And as her eyes narrowed and her ice mask threatened to slip into place, he covered her mouth with his.
Epilogue
Shard hadn’t seen the melee fight between the three worlds over the following days. He’d been there. But he and Arla had scarce drawn breath since yesterday.
Drummond didn’t approve, and Shard honestly didn’t give a fuck if he ever did. After the queen’s none-so-subtle warning, he didn’t dare voice his dissent regarding Shard’s origins.
Arla would have a harder time finding new footing with her father.
They sat on a cushion in the back of the food hall—currently transformed into a ballroom for the closing ceremony of the Interworld Games. The brew was flowing, plates were smashing, and everyone appeared to be having a good time. The Ire in particular—after winning the melee fight earlier that day.
Rhone was in the midst of them, smiling and laughing. His smile dropped as he peered overhead. “Monikah,” he boomed. “Don’t drink and Soar.”
His wife circled him, and Rhone reached up, grabbing hold of her leg and dragging her downward. Her wings were promptly removed and tucked away.
Arla snorted as Rhone tucked the drunk inventor into his side.
“Do you think that’s an inventor thing?” she asked him. “They always get legless.”
Shard thought of Adnan. “Perhaps they spend too much time in their minds, and they forget how their body reacts.”
“Or they just don’t get out enough.”
He laughed.
The dance floor was crowded, but Sin was looping Lorna around in wide arcs, forcing everyone out of the way. Lorna was clearly trying to hold back her laughter.
“You know,” Arla murmured, “I haven’t slept with anyone else in a year.”
She lifted her head where she half-covered him, on her side with a leg and arm thrown over his body—just as he’d woken with her two days earlier.
Warmth suffused his chest. “Really?” he asked her quietly.
“Didn’t feel right anymore.” She sighed and tucked her head back against his neck, continuing her vigil of people-watching. “This feels right.”
It did. Like a stray cat who’d fought every day of her life and then found warm shelter and regular food, Arla’s claws had retracted. For him. And he looked forward to the times when those claws would pop out again.
With Arla, life would never become stale.
He tightened his grip around her shoulders.
They resumed their quiet people-watching, and Shard grinned at the sight of Greta standing on a table surrounded by Solati court members.
“What is she doing?” Arla asked.
Shard shot a look at Landon holding his arms up for Greta to get down, but the Bruma woman held her goblet in the air.
And began to sing. “Heeere’s to Tatum Landon, Tatum Landon, Tatum Landon. Heeere’s to Tatum Landon who’s with us today. He kicks and he maims and he wins all the games. Heeere’s to Tatum Landon who’s with us today. So drink, skank monsters. Drink, skank monsters—”
The Solati tipped back their goblets, draining the contents as she continued her chant.
“I think she’s teaching the Solati drinking games,” Shard said, watching as Landon tugged Greta down and carried her over to where Jovan and Lina were perched by the fire. Kendra was asleep in her father’s—the ultimate warrior’s—arms.
Shard had a feeling the Interworld Games was about to become a yearly Lina-versus-Jovan bid to outdo each other.
Jovan reached down and rubbed Lina’s stomach and Shard blinked. Shit. Baby number two already?
He peered down at Arla’s flat stomach. “What do you think about building houses in the Inner Rings of the royal sectors?”
“I think you better marry me first. But yes.”
He smiled against her hair, inhaling her scent. “How does next week sound?”
“I’ll see how I’m placed.”
Arla tilted her head back. “There’s one thing.”
“I’ll consider it,” he shot back.
She rolled her eyes, lips quirking. “I want to wait until we’re married until I screw you in every way I know how.”
His mouth dried as the sight of her in her dressing robe flashed across his mind. “Is that a mean way of asking if we can wait?”
Arla snickered. “It was.”
Shard nodded. “Of course. Can I know why?”
“Because I promised myself that with you it would be different.”
She mentioned a promise before. That’s what she’d meant? He tucked her in again. “You loved me that entire time,” he said, baffled.
“Pretty much. I mean, I noticed your eyes first. Then your abs. Then your ass. Then you just mystified me.”
He laughed with her.
“Thanks?” he asked. “Though I can’t talk. It was nearly the same for me.”
“My abs dazzled you,” she said in a deep voice, chuckling after.
He stroked the underside of her breast. “Close, but not quite.”
Sanjay leaped over the cushions before them, Rhone hard on his heels, Roman, Sole, and Adnan not far behind.
“What’s Sanjay done now?” he mused.
“I’ve learned not to ask,” she hummed. “But I always thought I could be friends with Fiona.”
Fiona was exactly the type of friend she needed. “Good, because it’s likely we’ll be living next to them in this sector.”
They sat intertwined with each other, watching the throng of people from the tri-worlds, a mesh of oranges, blues, and greens.
“After the war, I was never certain if anything would come of it.” Arla broke the silence. “I expected our histories were too filled with bloodshed, the hate too far gone. But looking at everyone now, I feel hope for the future of our worlds.”
Shard scanned the gathering. “There will be those who will resist, but I’m not sure anyone ever stood a chance against our current rulers.” He thought of the strength of Kendra’s kicks. “And I highly doubt the next generation of rulers either.”
Arla sighed happily. “I’m looking forward to life, Shard.”
He swallowed thickly at the emotion in her voice. Not just a sentiment of her own, but one echoed by most of the people in this very room. His friends—who were his chosen family. His new friends, who Shard looked forward to knowing better and better as years went on.
How far they’d come. How far he’d come. How far she would go.
Holding the woman he loved close and silently vowing to never let her go, Shard closed his eyes.
And said, “As do I.”
The end
Acknowledgements
Thank you for coming along on this novella ride. I’m so glad I got the chance to pen the stories of my four favorite secondary characters from the main series, and I have loved showing you flashes of Lina and Jovan’s life post-TTA.
After finishing Fantasy of Freedom, I took to the novellas as a way to wean myself out of this world and these characters. Suffice to say, it’s as hard to say goodbye now as it was two years ago, so that plan failed miserably!
Thank you to my wonderful husband who brings so much meaning to my life. Thank you to my friends and family who inspire me. Thank you to my manuscript team for coming with me on this journey.
To my readers, thank you dearly.
May this series and these characters live on in your heart, as they will in mine.
Happy Reading,
Kelly
Books by Kelly St. Clare
The Tainted Accords:
Fantasy of Frost
Fantasy of Flight
Fantasy of Fire
Fantasy of Freedom
The Tainted Accords Novellas:
Sin
Olandon
Rhone
Shard
The After Trilogy:
The Retreat
The Return
The Reprisal
The Darkest Drae (Trilogy) Co-written with Raye Wagn
er
Blood Oath
Shadow Wings
Black Crown
Pirates of Felicity:
Immortal Plunder
Stolen Princess
Pillars of Six
Dynami’s Wrath
Immortal Plunder
There are three types of people in the Exosian Realm—males, females, and pirates.
I’m a pirate. One with six overprotective fathers for a crew. And if I’m telling the honest truth, not just the pirate truth, having so many fathers is working pretty well for me so far.
When I’m caught eavesdropping on the pirates of Malice, they retaliate with violence, and my fathers become set on revenge. But simple payback cascades into shattering misfortune.
Unexplainable magical happenings and impossible creatures propel me toward a fate much darker than stealing plunder. A terrible beast drags forth horrible truths of my fathers’ pasts which call my entire life into question. Now, my sheltered upbringing is swelling into a furious storm that I must, for the first time in seventeen years, navigate without my crew.
An intense russet-haired landlubber seeks to help me. A savvy silver-eyed Malice pirate strives to hinder me. But the further I drift, the more I wonder—am I helping or hindering myself?
Now Available
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Shard: A Tainted Accords Novella, 4.8 Page 11