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I’d never felt so accepted before. The future suddenly looked very bright and full of possibilities. And I couldn’t wait to explore them with Jude by my side.
This was the third and last book in the Tainted Kings series. Next up will be the Gladius series, featuring each princep. Keep an eye out on my socials and my newsletter for more information.
EPILOGUE
JUDE
“Try it now.”
I squinted at the target that was too far away for me to make out without binoculars. Shifting from foot to foot, I clenched and unclenched my hands. Sweat was beading on my forehead, and my breaths were coming out in quick bursts.
Ariel lined up her shot, her fingers resting over the trigger. “There’s something on the target. Did you notice anything when you put it up?”
Dropping down to where she was lying on the ground, I cleared my suddenly dry throat. “Can you make out what it is?”
She looked through the scope again. “The sun is reflecting off it, so it’s hard to see.”
The gun went off, and I stared at the target even though I couldn’t really see it.
“Did you just fire your gun?” I asked, stunned.
Twisting to her side, the gun resting in front of her, she frowned at me. “Isn’t that what you do at a shooting range?”
“Didn’t you wonder what the sparkling thing was?”
She shrugged. “Probably just some foil we forgot to remove from the dummy.”
My eyes widened. “Did you aim for it?”
“Always aiming for the head is boring. So yes.”
I dropped my head to the ground, laughing.
A hand brushed against my back. “Jude? What’s going on?”
Still facing the dirt, I replied, “That was a fifty-thousand-dollar ring you just shot to pieces.”
Her hand stilled, and I lifted my head. She was staring at me, blinking as if she had sand in her eyes. “What…?”
I rolled onto my side to face her. “Some days I wake up wondering if you’re real. Because I never thought a person who fits me as perfectly as you do existed. Who always has my back, no matter what. I know we don’t need a piece of paper to spend the rest of our lives together. But I want you to have my last name. I want the world to know you belong to me. Ariel Caster, will you marry me? Even if right now I don’t have a ring anymore? At least not until I check if you blew it apart?”
Her head snapped back, and she released the gun. “You want to marry me?” She took a shaky breath. “Why?”
Sitting up, I drew my eyebrows together. “Did you not just spend the last six months with me? Except for the one day I had to do a job for Gladius, we saw each other every single day. I thought you knew how in love with you I am. There’s nobody else for me. There will never be anybody else for me.”
She shuffled up, sitting on her haunches, folding an arm against her stomach. “But I’m a mess. And I come with a truckload of baggage. And a teenager.”
Lenny had turned thirteen six weeks ago, and he acted every bit the moody teen. But I was there for her no matter what. And I didn’t care if it included teenage drama. We were a team. I thought she felt the same way.
Now that Ariel was free of Gladius, we could finally build a life together. The new leaders were working out well, and after I agreed to do two jobs a year for them, even Curiata’s leader had backed off.
I’d thought everything was perfect.
“Have I ever given you reason to believe that I didn’t want you exactly the way you are? Baggage and all?”
“No, but—”
I tugged on a strand of her hair. “If you have doubts, I haven’t been doing a good enough job of showing you how much you mean to me.”
