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Jepp and Kral exchanged wide grins. “We can and have,” she told him. “Your father wrote up the contracts in excruciating detail. TheHákyrlingis yours now.”
“But…” Jak had to try again. “But what will you do?”
“Oh, we have some ideas.” Kral winked at Jepp, hugged Jak hard, then released him just as abruptly. “All right, boy. Your mother and I are ready to walk you to your fate.” He turned and held out a crooked arm. Jepp did likewise and Jak stepped between them, sticking Isyn’s coin in his pocket as a keepsake, and looping his hands through his parents’ elbows. He felt almost like a kid again, walking between them into the great feast hall of Windroven, which glittered almost blindingly with the feast-day decorations.
Rhyian, Isyn, and Astar followed behind, waiting with them before the dais, everyone assembled to watch as the black-velvet curtains at the rear of the hall drew back.
And there was Stella, radiant as the brightest star in the sky, standing between Ash and Ami, and outshining even her mother’s goddess-given beauty. Stella’s eyes shone with silver light as bright as her gown, the black diamond on her finger the only hint of darkness to her—besides her cascading black tresses and enigmatic nature. She smiled at him, a demure curve of herlush mouth, and her thoughts wound across the room into his like a silver ribbon.
“At last,”she whispered in his mind.
At last,he agreed solemnly, knowing she’d read the sense of it, along with his fervent love and resolve.
“And I love the suit,”she said, her smile broadening as they walked toward him.
“Of course you do,” he said aloud, since she was near enough to hear him. He stepped away from his parents, meeting her as she did the same. Sweeping her a low bow, he straightened and grinned cheekily. “Because you have excellent taste.”
No one questioned the apparently one-sided conversation. Surrounded by friends and family who understood them well, Jak and Stella made their vows to each other, finally putting into words what had always bound them together.
And if, somewhere beyond the veil, Salena shed her blessing upon them, that was as it should be, also.
~ Epilogue ~
The gentle wavesof the placid Onyx Ocean mirrored the moonless night sky, the stars glittering high above in a sweep as thick as snowfall.
“It’s funny that people always represent the stars as being white,” Jak commented, leaning against the rail next to Stella. Though the tropical night off the coast of Annfwn was warm, his heat burned like a banked fire beside her.
“Aren’t they?” Stella asked, looking up. “Or clear.”
“Look more closely,” he murmured, brushing a kiss against her temple. “Unfocus your eyes a bit and blink. See the colors?”
She did as he bade her, not seeing the point at first, then—like something hidden and then revealed—she saw how the stars each shimmered with subtle shades. Together, they formed a shifting rainbow so brilliant she marveled that she’d never seen it before.
Jak chuckled softly at her gasp of wonder, moving behind her to wrap one arm around her waist, using the other to brace them both against the rocking of theHákyrling, his sea legs keeping him steady as a rock. “I always think of you when I see the stars like this—a universe of colors hidden in plain sight. I spent a lot of years standing right here and looking up at the stars, thinking of you.”
Turning in his arms, she leaned against the rail, her attention fully on him. “I’m sorry that I can’t say that I was thinking of you all those years. I should have been, but I was too self-absorbed.”
“Never,” he averred, kissing her lingeringly. “And I’m not sorry. Pain and suffering builds character.”
“Very funny.” But she laughed, amused, aroused, and delighted by him. “Will it help to know that you’re all I think about now?”
“Allyou think about?” he teased. “I must have imagined those world-charts you were working on so diligently this afternoon.”
“It might be our honeymoon, but we can’t have sex nonstop,” she protested, a bit chagrined. She had gotten absorbed in those charts, not noticing the passage of time until Jak dragged her away from them. “Even you have to rest sometime.”
“See, there I think you’re wrong, my star,” Jak said, kissing her again and deepening it until she was dizzy. “Since you’ve impugned my virility, I must demonstrate to you what nonstop truly means.”
She should be entirely sated, but clearly not, as that prospect—along with the way he nibbled along the sensitive hollows of her throat—had her body heating in enthusiastic welcome. “I don’t know…” she said, trailing off, mostly to tease him in return.
“I’m calling in my favor,” he informed her. She shrieked softly, then giggled as he swept her into his arms and carried her across the deck to the lavish captain’s cabin. Jepp and Kral had totally refurbished it for Stella and Jak, an incredibly thoughtful gesture on top of an unbelievably generous gift. Stella could hardly believe theHákyrlingwas theirs, and she’d realized how much of what she’d previously “owned” had felt borrowed from others. But this ship belonged to Jak and her, and they could do whatever they liked with it.
The sense of freedom was exhilarating beyond anything she’d ever experienced. Being out on the ocean, too, gave her psychic relief, just as Jak had predicted. Though they shared the ship with the crew necessary to sail it, the open sky and water allowed their thoughts and emotions to dissipate so she barelynoticed their presence. She was happier than she’d ever been in her life. “What favor?” she demanded as Jak deftly opened the cabin door.
“When I won our bet,” he reminded her, setting her on her feet. “A favor to be named later. Remember?”
“You want to use that up on sex you could have anyway?” she asked in disbelief.
He grinned at her, waggling his dark brows. “Oh, I have very special requests.” He lit another lantern. “Let’s get started.”
It was, she knew, only the beginning for them.
