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“And maybe your King,” I added, but I grinned to show I was joking. I had some plans of my own, but like I’d said - Kana was the boss.
“I can still hear Vento, too. Through the alpha bond. I’ll know when they find the gobbelins,” Luca added as Rush finally made his way over to us. A vampire was following him, and as the fae stepped to the side, my jaw dropped.
“Ren?” I sprang at my old friend as Kana laughed, and he caught me in a strong embrace.
“The mist let go of a few hundred souls who felt like they had some unfinished business. I wouldn’t count on it happening regularly, but at least we got to make a few lives right again,” she said, and I blinked back the tears that welled up suddenly.
“I can’t believe it,” I managed, holding Ren out at arm’s length and scanning his face like it might be a dream.
“My sister didn’t come back,” he said, sadness lacing his voice. “But I know she’s at peace.”
“And Jax and Grand-mère chose to stay,” Kana added quietly. “My mother and brother, too. I think it’s a good thing.”
“You’ve done so well, love,” Rush said, pulling Kana into a hug.
“You’ve all done so well,” she returned, looking around at her fiveaima.
“Should we go make it all official?” I asked, making a little crown for her with my fingers. She grinned, and we headed into the palace, vampires and half breeds trailing after us as they realized the fighting was truly done.
There wasn’t much left in the kitchen stores for a feast, and there certainly weren’t enough servants to prepare things, but Ren stepped in. He took charge of a few Undertow vampires that had stuck with the crowd at the palace, and in a few hours’ time, we were hosting the first ever potluck coronation feast in one of the smaller ballrooms.
Rush fashioned flower crowns for Kana and me, since Merden’s and Girard’s were lost, but I was glad for it. I didn’t want anything they had touched. I would have built my Queen a whole new palace if I could have.
As it was, she made a beautiful Queen in her blood-stained battle armor and a crown of sweet-smelling white roses, blushed with pink-streaked petals.
“What about the rest of the vampires?” Rush asked as we ate, pausing here and there to greet vampires who came to our table to thank us and leave gifts pulled from whatever little they had left. It was touching, but I was busy making a mental list of things we needed to address.
“They’ll return as soon as they hear the city is safe,” Luca suggested. I nodded, knowing many of the city vampires had fled into the countryside to hide.
“There are plenty of nobles hiding out in the Vault,” Cade said, glaring into the distance where the mountains rose, sparkling through the windows.
“I have an idea for that, actually,” I said, beckoning to Ren, who had been keeping close. “How about you take Undertow on a little raiding mission?”
“I would be fucking honored, boss,” he said, his eyes gleaming.
Kana grinned. “Oh, I like this. Take everything valuable from the Vault. Kill anyone who resists. Bury it.”
“You’re so hot when you’re vicious,” Cade cooed in her ear, and she turned to nip at his neck.
Ren was nodding, though, and I could already see his mind making the plans. “This doesn’t make us official palace goons, does it?” he asked, narrowing his eyes at me.
“Fuck, no. Keep the top ten percent of the spoils as pay, and bring back the rest so we can rebuild the city. Then, you know. Business as fucking usual. Except now you’re the boss,” I added, clapping my hand into his.
“You just made that man very happy,” Nicolas observed in his soft voice as Ren moved away with new purpose in his step. Kana’s professor was growing on me, now that he was a real boy. He’d given advice when asked, but never needed to be in the middle of things like Cade seemed to. He was steady.
He’d even suggested Rush continue the healing work he’d begun before the Vault in a proper hospital, with Cade as an assistant to rehabilitate the former slaves. Kana had loved the idea, and I could tell the fae was happy to be given such an obvious place.
“Speaking of happy men, how would you like to head up a new school?” Kana asked Nic, leaning over to give him a sensual kiss. She’d been pretty hands-on through the whole afternoon, and I knew she was getting impatient to have us all to herself.
“A school?” Nic asked, frowning in thought.
“There are a hell of a lot of gaps in commoner education, compared to a noble’s,” I pointed out.
“Yes, that’s part of what I was thinking. I mean, there’s the whole shit-fest with nobody knowing the gobbelins weren’t actually extinct. Not to mention the library cataloging thing with our magical texts is outrageously outdated. What do you think, professor?”
“I can’t think of a job I’d like more,” Nic promised her, squeezing her hand.
“That’s because you have no goddamn imagination, professor,” Cade drawled, coming up behind Kana’s chair andsucking at her neck. “Are we about done with all this formal fuckery?”
