Page 59 of Bonded Ever After

“Yes. Neat, huh?” He smiles.

My head feels like it’s spinning. “And can we actually make a home here? Are we safe?”

Archer answers this time, taking my father’s hand. “We’re absolutely safe here. More than that, we are all fae royalty. We’ll be able to help to lead the fae, and our lives will be spent in this castle, comfortable and happy.”

I look at where they’re holding hands. “Why–?”

“They’re together, like Teth and Serrill,” Callum says, very matter-of-factly.

Archer tenses, his eyes locked on his son. “Is that… is that okay?”

“But you like women,” I say to my dad, feeling dumb.

He gives me a soft smile. “When I had your mother, I could never love another soul, and I never thought I would. But then, something changed between Archer and I, and I realized that that part of me hadn’t entirely died.”

“That’s why we had to leave Paradise Falls,” Archer says. “They found out. They had the two of you as Gold Keepers, so they were planning something awful for us.”

“Not nearly as awful as what they planned for us,” Callum says angrily.

He’s right.

My father looks confused. “How could they do anything to you? You were the only Gold Keepers.”

Callum answers readily. “They planned to imprison us in a building made of goldarium, so they could steal her eggs and my sperm and grow our babies in test tubes, to build an army of Gold Keepers.”

“What the fuck?” Archer says.

My dad shakes his head in disbelief and some small part of me eases.They didn’t know. They didn’t leave us there to be tortured.

“It’s how mom died,” I tell him gently. “She found out their plans when I was a baby and went in and burned down the building made of goldarium. They realized she knew the truth and they didn’t want you to find out, so they staged it to look like she died in the fire.”

“Those bastards,” my father says, and there are tears in his eyes.

Archer wraps an arm around my dad, and I squeeze Callum’s hand tighter, feeling lost and confused.This is the end of the Phoenix Trail. We’ve found our dads, and now we know that we’re fae, fae royalty. Is this… is this the end?

“Elora?” my father asks.

Callum wipes tears from my cheeks that I didn’t even know were there.

“Yes?”

“Are you and Callum…?”

I realize he doesn’t know and smile. “Callum and I are together.” Then I glance at Callum. He smiles and nods. “And we’re expecting a baby.”

Smiles break out on my dad’s and Archer’s faces, and they come to us, hugging me eagerly, and then Callum more awkwardly. My dad keeps repeating, “I’m going to be a grandpa,” over and over again, looking happier than I can ever remember him looking.

“A baby?” the queen says behind me.

We spin around.

“A baby from the two royal families. This is a rare and wonderful thing!” And she looks as happy as our fathers.

Coming off her throne, she comes to me and combs my hair back behind my ear, smiling tenderly. “I know that you’ve been through a lot and that your journey here was impossibly difficult. I know that everything we’ve told you is a lot for you to take and that you’ll need time to wrap your head around it. But I want you to know, we will do everything in our power to make you happy here. To make you feel glad to call this your home.”

I smile, already feeling loved. “Thank you.”

Her gaze moves between us. “This is the end. The end of your journey. Elora and Callum, you are home.”

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