Page 158 of The Kingdom of Eternal Ice
It takes a while for my body and mind to calm down and to register what just happened. When it finally settles, I remain latched onto Endellion, wrapping my arms around him. I’m united with him forever now.
I wish I could spend the whole night with Endellion and just enjoy what we have, what we newly created, but now that we mated and marked, and I have calmed down, I remember that I literally just woke up from the dead and have a lot to do.
I have a lot to do!
What am I even doing here?
It’s like when I woke up, my whole mind was just focused on Endellion; there was no place for anything else. It was like I just had a one-track mind, like I was only able to see and hear him. But maybe this is what was supposed to happen. He has marked me now, and I can feel a new kind of strength flowing through me.
Wait a moment… Ende has marked me, does that mean…? I close my eyes, trying to focus on my bond with him, on the shining, beautiful, strong bond our love created.Endellion?
Endellion sits up abruptly. “How were you able to mind link so fast? It usually takes non-shifters some time to learn it.”
“We have a lot to do,” I tell him.
He frowns for a moment before clarity settles in. “I know,” he says, jumping out of the bed and tousling his hair. “I don’t even know what happened. I mean, I do know what happened, and the bond is intense, but-”
“I believe it had to happen,” I soothe him, while we both cleaned up together. “But, now I need to tell you what I found out. Make sure to gather everyone. I know how we stop the woman in white and beat the witch.”
“I will tell everyone,” Endellion says, his eyes glossing over. He seems to communicate for a few minutes before he is back with me. “I’ve told them to gather in Aylin’s cottage. Tynan wants to reach out to General Shayan.” He pauses. “Also, my mother is back, Alana woke up, and Caspian and I can shift into an actual ice wolf. My mother says it was you who brought this forward in me, that genetically we all have the gene somehow, but that it barely awakes in some.” He smiles. “I think it was you.”
I stare at him in shock. Seems like he went through a lot, too. “Probably,” I say quietly. “I don’t understand everything yet, but Arianrhod told me more about my powers, and-”
“Wait, you met the goddess?” he exclaims. “Right, you mentioned it before too!”
“Yes,” I smile. “And you know what she told me? The bond between us… the mate bond, we created it. It was not fate, not her that determined it, but because I fell in love with you, and you loved me in return; we managed to build a connection. It also means that Flinn and Caelan will be able to form a mate bond of their own, now.”
“And, you managed to wake the beast sleeping in me,” he adds. “That’s what my father meant back then,” he surmises. “When he said he wants one of us to melt your heart or something like that. He just wanted nature to take its course and see who you would choose. He knew your destiny was connected to our lands and to one of us.” It seems to dawn on him all of a sudden. “This means you could have also chosen Caelan or-”
“Endellion,” I laugh. “I didn’t. I chose you. No reason to freak out.”
He scoops me into his arms and kisses me. “And you made me the luckiest man alive.”
All freshened up and dressed, we decide to meet everyone and set the plan into motion.
*ALANA*
Tynan and I visit Ita’s family first. I was so scared that they would hate me, but the moment her mother sees me, she just pulls me into a hug and cries, making me burst into tears as well. I’ve cried so much during the last days, I feel like I must have run out of tears, but apparently there are still some left.
Tynan and I both spend some time with Ita’s siblings, all of them devastated by their beloved sister’s death.
“I will make sure her sacrifice wasn’t in vain,” I promise her parents before we leave. “She was a true hero,” I say.
“Thank you, Princess,” her father says quietly. “Please be careful. Both of you. Ita loved you two so much.”
“We don’t want to lose you, too,” her mother adds.
“We will be careful,” I appease her.
“Come for lunch when you can,” she says. “But you don’t have to; don’t feel pressured.” “We’d love to,” Tynan says.
I nod, hugging her mother once more before we take our leave. Our next stop is Ita’s grave. Where Ty tells me about how she was sent off, and how all the fallen warriors got the funeral they deserved. I’m glad that she got a warrior’s send off, like she would have wanted it.
I kneel down in front of her grave, putting a single red flower on it. “I will never forget you,” I whisper. “You were my best friend, my strongest ally and my first love.” I feel tears filling my eyes. “I’m still so angry that the future was ripped out of our hands - out of your hands; but I will forever cherish your memory, and I will keep your last words in my heart.”
I wipe my tears away. “I miss you so much,” I whisper, feeling the dull ache in my chest getting stronger again, tears filling my eyes once more. I can’t help it, whenever I think of her; when I envision how she stands in front of me, smiles, even the little things like how she tied her hair back, how she would sometimes… chew on a piece of beef jerky all of it means so much to me, and I hate that I have to live in a world where I’ll never see her again.
“I will fight for you and for what you wanted; I will try to become the best version of myself so that you will be proud. I will make sure we win this battle!” I pause. “And, I will make sure our huge baby back there gets laid by his mate.”
