Serpent's Claim (Serpent's Touch 2)

Epilogue

ELEVEN YEARS LATER

AMIRA

“Look, Mama!” Radax, my little boy, lunged forward. Slicing through the air with his wooden sword, he nicked the skin on his father’s wrist.

“Aw!” Kyllen lurched back with a severely exaggerated howl of pain. “You got me! The Great Serpent released my spirit. And…” He tossed aside his own wooden weapon and chased his son. “My spirit is going to get you now!”

Dropping his sword, Radax dashed across the clearing inside the Loop Bend of the Isafaris River. Narrow side streams crisscrossed the ground. But our son leaped over them, evading his father’s hands that grabbed for him. Kyllen’s shouts of fake disappointment at failing to catch his son and Radax’s happy giggles filled the warm air of this peaceful afternoon.

I laughed, watching them from my chair on the dry patch of the riverbank.

Lily, our five-month-old baby girl, calmly sucked at my breast. Her little eyelids, delicate like lily petals, fluttered closed as she let go of my nipple, falling asleep. I gently placed her in the rocking crib at my side, then laced up the front of my dress.

It was a balmy afternoon at the very end of the golden season. The yellow leaves on the trees had been slowly regaining their fresh green color. Another week, and the entire Kingdom of Lorsan would be dressed in the vibrant green of summer again.

I touched Lily’s crib. The gorgonian magic coursed through my fingers, setting the mechanism of the crib into motion. A thin but sturdy canopy rose over my baby, shielding her from the breeze.

Ancient legends called love “the human magic,” and it certainly held power. I wasn’t born as Kyllen’s bonded mate, but through my love for him, I had become one. Through our bond, I could also use his magic whenever I wished.

Making sure Lily was warm and comfortable, I drew my shawl around my shoulders. The breeze from the river was still brisk at times. Though Kyllen had already shed his shirt. He must be warm enough from chasing our little Radax.

A child of a fae and a human was always a fae. Radax was every bit like his dad. He had the same bronze-and-green senties. They flared in a wild, tangled halo around his head as he ran, laughing. Leaping over yet another narrow creek, he tore off his lime-green tunic over his head.

“Radax!” I took a step away from the crib. “It’s still too cold to run around naked.”

“But Father is doing it.” The little rascal pointed at his dad. “And we aren’t naked. We have our pants on.”

“Thank God for that,” I muttered, shaking my head.

Kyllen just laughed. Sneaking behind his son, he grabbed the kicking, giggling boy and spun him around. “Got you!”

From the corner of my eye, I caught a boat approaching the Bend from down the stream. It appeared to be heading in the direction of the royal palace just up the river.

Iven, one of my guards, gestured to Hapon, one of Kyllen’s men. Together they jogged down the riverbank to the water to meet the boat.

Carrying Radax over his shoulder, Kyllen glanced at the approaching boat, too—always alert.

As King Consort, he’d been deeply involved in all state matters. As my husband, he had been my rock to lean on, my support, my shoulder to cry on whenever I felt overwhelmed or frustrated. Shrewd, clever, and outgoing, Kyllen had proven incredibly resourceful at getting any information I ever needed. I couldn’t have done it without my king.

Being a ruler was not about brawn or even magic. It was about taking care of my people. It required a lot of knowledge, honed diplomacy skills, and an infinite amount of patience. Some of that I already had. The rest, I was determined to obtain and improve. Learning was a long process—a lifelong one.

King Zeldren had loved a good game, and I often wondered if by giving me his crown, he had tossed another game piece on the board, to watch me either sink or swim for his amusement from the afterlife. Wherever he was now, though, I hoped he wasn’t disappointed. For the eleven years that I had been the queen, the Kingdom of Lorsan had been thriving.

The boat turned to the riverbank, with the clear intention to land in the clearing.

Kyllen gently set Radax back on the ground and stepped in front of the boy.

I turned to the royal hag, who was picking flower buds from a bush nearby. “Grandmother? Would you keep an eye on the princess, please?”

The hag nodded, the dark hood over her face swayed. Looking frail and weak, the woman was more powerful than any man.

Kyllen had brought her from a small village on the Olathana border the year he and I got married. He said she’d saved his life once. Ever since, the hag had been living in the palace with us. She tended to injuries, brewed potions, cast wards when needed, asking for nothing but lodging and respect in return.

I trusted her to keep Lily safe while I turned my attention to the boat. Hapon appeared to speak to one of the gorgonian crew on it. He then headed up the slope toward me.

“Your Majesty, the boat is from the village of Egrus. It’s on the border with Sarnala.”

Lorsan had been enjoying a long period of peace with the kingdom of werewolves. Together, we had constructed enough levees to ensure passable trading routes through many parts of Lorsan, and the trade between our two kingdoms had flourished ever since.

The negotiations with other kingdoms had gone smoother, since the fae of every kind could look the ruler of Lorsan in the eye. Despite being able to use gorgonian magic and gaining an expanded lifespan, I remained a human. I had no senties and couldn’t kill with a look.

Kyllen jogged to my side. “What do they want?”

“They caught a werewolf,” Hapon said.

I frowned. That could cause complications to my peace treaty with Sarnala. “Tell them to release him.”

“He ran away.”

Kyllen huffed a laugh. “So. Why is it important, then?”

“The werewolf was in his beast form.” Iven climbed up the bank to us. “Unchanged for days.”

One of the villagers from the boat accompanied Iven. He carried a bundle wrapped in a homespun piece of cloth.

“Greetings to the glorious Queen of Lorsan.” The villager, a handsome man with dark senties and serene gray eyes, bowed to me.

“Greetings.” I inclined my head. “Tell me, how is it possible for a werewolf to retain his beast form past the night of a full moon?”

Even Madame—the goddess that she was—couldn’t make Lero shift completely. All she had managed was to keep him in mid-shift for some time.

The man shook his head.

“Normally, it’s not possible, Your Majesty. The Moon guides werewolves, changing them to beasts for one night a month only. But there have been a few of those abominations lately, stuck in their beast form. They can’t speak. However, some have been able to communicate through other means. They conveyed that they had come from the human world.”

My old world.

It had become as distant as a long-forgotten dream to me. Just a random tendril of nostalgia would drift into my heart every now and then. Or a few shadowy shreds of a nightmare would remain with me in the morning. But the memories of the man who’d raised me never left. I promised Radax to always remember him. And I always would.