A part of my brain told me I couldn’t really touch her, that this was nothing but a dream… but I didn’t want it to be. Before doubt could stop me, I placed my hand in hers. Feeling instantly returned to my body, the weight of my muscles and limbs becoming more real by the sun-second, until I felt like myself again.
“Welcome to the land of the ascended, Evie.” White light radiated from Princess Keira the next moment, overwhelming everything around me until all I saw was light.
Her words echoed in my ears when my eyelids lifted again, finding Braxton glancing down at me with a crooked smile. I was still in his arms, but he was carrying me somewhere. Confused, I glanced ahead, and a gasp burst from my throat. “The Lake of Tranquility!”
Somehow, before us, the shore at the edge of the Woodlands glimmered and swayed, opening to the otherworldly place I’d just seen.
“It wasn’t a dream,” I whispered.
“No, it wasn’t,” Braxton assured while we crossed the glimmering boundary, and I finally saw what he had been seeing this whole time.
His mother stood on the sandy beach in her white gown, just like before, loose strands of her brown hair dancing around her face in the wind. The haze was fully gone, and everything was sharp and vibrant now. The salty smell of the lake seeped into my nostrils. The sun above us warmed my skin, hot and dry, while the warm breeze brushed against my cheeks, making my own hair lift from my shoulders.
Pushing against Braxton’s chest, I forced him to put me down, which he did with a chuckle, my boots sinking in the rich sand when I began to walk on my own. Everything was real, tangible, yet, even now, Princess Keira’s form still gleamed from the purity of her essence, making her look ethereal.
I was awestruck by her.
My heart lurched in my chest and the nerves returned, but I made my way to her, inexplicably longing for the hug she had offered. The brightness of her smile became a thousand times more powerful as she looked at me now, and meeting me halfway, she pulled me into her arms.
A wave of love so strong that it reminded me of my own mother engulfed me the moment her arms wrapped around me, and I was forced to hold down the feelings rising inside me. It seemed emotions were far more potent in here, but I clamped them down before they could cause any real harm.
“My sweet Evie,” Princess Keira greeted, kissing my cheek a moment before she pulled back to look at me, both hands cradling my face. “You are such a beautiful woman now. A woman of incredible strength and selflessness, of goodwill for her people before herself.” Letting out a heavy sigh, a sliver of sadness shone in her gaze. “I say this because I know without a shadow of a doubt that your parents feel it too. We are so proud of you, honey. So proud.”
Throat tightening with emotion, I watched her let go of my face, her hands caressing my arms until she reached my hands and took them into hers.
“I owe you a debt of gratitude, sweetie.”
“Gratitude?” I questioned, confused. “I haven’t done any—”
“You have done plenty,” she chided, glancing behind me.
Following her line of sight, I found Braxton welcoming Kingston and Imogen as they crossed the threshold to the Lake of Tranquility too, having accepted Princess Keira’s invitation. Their stunned expressions spoke of the same reverence I felt. Had they all experienced what I did with her? Had her soul spoken to each of us at the same time?
Once her eyes focused on her son, I understood the intention behind her words, my attention returning to her.
“Thank you for loving Brax for all that he is, before you even realized what that meant,” she offered, squeezing my hands in hers. “Thank you for bringing him back home, and for helping him heal from that strange illness that threatened him in the Mirror World. If you hadn’t realized the Dragons were healing him and gotten to him in time, I don’t know what would have happened.”
Both the pain and relief only a mother could feel mixed in her expression, and I wanted to say it was nothing, but I knew it had been everything, even if I had no idea at the time. Instead, I settled for the truth.
“I felt him inside my heart from the very beginning… I didn’t know why. I didn’t know how. I just knew that I had to go back for him. I just couldn’t leave him behind, regardless of what I had to risk. And I will never leave him—”
My eyes stung, my throat closing on the words from the emotion that snuck into me, but I didn’t repress it this time, not this one. There was no power in this world that could help me restrain the love I felt for that man. None.
“I just love him,” I confessed, letting the tear slide down my cheek. “He has changed my life.”
“As you have changed his,” she confessed with a beaming smile that reached her gray eyes, making the lines on the corners of her eyes crease.
Those, and the silver hairs that weaved through her dark strands, were the only indication of the age she’d been before she ascended. All evidence of the pain and scars she endured in the Mirror World, physical or otherwise, were left behind with her mortal body. Now only her true self gleamed before me.
“You are everything to him, sweetie,” she continued, kissing the tear off my cheek before her eyes bored into mine. “And I will tell you something about the Skystorm men. Their love is just like a raging storm, wild and unstoppable. When they love you, they are yours forever.”
My heart skipped a beat with her promise, though I already knew her words to be true. In my heart, I’d known Braxton was mine from the start, no one was taking him away from me.
“And he loves me,” I confirmed, the happiness his love brought overshadowing everything else.
“That he does, Evie.” Her maternal love engulfed me again, and I hugged her too, welcoming Braxton’s mother into my life.
5
“Kiki!” Princess Keira’s arms opened wide, urging him into her warm embrace after she let go of me and turned to my guardian. Her endearing name for him jarringly contradicted the image of the giant and feared warrior chief we all knew.
In all honesty, I expected him to scowl at her like he usually responded to Braxton’s teasing, but when my eyes found him, I saw him frozen where he stood. Blood drained from his face while he glanced at Princess Keira. The expression that transformed his features was one of disbelief, yet it also unveiled the young man who turned against the only way of life he ever knew to do what was right, following the Harbinger of Justice and his wife… the Princess of Caelisium into a new future.
The words he shared when we found out the truth about their retreat from the battle echoed in my mind. “I admired the Harbinger of Justice in a way I can’t even begin to explain…” From his reaction to seeing Braxton’s mother again after so many years, it was clear his admiration extended to her as well.
“Princess,” Kingston whispered, trying to regain his composure and fell to one knee where he stood. His hand lifted to his heart while his gaze fell to the sand in absolute veneration.
Princess Keira’s beaming smile dimmed at the sight of his admiration, and she sighed with both love and resignation, as though she should have expected such formality from him. Stopping before him, she lifted his chin with delicate fingers, forcing him to look up at her. “Rise and give me a hug, sweetie.”