“Hello, father.”
As casually as if he’d just been collecting Lilypine cones, Paul emerged from the woods and strolled across the beach, Laura and Princess Luscious walking beside him.
No one was more shocked to see Paul than King Hofnar, nor was anyone more relieved. For one delirious moment, King Hofnar couldn’t even breathe as the worst fear of his entire life evaporated.
“King Sterling, I believe you owe my father a kingdom,” Paul said, striding right up to the invading monarch. “Surrender Illigoz ‘or die’, was it?”
“Surrender?!” Prince Savage scoffed. “To you and what army!”
Right on cue, the Shadowship hove above the forest with a flap of its great black wings. Jack saluted from the helm, thirteen cocker spaniel puppies dancing around his feet, as the gang of Fierce Flitterlings rained from the sky, and for good measure, an army of Zombies came marching up the beach with Jeremy acting as general.
Paul turned back to the stunned Sterlings.
“Boo,” he said.
Needless to say, King Sterling and his army fled. They also did things in their pants, but such things do not make for good reading.
King Hofnar stared at his son with disbelief in his eyes. “You live… I cannot believe it. My son lives!”
He slapped Paul’s shoulder, but that wasn’t good enough for Paul, not after everything he had been through. The young prince grabbed his father and pulled him into an embrace. King Hofnar resisted, but Paul pulled harder and dragged his father in.
Reluctantly, the king returned his son’s embrace, but he could feel his cheeks coloring beneath his brambly beard. “Paul, the Zombies be watching…”
To be honest, the Zombies didn’t care.
Flicker swooped overhead and cried, “We are HOME! Let the celebration begin!”
Everyone cheered. The Flitterlings heaved barrels of flitter nectar onto the beach. The Singing Sword began to play with such magic that even the Zombies began to dance. Joy swept across the beach. King Hofnar had to smile, though he didn’t completely understand why, and Queen Berba raced from the castle to embrace first her son and then, unexpectedly, her husband.
And that’s when a deafening white lightning bolt crashed down and blackened the sand. When it faded and when everyone had climbed back to their feet, Jahalael the Omnipotent blazed before Paul in all his crackling white glory. Instinctively, Paul began to kneel.
“No, no, none of that,” Jahalael said, grabbing Paul’s shoulder to keep him on his feet. “This time it’s my turn to thank you. I hit the jackpot today, and I owe it all to you, my champion.”
A small vellum card materialized in Paul’s hand.
“My card,” Jahalael said. “My incantation’s on there. If you ever need anything, any time of the day or night, don’t hesitate to invoke me, okay? You did good, Prince Charming.” Sliding on his tinted spectacles, the god grabbed a bottle of flitter nectar from a passing Flitterling. “And now I think we both have some celebrating to get back to!”
Jahalael vanished as if he had never been there. By the end of the night, once the casks had all been drained, no one other than Paul would remember him.
Later that year, Jack Bravado finally testified against Captain Head in exchange for a new identity under the Witness Enchantment Program. After being transformed into a frog, he was relocated to an agreeable swamp in Lilypine.
His subsequent love affair with Princess Luscious is a fairytale to be saved for another day.
Seeboth, Lord of Shadows, was imprisoned in the Doom Chasm Maximum Security Dungeon. The sentence: eternity without parole.
And his subsequent love affair with Princess Luscious is yet another fairytale for yet another day.
But what became of Paul and Laura?
Well, what do you think?
Against a background of beautiful Lilypine trees lit by the glitter of Flitterling wings, Paul approached Laura.
She hesitated.
He did not.
Not this time.
He lifted her face and kissed her.
Laura melted into it. It was the kiss every woman dreamed of and the kiss every woman deserved.
And just in case you need it spelled out for you, the two of them lived…
H.E.A.
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T. L. Callies is the author of The H.E.A. Files series. He makes his online home at www.tlcallies.com. If the mood strikes, you can send an email to [email protected].
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