The king spins to face Luke. I’m surprised his head doesn’t swivel right off his neck. Luke’s face becomes tense, his jaw clenches. “He deserved to die.”
King Azure raises an eyebrow. “He has since Leo was killed, but what happened to cause you to do it now?”
“He threatened to kill Ali. He had his sword pressed to her neck and blood…blood was dripping from the blade.” His hands are in fists so tight on the table that his knuckles are white. I reach for one hand, rubbing it in attempt to relax him.
“He didn’t want me to stay with Luke,” I add. “He wanted me home with him and Oliver, and if not, then he preferred me dead. Luke, along with Elliott and Oliver, saved my life.” I turn to Luke. “I can never repay them.”
He reaches up to brush his thumb along my cheek. “If anything had happened to you, I wouldn’t have been able to go on. You’re my reason for living.”
“Oh, enough already,” Addi pipes in. “We get it. You’re in love. We don’t need to see it all the time.”
The king chuckles. “Stop, my daughter. It’s nice that Luke isn’t so murderous looking all of the time. Besides, if you ever find your one true love you’ll be exactly the same.”
She scoffs and crosses her arms. “I highly doubt that.”
Rya rests a hand on her arm. “It’s in your blood dear. When an Azure falls, they fall hard.”
Addi rolls her eyes. “Can we change the subject please? All of this mushy stuff is getting on my nerves.”
“Yes, dear, we can. I have a lot to catch up on and want to hear everything. We also need to agree on a story to tell our people about where I’ve been since they’ve all believed I was dead. What did you tell them about Ali’s sudden appearance?”
“Nothing really,” Ryland says. “We only warned them not to harm her or treat her with hatred. You should have seen the looks they were giving her once they knew she was King Pine’s daughter. We wanted to be open, but the whole lot of them were rude. Luckily, she quickly won them over with her personality. Oh, and the fact that Luke killed her father. That helped as well.”
“We can say you were on a humanitarian mission that took you far from our lands. While there you fell and hit your head. You had amnesia and didn’t know who you were,” the king states.
“Why didn’t we go look for her after a while?” Elliott asks.
“We did, but she had wandered off in her confusion and we couldn’t find her.”
“For twenty-four years?” he asks incredulously.
King Azure throws his hands up. “I didn’t say it was a good lie, but it will have to do. I won’t take any questions. I’ll say what I have to say and leave with my wife.” Their eyes meet. The love he feels for her is apparent.
We sit around the table and talk for an hour before I excuse myself and get up to leave. I walk out the door, gently closing it behind me, but am stopped by Luke’s hand on my wrist.
“Where are you going?”
“Home. I wanted to give everyone some time to catch up. You haven’t seen your mother in so long. This is time for you to be with your family and reconnect. Go back. Enjoy it.”
He reaches up to cup my cheek. “It still hasn’t sunken in yet. You’re my family. You and everyone in that room.” His hand slides from my face to intertwine with my fingers. “Come. Let’s go home together.”
“But, your mom.”
“It’s fine, Ali. My brothers and sister will keep her busy. Besides, our picnic got interrupted. Let’s go have lunch. We’ll be sure to be back in time for my father’s speech, and then we’ll have dinner with them.”
“Are you sure? I don’t want you to leave for me.”
He squeezes my hand and releases it. “It’s more than fine. I’ll be right back.” Stepping back through the door, I hear them talking, but can’t make out the words. I feel bad that he would leave them when he just got his mom back to come home with me.
When he returns, he’s holding one of the boxes King Azure and Rya brought back with them. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to call her queen. I’ve known her, vaguely as it was, on and off my whole life. She was always just Rya.
“You have a box to open.”
“I wonder what’s in it.” It could be anything. King Azure said they packed some things for me. I don’t know what will happen to the building, but at the same time, I don’t care. My mom had to have known I would go through the door and the chances of returning would be minimal. Maybe that’s why she was so insistent that I continue to run things after she passed. She knew eventually I’d find the key. Although how, I have no clue. It was tucked under a fake bottom of a drawer. Maybe that’s the reason the dresser was priced so high. But then again, if the key does what it wants, it could have found me eventually. Who knows? I can’t spend my time obsessing over that key and the what if’s in life.
My reality is that I’m now living in the Azure Kingdom with a man by my side who loves me as much as I love him. A man who would and has risked his life for me. Who loves with his whole heart. Who I’m lucky enough to call mine. Lucas Azure is the center of my entire world, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Epilogue
Lucas
Nervous is an emotion I’m unfamiliar with. That is until I arrived out in the field today on the back of Talethla, with my entire future ahead of me. You see, I knew Ali was special from the first time I saw her. I dreamt of her standing in the very field I’m in now. The azure flowers surrounded her. Her onyx hair blowing around wildly. She was a vision then, and even more so now that I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know her intimately. I knew the first day she appeared, she was mine. How? Call it intuition, or fate, or whatever you will, but I knew. Now I stand with my brothers by my side, waiting for her to give me her hand in marriage.
My mother had an arbor built and took some of the colorful ivy off of the cottage that holds the portal between our realms. She wove it through the lattice of the white arbor to bring even more color to our wedding. Teal, pink, purple, and blue ivy winds around it in a way, which makes it appear magical. Nowhere else in our land does ivy grow with those colors. Only on the cottage.
We have a small church within the castle’s walls, but Ali said she wanted us to marry in the field. It’s her favorite place, well, besides my bed. Or maybe that’s my favorite place. Either way, I told her we could get married wherever she liked.