“Yes,” she says, tearing her eyes away from Constantine and giving him an adoring smile. “Yes, that is what I want.”
He holds his breath, is this it? Is this the moment when she makes her decision?
The storm that had been raging around them dies down. The rain stops and the wind ceases whipping around them.
“Aefre!” he hears Constantine call out to her now that the deafening roar has quieted down.
She turns to him, but she takes Sebastian’s hand, and takes a step forward.
“Aefre!” Constantine calls again, struggling to get to her.
Sebastian has no idea who threw up the force field. It wasn’t him; part of him wonders if it was his wife. Most of him thinks it was her father. Drake is standing on the outskirts of the garden, watching this with a fierce look on his face, his arms folded across his broad chest and his feet planted wide apart.
“Lizzie!” Devon shouts to her. “Don’t do this.”
Devon knows what she is about to do. He can probably see it written all over her face. He knows her so well. Better than Sebastian could ever hope to know her right now, but he has no doubt that given five hundred years with her, there won’t be a single thing about her that he won’t know and love as much as Devon does.
“Choose me,” he says to her again, squeezing her hand tightly.
“Sebastian!” Constantine roars at him, trying to punch his way through the force field and almost succeeding. His sire is furious and scared, and Sebastian revels in the feeling of triumph that is so close he can almost reach out and touch it.
“Aeval,” he says. “Choose me.”
“Yes,” she says again and turns back to the men that have gathered to witness this momentous occasion.
“I choose to be with Kalen,” she says loud and clear. “I choose to be with Kalen and our daughter.”
“No!” Constantine bellows as his fist full of blood-red power bursts through the force field and he takes a giant step towards them. “Aefre, don’t do this. I love you; you love me. You are carrying our child, my sweet. He is forcing you into this. Be strong! Fight it!”
“It is done,” she says, and Sebastian takes her in his arms, wrapping them around her tightly, never wanting to let her go.
He prepares to transport his love to their home so that they can start their new life together, but he just can’t resist looking at his sire, the man that he has lived in the shadow of his entire unnatural life. The look of absolute fury and loathing doesn’t surprise him. He will face his wrath one day because Constantine will never, ever forgive him for this, but he doesn’t care. As King of the Light Fae with his wife by his side, he doesn’t need his Vampire sire.
Not anymore.
“You lose,” Sebastian says in victory and disappears from sight with Aeval clinging tightly to him, seconds after Drake grabs Constantine by the collar to stop him from following them.
Epilogue
The Underworld, September 2014 - Xanthe
Xanthe hurries along the corridor. She has made a breakthrough, but in the process, she has also made a grave error. She knew it was a long shot telling Xane that the child was his, but she is the only one with the means to test the blood that Xerxei expelled during the curse. No one ever has to know that she lied about it and was wrong. As far as she is concerned now, the child was her grandchild and Xane was the father. And as such he needs to know the secret she now holds.
She races down the corridor and runs into her husband, who is looking grave. She knows it is because of what she is doing to Xander to get him to be willing to reverse the spell he used on Xerxei, but she doesn’t have time for this right now.
She needs to get to Xane.
“Xanthe,” Xerxes says.
“Not now, Xerxes,” she snaps. “I have to speak to Xane.”
“It can wait,” he says gruffly. “You need to release our younger son.”
“No, not until he is ready to reverse the spell,” Xanthe says with a firm shake of her head. “I will not allow him to interfere with Fate.”
“You cannot keep him locked away as he is, Xanthe,” Xerxes says. “When Xerxei comes back to the Underworld, she is going to want to be with him.”
Xanthe growls at her husband. How can he not see that this is all messed up? “No!” she yells at him. “That is never going to happen. She belongs with Xane and you saying otherwise makes you a traitor.”