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“You practically raised Jaik and Caldren.”
He snorted. “That is not a comforting example, Honor.”
I smiled.
“But I think you will be a wonderful mother. And I’d like to get to know a son or daughter. To try to give them a good childhood. Some people choose not to have children and that’s a good choice, a wonderful choice. But I think making a happy childhood for our little one would make me feel…” His voice trailed off. “I would like it.”
I bobbed onto my toes and pressed a kiss to the scruff across his jaw, and then he caught me in his arms and kissed me deeply.
Then his gaze lifted to the sky, his lips pulling away from mine. He turned me in his arms gently and pointed up into the sky.
Dragons flew across the moonlit clouds.
“It’s going to be a good world,” I said quietly. “A good life.”
And it felt like a spell I was speaking into existence.
CHAPTER70
Honor
Zehr’s funeral,a week after his death, was a dark, moody day. It would’ve suited him.
Although he was a king, he was a forgotten one. The last of the Scourge had healed, and they had returned to their villages or—if they couldn’t bear to return or there was no place to return to—they had formed villages of their own in the forest.
So it was only my men and I who stood on the windswept hill overlooking the white-capped sea. We’d built a simple funeral pyre, and we laid him on it.
“To our dark half,” Jaik said. “Without him, we wouldn’t be who we are.”
“Our brother, in a way,” Talisyn said, which was sweet.
Arren nodded, which was enough from him.
“If he hadn’t died, we would’ve found a way to accept him in the end,” Lynx promised me. “For your sake. So you could have all of us.”
Branok scoffed. Then he admitted, “I suppose. I can only torment you recreationally, Honor, I can’t bear to see you truly unhappy. And you would have been unhappy without him.”
“He did redeem himself in the end,” Caldren said. “Chaos almost won. He saved you. I can’t hate him anymore.”
For a second, there was nothing but the sound of the wind whirling around us.
“None of you spoke about who he was in his own right,” Damyn’s voice was calm, quiet, but powerful. “But I will.”
Damyn reached out for my hand, and I took it.
“We’ve all caught glimpses of each other’s true selves, true thoughts,” Damyn said. “And so we’ve seen Zehr’s memories through Honor, haven’t we? We know him. In a different way than most people ever get to know each other. We wouldn’t choose to reveal the things that we have shown each other.”
My men all nodded, and I felt the same. I would’ve kept my darkest, most vulnerable side secret from these men, if I could’ve chosen.
But part of me was glad I hadn’t been able to choose.
“Zehr became a monster because the world needed a monster. He became a hero when the world needed a hero. He was capricious and arrogant and cold, but it was all a mask for a man who was always reasoning, always plotting. For the best for all of us—for Scourge and shifter alike.”
Damyn finished. “And the world was a better place for his presence. We all are better off not just because he died, but because he lived.”
Damyn passed the torch to me to say the last words. I mouthedthank youat him, and he nodded back.
“I hated him at times,” I admitted. “But I loved him so much more. I wish he was here.”
