The Guardians

Epilogue

Aiden awoke to find Lyra gone from their bed. The room was bathed in the blue tint of the moonlight. He rose and went to Erabeth's alcove. The child was fast asleep but her mother was nowhere to be seen. He stepped up to the doorway leading onto the balcony and parted the sheer curtains there. He found her sitting on the rail overlooking Citori. Her red-brown hair hung loosely about her shoulders and her white dressing gown seemed to glow. Aroha, she was beautiful! He admired her for a few moments before stepping onto the balcony.

"What are you doing out here?" Aiden asked as he approached the balcony his wife was perched on.

Lyra smiled. His dark brown hair was tousled from sleep and he was shirtless and barefoot. But his ice-blue eyes were alert. Even in the moonlight, she could see the various battle scars he'd earned from the war. Her healing ability couldn't prevent them all. Lyra turned back to the now-familiar city.

"Remembering."

Aiden leaned against the balcony, looking over the city himself. "We've come a long way since that fateful battle ten years ago," he said, referring to the battle where they'd met.

"That we have. Who would have ever predicted that the son of a king would marry the daughter of Alora?"

Aiden chuckled. "Who could have predicted the magnitude of influence that very daughter would have amongst the people and the gods themselves. Do you still Dreamwalk?"

"I visit Mathros and Faeren often. Morrigan and Thorn visit in my dreams. Draven shows up whenever he wishes."

Aiden chuckled. The gods had become close friends with the two.

"Is she fussing again?" Lyra asked.

"No, I awoke when I did not feel your warmth next to me. I was only wondering what drove you from bed."

"Aside from our daughter's cries?"

Aiden smiled "Aside from that."

"I guess it's really sinking in now. I am not the woman I once was. I have come so far from the girl with a binding spell cast upon her to a queen."

"I guess it can be overwhelming. Just think, two years ago I was just a Guardian hoping no one found out I was the bastard son of a king."

Lyra smiled, remembering finding out from Alora just moments before it was revealed the sorceress was Lyra's mother. Only time would tell if Erabeth would inherit the magic her mother and grandparents possessed.

Aiden held his hand towards Lyra and she took it, sliding off the railing and into his arms. "I wouldn't change any of it for anything," he said.

"Neither would I."

They kissed in the moonlight, their sleeping daughter dreaming peaceful dreams.