Page 203 of A Fate of Blood and Magic

“Right now?”I asked.“Can we go right now, Nalari?”If anyone judged me for clapping my hands, they didn’t say.

“Ask your healer if it is safe for your babes.”

Before I could speak, Elias asked Leah, “Do you think it’d be okay for Teddy to go up with Nalari?”

“Wait, Nalari is going to take you flying?” Brenton asked.

“Yes.” I shifted on my feet. “As long as it’s okay.” I waited for Leah to answer as eager anticipation rose inside me.

“I don’t see a problem as long as she doesn’t drop you,” Leah said.

“I make no promises,”Nalari said, a white puff of smoke blowing from her nostrils.

“She promises she’ll be extra careful,” I said, and Nalari huffed out a laugh.

I ran up to Nalari, and with Elias’s and Alastor’s help, I managed to climb onto the enormous dragon’s back. Already on her back, Elias guided me to her neck and instructed me on how to hold on to her.

When I peered over her back to the ground, I shuddered. I was still absolutely excited, but a larger and larger part of me was also getting scared.

“Do you want me to stay with you?” Elias asked.

I bit my bottom lip. “Is that okay?” I asked more to Nalari than Elias.

“It’sfine,”Nalari said.

“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be scared,”I said quickly.“It’s just?—”

“I’d worry there was something wrong with you if you weren’t slightly afraid of flying on a dragon’s back,”Nalari said.

“I bet Tori won’t be scared,”I said with a huff.

“She’s a special one,”Nalari said.

Elias pressed his chest to my back, and we leaned into Nalari’s neck together, where I did my best to hold on. With his legs over mine, he flattened our legs onto her sides.

“Are you ready,mo elma?”He kissed the back of my neck, over my hair that was sure to fly all over his face within seconds.

“Ready.”

I was ready for our future. Not just for Elias and me and the family we were creating together, but for all of Niev. Despite the tragic and devastating war with the various fae who lived outside Niev’s borders, the kingdom was slowly coming together. Shifters, lirio, and mages now had a home in the very place that once drove them away.

I had a home.

So much still needed to be done to gain the peace Elias sought, with learning why magic was malfunctioning and finding the orb at the forefront of his mind. I wanted to be able to traipse through all of Respandora without the fear of my ancestors’ magic turning on me. It was home, more than any other place I’d ever lived in, and somehow, every time I visited, I felt Mom’s presence watching me. Maybe even smiling at me.

And Brenton. . .I wanted my brother to find solace and confidence in who he was and what he had to offer. One day, he’d find love, of that I was certain, but first, he had tocome to love himself as selflessly as he loved others. Cliché, maybe, but it still held true.

I smiled, knowing this was only the beginning of Elias’s and my happily ever after. Both in battle and in love, we found out who we were and what we were capable of—the good along with the ugly. And I knew that wherever we went in this fantastical realm and whatever awaited us, we’d be okay.

I mean, how could it not when I was about to become a dragon rider? Take that, romantasy lovers.