by Tamar Sloan
But this time, only three words are printed on it.
Part XII
Noah
Chapter Thirty-Three
I shift back to human, trying to wrap my mind around what I’m seeing. The realization seems to hit Eden at the same time because she shoots upright and turns to me. I look at her, trying to comprehend what just happened.
We step back, looking around.
James stands as he holds his hand over his bloody wound. The Weres who remain shift back to human, their faces dusty and shell-shocked. The moment the earth stopped moving, my family finally tipped the balance on the boulder. Mitch is kneeling in the grass, holding a pained but alive Tara in his arms. The Glade is littered with shocked faces. Dust is loitering in the air.
But a single shaft of light spears down over one place.
The Precept Rock stands tall and proud, kissed by the sun, looking like nothing ever happened.
Except it’s completely different. There are no longer five laws that Weres are to abide by stamped into its unyielding surface.
Stamped with authority, glowing with conviction, there’s now one law, and one law for all.
United we conquer.
Alexis reaches out, her fingers tracing the letters. Her voice is a whisper as she reads. “United we conquer.”
I turn back to Eden, knowing my disbelief echoes hers. Our hands reach out, smiles wondering if they can break out as we clasp the other.
My grin is gargantuan as Eden steps in closer. “We did miss something.”
She blinks, eyes luminous and green. “Humans.”
We say the three words together, three words that explain what just happened. “United we conquer.”
This kiss is inevitable. When Eden’s lips touch mine we sink into each other, arms coming around to hold tight. So much emotion floods me that I’m not sure my heart can hold it. It’s her love and mine, it’s our wonder and joy and devotion, it’s the celebration of the future we just created.
We’re wound so tightly together that when Eden’s belly flutters, I feel it too. We yank back, both glancing down, breaths held to see if it will happen again. Holy heck, there it is again!
“Noah.” Eden’s voice is hushed with reverence. “He’s letting us know.”
I squeeze her tight, holding them both with all my heart. “Our baby girl is partying right along with us.”
This time, the single tear that tracks down Eden’s face is one I want to treasure. I take in her glowing face. “I think there’s only one word that can capture this.”
Eden pushes in close, whispering the word that keeps exploding in my mind. “Wow.”
As sounds start to crowd into our beautiful bubble, I realize one last kiss is all we’ll get for a little while. There are injuries to tend to and explanations to be made. As my family and hers, as Weres and Fae and humans, move in to honor what just happened with us, I lean down to gaze into her eyes. I adore, desire, want and need this amazing girl more than I could ever capture in words.
Luckily, our connection conveys it all. It means I can say the words that almost come close. “I love you, Eden.”
Eden’s smile somehow captures all those emotions and more. “And I love you, Noah.”
Part XIII
Epilogue
Eden
“Noah, you can’t afford this.”
Noah slips an arm around my waist, tucking the blindfold he just pulled off my eyes into his back pocket. “Not on Prime Alpha wages.” His grin is cocky as he glances down at me. “Or in the Queen of the Fae tax bracket for that matter.”
I look back at the clearing we stand before. Adam and Beth’s house is only a few minutes walk away, Mitch and Tara’s the same distance in the opposite direction. This is the land we we’re planning on building our house on…eventually. Neither of us generates much of an income. With college part-time, our responsibilities take up the rest.
Except now there’s earth moved, holes dug, and a stack of planks piled to the side. Someone has started building.
Noah steps around, swallowing my field of vision. His summer sky eyes are careful as he says his next words. “But Alexis can.”
“What?”
Noah swallows. “Your mother and James designed it. It’s ecologically sustainable, carbon neutral, and some other words that sound impressive. They wanted to do this for us.”
I frown. “Don’t you think giving us the Glade was enough?”
That was a memory which is forever implanted in my mind. We were at home, sitting under Grandfather Douglas. My belly was rivalling the size of a watermelon as we curled beneath the tree’s expansive branches, reveling in the love and wonder that those movements had never stopped triggering.
We’d stood, well, Noah had stood and then helped me up, when we heard a car approaching. Then we’d frowned at each other when James had climbed out, coming around to open the door for Alexis.
They’d walked toward us, Alexis carrying a leather folder. Both had looked down but quickly recovered. It had only been a few of months since everything at the Glade, and yet our baby was already looking like I was nearing the end of my pregnancy. But then again, they’d already had so many assumptions about what is real destroyed.
Noah had reached out to shake hands with James, but I’d stayed put. Although hearing my mother speak my name had almost been lost in the enormity of everything that happened at the Glade, I’d heard it. It was her touch that completed the circle, that created the unity that had been needed to conquer the greed and hate that had been festering.
But I still didn’t know what it meant for the two of us.
Alexis had taken a deep breath. “This won’t take long. We wanted to make sure that you understood us when we said you could trust us.”
James had nodded. “Seeing what we did, knowing what we know now…we didn’t realize.”
Alexis glanced down and away before looking back up. “I didn’t listen.”
Noah had waited by my side, knowing this was my olive branch to accept. I’d looked at them both. “Our lives depend on you keeping your knowledge of Weres and Fae secret.”
Alexis’ grey gaze hadn’t wavered from mine. “We know. And we would never endanger that. And to prove how important this is, we wish to give the land back to the rightful owners.”
Stunned, Noah and I had just stood there.
James had shrugged a one shoulder shrug. “Besides, with the unexplained seismic activity that authorities have given up trying to explain, its land value has gone down significantly.”
Noah had been the first to recover. “We’ll pay.”
Alexis was already shaking her head. “No, you won’t.”
James smiled as he shook his head too. “You don’t pay for gifts.”
Alexis held out the leather folder. Noah and I glanced at each other and then back. Feeling nothing but shock, I’d reached out and it had passed into my hand. Opening, all I’d seen were lines of black and white, legal jargon that I couldn’t make sense of. But there in the center, had been our names. Noah Phelan and Eden St. James. Owners of the precious parcel of land that showed us the power of unity.
I’d looked up. “Thank you.”
What had been the biggest shock of all was watching the undeniable blush that had crept up Alexis’ cheeks.
Alexis and James had joined us for dinner that night. Alexis had smiled through Beth’s charcoal chicken, Tara had spent more time smiling at the bundle she’d been nursing, whilst I’d said very little. Throughout the night, Alexis had looked at me often, but most intently when she’d told us that she was planning on establishing a company with James. Unity Holdings was planning on establishing eco-tourism locations around the world. The locations would be approved by all—environmental groups, local councils…Weres and Fae.
The many places of Mother Nature’s heartbeats would slowly be preserved but also shared and celebrated.
I look back at the bare ground which was waiting for a home to be built o
n it. “Can we accept this?”
Noah’s gaze settles on mine. “That’s up to you. You know Mom would be happy for us to stay with them.”
I think of Beth and how much she adores her growing family. The more the merrier seems to be her motto. Her joy at the arrival of little Joshua, a little over two now, is a shining example. He’s almost as spoilt by her as he is by Tara and Mitch. Staying home and being the minder of her grandchildren as their parents attend college has been a labor of love.
I smile. “And we both know that’s not because of our winning personalities.”
I look around. I haven’t been able to call Alexis Mom, and I’m not sure if there’s a ‘yet’ at the end of that sentence. And this would be an undeniable way to weave her into our lives. But…
“I’ve seen some of James’ designs. They’re amazing.”
Noah nods. “And I do worry that Ava thinks Mom’s cooking is normal.”
Like her name has conjured her, a blonde haired nymph runs at us on stubby, toddler legs. “Look, Mama!”
I look up to see Beth waving at us from the edge of the clearing before heading off.
Noah leans down to clasp our daughter as she throws herself at him. He lifts her up like he always does and she squeals with delight. Holding her up high in the air, her hair cascades down like corn silk as she beams at him “Daddy.”
The true Daddy’s girl that she is, Ava not only proved me wrong with her gender, but also learned how to say Daddy properly before Mommy. The peals of laughter that curl around us warm my heart.
From her perch, Ava holds out a small parcel. “Unca Orin,” she announces proudly.
Noah lowers her, placing her in the grass. She plops onto her bottom, already intent on tearing it open. We both kneel down beside her, and I can’t help but reach out and brush back her hair. Far longer than any two-year old’s should be, its wispy strands are already halfway down her back. Orin said that’s normal for Fae children.
From the shreds of paper, Ava pulls out a native American beaded necklace. It seems Orin is back in the States somewhere.
It was hard to see him go, but I understood. He’d come to say goodbye the day after the Precept Rock had resurrected. I’d been standing there, not knowing how to apologize. I’d taken his birthright, even if it had been inadvertently.
He’d stood there, that hard-to-read expression of his firmly in place. “I knew what I was training you for, Eden.”
“You did?”
He’d reached out a hand and rested it on the baby steadily growing inside me. “This was always bigger than just the Fae.”
I’d given him a hug, already knowing he was leaving. “I’m going to miss you.”
“I’ll be back to meet my niece.”
I’d rolled my eyes. “Not you too.”
I should have realized he would know.
Ava holds the necklace up, her blue eyes wide with wonder. “Show Grandma?”
I smile. Although I haven’t been able to call Alexis Mom yet, she’s certainly Ava’s grandma. That one word sparks a glow I’ve never seen in Alexis. It’s the glow of a future I’m looking forward to being part of.
I take the necklace, a beautiful pattern of colored beads. “We can show Grandma when she comes over for dinner.”
Noah slips his arm around me. “When we tell her the news?”
I smile up at the man who holds my heart, feeds my soul, and is the most wonderful father I could dream of. “We’ll tell her she can build our house.”
Noah lifts Ava again. “Did you hear that, baby girl?” He spins her around and her peals of laughter rain down on us. Bringing her to his hip, he engulfs us with his happiness. I lean in for a kiss, one that will be one of many, one that is unique in this moment. The moment where our future will be built from the ground up.
I feel a small hand pat my face, and I know Ava will be doing the same to Noah. She thinks it’s hilarious to whack us with her baby palms when we kiss.
“Mama.”
I pull back. Ava’s voice isn’t the happiness-filled melody it was a moment ago. Ava’s tilted eyes are blue and watery. She wiggles and Noah places her on the ground, frowning a little.
Ava, the child who carries the namesake of my father, Avery, points to the cleared area she must have just noticed. “All gone.”
She’s talking about the vegetation that had been cleared for the house site. “Yes, Ava. This is where we’re going to build our home.”
Ava walks forward, but then her little body stops. “But all gone.”
Noah moves forward to take her hand. “It’s going to be a very special home just for the three of us.”
Ava tugs him forward, and we cover the few feet to where there is nothing but soil. Although we’re in a natural clearing, the thick carpet of grass has been scraped away to level the area. She squats down in the way of toddlers, frowning at the bare ground.
Noah and I look at each other. Ava has shown that she is as tough and resilient as the Were tattoo which is stamped behind her ear. Keeping up with her red-haired cousin, Joshua, even though he’s already showing signs of Were height, is a personal challenge. But she’s also shown that she’s deeply in tune with the natural world too. It is forest animals who play with her in the backyard, birds who bring her flowers to distract her when she falls over. I doubt Stash and Caesar have ever devoted themselves so wholly to one little being.
“Sad, Mama.”
I squat down next to her, Noah on the other. “We’ll plant a very special garden once the house is built. How does that sound?”
Ava looks up, summer sky eyes sad and serious. “We fix?”
Noah strokes back the hair which falls across her face. “We definitely will.”
Ava’s smile is sweet and luminous, one that you can’t help but return. I now have two favorite sights in the whole world. She looks back down, palm reaching out to rest on the soil. “We fix.”
Noah reaches out to scoop her back up, but then pauses. Ava’s looking at her hand, her stare intense but strangely serene. I have to stifle my gasp when I see what is happening.
Delicate fronds of green are pushing up through the brown soil. Like some sort of time-lapse documentary, the fragile grass unfurls and grows. And as Ava coaxes life from the scraped soil, as graceful green pushes up and through, I realize what is going to happen.
The Glade is the one place which visibly carries the scars of everything that has occured. The track that Alexis cleared remains an open wound, the Glade no longer a hidden place from the eyes of humans. There have been no full moon runs since the earthquake. The Fae haven’t wanted to use this particular heart of Mother Nature’s to affirm their connection to the earth.
It is Ava who will heal it. The child who carries the fire of a Were, the calm of a Fae…and the passion and potential of a human. She will coax the forest to grow once again, and eventually enclose the sacred space.
Noah and I stand, arms wrapping around each other, as we watch our daughter work her magic. My mate arches a wry brow at me. “United, huh?”
I rest my head on his shoulder. “Who knows what we’ll be able to conquer.”
After the Prophecy there will be a Legacy…
Noah and Eden’s connection was prophesied to be a love that would defy boundaries.
Now that very love will leave a legacy…
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About the Author
A school psychologist by day, Tamar Sloan channels her passion for books into creating young adult stories about discovering love beyond our comfort zones. She is the award-winning author of the Prime Prophecy Series and the Touched by Love Series.
When not reading, writing, or woking with teens, Tamar can be found with her ever-patient husband and two beautiful sons enjoying country life on her small acreage in the Australian bush.
Tamar finds it deeply rewarding to share her stories and she loves to hear from readers and fellow lovers of all things book related. Make sure you head over to her website so you don’t miss out on the freebies she loves to give away www.tamarsloan.com.
Also by Tamar Sloan
Make it Count (Book 1 Touched by Love Series)
For All to See (Contemporary Young Adult Romance)
The Moment (Prequel to the Prime Prophecy Series)
Prophecy Awakened (Book 1 of the Prime Prophecy Series)
Prophecy Accepted (Book 2 of the Prime Prophecy Series)
Prophecy Fulfilled (Book 3 of the Prime Prophecy Series)