Darren was a prince teaching a pretty first-year how to fight, a boy in the desert apologizing to a girl, a jealous apprentice lashing out any way that he could…
And then he was following her up the stairs, kissing her because he couldn’t get her out of his head. Because he couldn’t breathe. Because he’d fallen in love and he hadn’t even known.
Then he was choosing Jerar, telling himself to walk away. Losing the girl and pretending not to care.
He was screaming her name in a burning forest, running as fast as he could.
And then he was opening a letter, reading Emperor Liang’s promise, and storming a feast.
He was watching her stroll through an arena, ready to duel.
Holding her the day she fell apart, refusing to leave her side.
He was marrying that girl, dancing with her in the forest, and then, after everything that followed, saving her life.
Saving her because that reckless, beautiful girl was trying to save him, because he loved her, because he knew only one of them deserved to live.
He was swimming in darkness, and she was pleading for him to fight.
He was dropping the knife… he was choosing to live. Choosing amends.
And now he was kissing his wife, here, as their daughter danced in the crowd.
Ryiah had become everything, and she hadn’t even tried.
Darren gripped her waist harder, kissing her as flames fanned his heart and his lungs and his mind.
He would spend the rest of his life fighting to be the man she deserved. As a father and a husband, as a boy to the girl.
He’d love her endlessly.
“I’ll love you endlessly,” he whispered.
And then he’d do it again.
Author’s Note
Dear Reader, I hope you enjoyed the emotional conclusion to The Black Mage series. Please consider leaving a review on the site you purchased this book or Goodreads—even if it’s just a sentence or two. Every review makes a difference and helps other readers discover Ryiah & Darren! If you leave a review, email me the screenshot or link & I’ll happily mail you a signed bookmark >> no matter what country you reside in.
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Acknowledgments
READERS. The final book is here because you guys made it happen. Thank you for sticking with Ryiah and Darren all this time, and I hope their story made you half as emotional as it made me. I’ve wanted to tell this saga since seventh grade and YOU are the reason I was able to write it. Thank you for every one of your kind messages, reviews, and support along the way—they meant the world to me!!! This is the end of my first series, and I hope to give you many more.
SAKINA MADRAS. This book benefited from your selfless act to beta read for me on tight deadlines and give it to me straight. Thank you for being such an epic critic and telling me when a scene needed to up its game. Also for making me write that epilogue, because you were totally right; I feel more closure now. Pretty sure all the fans thank you too, because I swore up and down I’d never do one. Ha.
FRIENDS. You guys have been my rock since day one: ROTNA PENHEIRO, SHELLY BLALOCK, COURTNEY MORALES, and SHANTEL KELLOGG. I’m not sure I can ever articulate what it means to feel so loved and supported when I took on such a risky career! I have the best friends in the world.
FAMILY. Your support means the world—especially the HUSBAND who dealt with the worst of it and held me up every time I wanted to break. Side note: Babe, I love you, but please stop telling me that every plot I’ve ever thought of has been done in anime first (I refuse to accept this!!!).
AUTHOR COMMUNITY—for helping me with all things publishing. RACHEL VAN DYKEN, ALEX LIDELL, ELISE KOVA, SCARLETT DAWN, and LAURA THALASSA. There are plenty of authors I owe favors to, but you five played a large part in my sanity in some form or another.
EDITORS (Hot Tree Editing) and COVER ARTIST (Milo). Again, for dealing with all my pickiness and crazy deadlines for four books all at once.