Tamlin and you left the way you'd come in. Before departing, the High Fae of several courts destroyed and then sealed Amarantha's court Under the Mountain. you were the last to leave, and with a wave of Tamlin's arm, the entrance to the court crumbled behind us.

you still didn't have the words to ask what they'd done with those two faeries. Maybe someday, maybe soon, you would ask who they were, what their names had been. Amarantha's body, you'd heard, had been hauled off to be burned-though Jurian's bone and eye were somehow missing. As much as you wanted to hate her, as much as you wished you could have spat on her burning body... you understood what had driven her—a very small part of her, but you understood it.

Tamin gripped your hand as you strode through the darkness. Neither of you said anything when a glimmer of sunlight appeared, staining the damp cave walls with a silvery sheen, but your steps quickened as the sunlight grew brighter and the cave warmer, and then both of you emerged onto the spring-Green grass that covered the bumps and hollows of his lands.

your lands.

The breeze, the scent of wildflowers hit you, and despite the hole in your chest, the stain on your soul, you couldn't stop the smile that spread as you mounted a steep hill. your faerie legs were far stronger than your human ones, and when you reached the top, you weren't nearly as winded as you might once have been. But the breath was knocked from your chest when you beheld the rose-covered manor.

Home.

In all your imaginings in Amarantha's dungeons, you'd never allowed yourself to think of this moment—never allowed yourself to dream that outrageously. But you'd made it—you'd brought you both home.

you squeezed his hand as you gazed down at the manor, with its stables and gardens, two sets of childish laughter— true, free laughter— coming from somewhere inside its grounds. A moment later, two small, shining figures darted into the field beyond the garden, shrieking as they were chased by a taller, chuckling figure—Alis and her boys.