Page 71 of Taken By the Shadow Prince

“I mean that you can fill it with whoever you wish. I won’t particularly care either way.”

“You won’t want to leave it to any descendants you two might have?”

Armin laughs and says, “Any descendants will be born mortal. They’ll have no place on an immortal throne.”

“Butyouwill, in your newly mortal state?”

He shrugs. “I was born an immortal. It’s different. But... but no. Not technically. And I’ll still functionally be immortal, just not forever.” Armin shrugs. “So? Do we have a deal?”

Elix studies us with a calculating glance. Then he says, “Fine. It’s a bargain.”

And something snaps through me. Something powerful, ancient. A life force.

Armin’slife force.

Elix is already walking away. “Enjoy mortality, brother,” Elix says. “You’ve only got so much of it left, anyway.”

Armin squeezes my hand and brings his lips to mine. “You and me, Mavey. Will I be enough for you when everyone else is gone?”

What an honest, terrifying question.

But the answer is simple.

“Yes.”

Epilogue - Armin

what it is to live

200 Years Later

It still baffles me, waking up beside Mavey each day.

Every day, for the rest of our lives. However long they might be—Elix didn’t say and I’m not sure even he knows. Each day could be our last, and each day I am grateful that I made that bargain, that we are still here, together, youthful until our deaths.

Though Mavey talks more than she used to, she is quieter in her soul. I think it comes from losing her brother and everyone else she called family. From watching their descendants grow and age and still being in the same body—that strange woman they call their aunt who never seems to change when she visits.

We never had kids. We had a conversation about it, long ago, but we both realized that they weren’t for us. Not only would I really rather not bring a mortal child into a world of cruelty where they may never learn how to endure it... the idea of them never suited us.

No, we’ve only ever wanted each other—only ever needed each other.

Not that we have ceased arguing. Of course, we still bicker, but... it is with love.

Love is the strongest thing I have ever felt. The most cruel, torturous feeling of them all.

And it is addicting. It is all-consuming. So powerful it could crush me beneath it and wouldn’t even mind.

“Armin?” Mavey asks, her voice soft. “Where did you go?”

I look down at her and smile. “I was thinking it’s probably time we go visit Aligris, yes? Della seemed like she couldn’t get enough of you when we came last.”

Della is Mair’s grandchild.

Who now has her own kid.

I think it shocks Mavey, to be there for all of it. To see her old friend in these younger people. “I’d like that,” she says, smiling. “Let me go take a bath, and then we can leave.”

As she stands, I follow her. “You’re insane if you think I’m letting you go into that bathroom alone.”

She laughs and crooks her finger at me as she backs away. “Come on, then,” she says. “We’ll have to make it fast.”

Fast, slow, whatever she wants.

Always, it’s whatever Mavey wants. I want to give her those things for the rest of her life—of my life.

And I simply cannot wait to do so.