Page 184 of By the Flames of Her Fury

Everett gestured to Lena in my arms. “You’ve made a new friend.” He raised his fingers over my shoulder to wave at her, and little green butterflies materialized in the air. He sent his illusion drifting in front of both of us. Lena’s big, brown eyes widened in delight, and she reached for a butterfly, feet kicking excitedly in my grip.

“We need to get you dressed, little girl,” Clarissa cooed, coming up beside us to take Lena. “You can spend time with Aunt Vera after the ceremony, okay?”

I kissed Lena’s forehead and passed her off. “And what have you been up to all day?” I quietly asked Everett as the others broke out into conversation over wedding details.

“The usual. Helped the kids hang their art pieces and made sure Tessa and Arowyn didn’t burn the Keep down.” He nudged my shoulder. “What about you? How is the new official envoy of the Veridian Empire?”

“It’s not that big of a deal,” I said, shaking my head. But a blush crept up my cheeks anyway. When Clarissa arrived for the wedding, she pulled me aside to talk about a new position as Veridia’s envoy to the Triad Realm and Pyraeth. Her idea was that I could help with resettlement of the citizens and building goodwill between them and our empire.

“Are you kidding? It’s perfect for you. Now you get to keep traveling. I know you’ve been wanting to visit Pyraeth to see how they’re doing.”

“Dom sent word last month, actually,” I said. “With messengers who are still working on the Shattered Spine. He said they knocked down the old palace and are rebuilding a new one as a memorial. He’s naming one of the buildings after Sloane.”

“That’s a great idea,” Everett said quietly.

I nodded. “Clarissa wants me there by the end of summer. She thinks I can help smooth things over with non-magic people trying to settle in Pyraeth, and Pyraethis who are starting communities in the Triad Realm.” I glanced up at him. “I was going to ask if you wanted to come, but I know the kids’ school term will be starting⁠—”

“Yes,” he said before I could finish. “The answer is always yes, Vera.”

I bit my lip. “I don’t want to drag you away from your life again.”

“You’re not dragging me from anything,” he said with a chuckle, as if that was the most ridiculous thing I could’ve said. “This is what a life together looks like. Some months we’ll be here for me, some we’ll be taking care of your things, but the point is that we’re together.”

I let out a sigh of relief. “Good. Because I really didn’t want to do this alone.”

“What, go to the Triad Realm?”

“No.” A smile tugged at my lips. “All of it. Life.”

He wrapped me in a hug, resting his chin on top of my head. “You’re getting awfully sentimental.”

“I know.” I sighed dramatically. “Look what you people are turning me into. Now I’m the hopeless romantic.”

“You’re perfect, sweetheart,” he whispered, and I squeezed him tighter around the middle.

“Okay.” I inhaled deeply and pulled away. “Everyone, out of my room so I can change. And can someone please find Nox and Devora so we can finally get these two married?”

The ceremony was short, as Nox and Devora requested. They picked a spot on the cliffside facing the Sea of Scarab, where the sunset over the water was highlighted at their backs. Kieran was situated beneath an archway made of iron, decorated with dark shades of tulips and petunias interwoven with cream carnations and greenery. Wisps of Devora’s shadows lingered among the flowers, moving and swaying with the wind to make them look like they were breathing.

As I watched my brother and Devora vow themselves to each other with Everett’s arm tucked around my waist, I thought about how I might not have been here for this. How in a different life, I would’ve let the voices in my head win, the ones that told me I’d only bring them more pain. That I didn’t get this happy ending.

I tilted my head up toward Everett, and he looked down, catching my eye with a small tug of his lips. I tucked my head into his chest and smiled.

Kieran pronounced them husband and wife, and Nox gripped Devora’s waist, tugging her to him in a heated kiss. The crowd cheered when he dipped her backward, so low her red hair dragged the ground. Tessa and Arowyn each let out giant whoops. I chuckled and, for good measure, sent a thin strand of fire looping in the air around them, a flaming border to their display.

Rose, Leo, Milo, and I—the Alchemists in attendance—used levitating spells to move the tables and chairs in place. The kitchen staff followed soon after with dozens of flutes of sparkling wine and food trays. Children from the Keep came rushing up the cliffside in a flood, carrying their long blue-and-white paper strands behind them.

“Noxy! Rora!” some of them yelled gleefully. Nox and Devora laughed as they crashed into them in a group hug. The children wound the strands around the newlyweds, and they danced with them as a string quartet started a lively tune behind us.

“Let the party begin,” Tessa said with a chuckle.

Arowyn raised a glass of wine. “I’ll drink to that.”

Rose came up and handed me a glass, then bumped my shoulder as the others danced. For a moment, we just stood there watching—Nox and Devora spinning the children around, Arowyn sticking more flowers in Leo’s tail when he wasn’t looking, Clarissa swaying with Lena on her hip.

“You know, I almost didn’t make it back for this,” I said softly, thinking about last year.

“But you did.” Rose took a sip of her drink. “And that’s the important part.”