But then, Arnus clears his throat, his gaze going briefly down to Eliana’s stomach. When his eyes come up, it’s to move past his daughter and over to Geseph. “It’s over.”
“But Father,” Rishka practically shrieks.
“Enough,” he booms, head whipping her way. “I said it’s over, and that means it’s over. If you can’t accept that, it’s time for you to leave Brevala.”
Rishka pales, and I have to bite my tongue not to laugh.
Arnus turns to the Meadowlanders. “Anyone who can’t accept the feud is over can leave. Pass that on to all the others when you return to your homes.”
Rishka silently fumes but holds her tongue. Arnus moves to Eliana, and like Geseph did, puts his hands to her shoulders and kisses each cheek. Pulling back to stare into her eyes, he says, “You and your child are welcome in my home anytime.”
Eliana glares pointedly at her dad.
He sighs, then looks to me. “You as well, I suppose.”
“Can I call you Dad?” I ask with a grin.
Eliana elbows me in the ribs and Arnus presses his lips flat, refusing even to acknowledge my question. He gives a short glance at Geseph, and while I know they’ll never be friends and most likely always enemies of the heart, they will abide by the freedoms that were just afforded by ending the feud.
Arnus leaves, and the Meadowlanders follow. Ilona stays behind to hug Eliana and me, and then we’re alone with Uncle Geseph and the handful of Bluff Dweller representatives he’d brought.
“I’d say that we need a huge celebration,” he says to Eliana and me. “Think you two can stay for a few days?”
“We’d love to,” Eliana accepts without consulting me, but okay… I’d really love it, too.
Except…
“We have to return to Paris briefly and check out of our hotel,” I tell my uncle. “Give us about an hour to return.”
* * *
An hour later…
I roll off Eliana, having just experienced the motherlode of all orgasms. I think it was the combination of pride in my woman for taking on two warring clans, the fact she’s carrying my child, and well… she’s a hellcat in bed and pushes every one of my buttons in the right way.
She rolls, moves into my side, and cuddles into me. Her arm goes over my stomach while mine holds her close to me.
“Should we move back to Brevala?” she asks.
“Fuck no,” I reply resoundingly. “We can visit any time you want, but I want to travel the world with you. And when we get done traveling the Earth realm, we’ll travel to other AltVeritas. I want to show our son—”
“—daughter.”
“Whatever,” I continue. “I want to show our kid everything there is.”
“Imagine taking her—”
“—him,” I cut in over Eliana.
“Whatever,” she continues. “Imagine taking our kid to the Coliseum in Rome to show her—”
“—him.”
“—her where we fought each other.”
“But we’ll leave the part out where we nearly destroyed the secret passageways with the rough hate sex,” I reply with a laugh.
“It’s hard for me even to remember that we hated each other.” Her voice is soft and tender, and, as my heart squeezes, so does my arm around her.
“Love is far more to my liking,” I say before turning my head to kiss her. “We should probably head back to Brevala for our welcome-home feast.”
“We won’t have anything like that from my side,” Eliana notes a little sadly.
“Sure we will,” I say. “Because we’re going to set the example. They’re going to see how deeply we love, and, once we have our kid, they’ll be clamoring for us to visit.”
Lifting her head, she looks down. “I’m a lucky girl.”
“And I’m a lucky guy,” I agree.
“We can still battle each other at the games in Faere, though, right?” she asks, one eyebrow cocked.
“Damn straight. It’s our first tradition, after all.”
Eliana laughs and kisses me. “And it won’t be our last.”