening, I’d have probably killed them myself. But this was private and just for them.
They’d both suffered so much. Far more than most.
Turning him by his shoulders, I pointed him in the direction of the wash room. “Clean up. When you are through, say my name, and I will send her to you.”
His nostrils flared, and though I knew that Fable had forgiven us, I did not believe for a second that we’d so easily won over her husband.
But trust was not a thing easily built. In a second, we had dashed his faith in us, and it could take centuries to earn it back. We would earn it back though. I clipped a hard nod at him. “Have faith and believe that the end has finally come. We will do right by her.”
His lip curled. “You’d better.”
And though I’d expected more opposition, he turned on his heel and did as I’d asked. He was angry, and he had every right to be, but I’d meant what I’d said too.
I walked out of the castle, waiting for Thalassa beneath the noonday sun, giving her and Fable the time they needed.
She came to me almost an hour later, still trembling, but smiling softly.
I took her hand the instant she sat beside me, curling her tightly into my body, not wishing to be apart from her even another minute.
“Do you honestly believe we can fix this?” she asked softly, several minutes later.
I stared at the beauty of the setting sun over the grass-green hills and nodded. “I do, Thalassa. It will take time, and we will have to work diligently to repair all that’s been wrought, but I know deep in my soul that the curse is fixed because you are here.”
She frowned, pushing slightly against my chest as she stared deeply into my eyes. “Me?”
Brushing my thumb over her softly rounded jaw, I nodded. “You. You have a tenacity of spirit that leaves me breathless. Whatever you set your mind to, you will accomplish. You always have.”
She snorted, looking shy but flattered. “You would say that, knowing I failed to keep my intentions to drown all the lesser gods in their beds. I failed at that.”
I shook my head, kissing her forehead hard before saying, “You did not fail, my Queen. If you’d really wanted to, you could have usurped supreme authority over all. But you didn’t really want to.”
It wasn’t a question, and she didn’t treat it as one. Instead, she curled her fingers tight into my shirt and shook her head. “No, my Death. I didn’t. I only wanted you. I was simply too blinded by fury to realize it at first.”
Grinning, I grunted softly beneath my breath. There were so many things we should be doing now—fixing the rest of the happily ever afters, making amends for all that had been done, righting all the wrongs.
But for just a moment, I was going to enjoy having my female back. I was going to be selfish and hold her because I’d gone too long without.
She turned her face toward Apollo’s sinking sun. “Just until it sets,” she said softly, as though reading my mind, and I nodded my assent.
“Until it sets,” I said softly.
With a soft sigh, she rested her cheek against my chest and wrapped her arms tightly around me.
This was heaven.
Wherever she was, it was heaven. It was perfect, and never again would I fail to appreciate every hour, minute, and second I had with her.
“I love you, Thalassa,” I murmured tenderly as the sky turned a dark shade of navy along the horizon.
“And I you,” she said just as tenderly, “always.”
Together we smiled, and we enjoyed the rest of that sunset. When it was done, we stood and looked outward, hearing all the cries of those still desperate, still lost.
“Who next?” she asked. “There’s a pirate without his mate. A restless and aching gorgon. A sister who cannot truly feel. A piper with a stone enchanted beau—”
I chuckled softly. “Let’s not get too overwhelmed. There are far too many to list. But we’ll get to them all. I promise.”
“When?” she asked, sounding almost impatient.
I dropped a kiss onto her forehead before saying, “We’ll make a list and work our way down. How about that?”
“Hmm.” She nodded, as though in assent before tapping my chest with a long nail. “I wonder what Dite’s doing?”
Wrapping my arm around her waist even tighter, I opened a portal between the here and there and murmured tenderly, "Why don’t we go see.”
“Yes, Death, lets.”
And that was just what we did.
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Book Listing for Dark Kings and Queens written by Jovee Winters:
Sea Queen, Book 1 (Caly and Hades)
The Passionate Queen, Book 2 (Queen of Hearts)
The Ice Queen, Book 3
The Magic Queen, Book 4 (Baba Yaga)
The Dark Queen, Book 5 (The Evil Queen)
The Fairy Queen, Book 6 (Galeta)
The Centaur Queen, Book 7
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The Mad King, Book 1 (The Mad Hatter)
The Jaded King, Book 2 (Beauty and the Beast)
The Magic King, Book 3 (Rumple)
The Wolf King, Book 4 (Big Bad Wolf)
The Death King, Book 5 (Hades)
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UPCOMING Titles
Rayale’s story
Hook’s story
Aphrodite and Hephy’s story
HINT: The next book will be one of those three…
Other books by Jovee: Blue Moon Bay cozy pnr mystery romance
Cookies, Curses, and Kisses, Book 1
Holly, Curses, and Hauntings, Book 2
Cupcakes, Curses, and Spirits, Book 3
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