A Court Of Fire And Pain

Goodbye

Chapter 47 Aelin:

It was finished. We won. We could finally relax.

In theory.

In reality I was still full of stress. I kept a close eye on the kids at all times, and they stuck close to me as well.

We stayed in the night court while everyone was healing up. I could see Lyria and Nehemia growing closer to Suriel. It was nice for them to finally have a friend.

Of course they people to hang out with, and family, but they never really made any real friends. Nehemia was scarily smart for a five year old, so she didn't bond too well with kids her age. And Lyria... while being blind was never really a problem for her or us, it was difficult for her to get close to little kids. And of course being princesses had something to do with it as well.

I was happy to see them moving on with their lives, but I knew that in a while the full reality of what happened would hit them. I'd been there before.

They were all better now, and I knew it was time to go home. Our kingdoms has been without their leaders for far too long, and who knew what had happened while we were away.

It was harder to tell everyone than I thought. We made plans to leave the next day.

There were a lot of tearful goodbyes, but I honestly felt better. We had been away for so long, and I just wanted to be home. I wanted Lyria to be back with familiar surroundings, I wanted Nehemia to have all her books, and I wanted Sam back in his crib.

We finally had all the wyrdmarks drawn, and just needed to activate them. But we still wanted to say goodbye again. Of course we could visit, but it was different.

I was about to summon the portal, but Feyre cleared her throat.

"Hey, Yrene and Chaol."

They turned around. "What is it?"

"I was thinking about that curse bond thing that keeps your lives together. I think I might be able to break it. It's risky, but I could do it.."

They glanced at each other, then shook their heads.

"It's fine the way it it."

"Wait really?"

Yrene smiled. "There's no need to risk it. And besides, it keeps him from doing really stupid things."

We were about to move on, but this time Fenrys got our attention.

"So uh.. speaking of bonds.... I..." It didn't seem like he knew what he was saying.

He looked at the ground. "Aelin, you are my queen. I'm bloodsworn to you and will always be loyal. I would do anything you ask of me even without the bond."

I had no idea where this was coming from. "I know all this Fenrys, why are you telling me?"

He smiled softly. "I was wondering if you would let me stay here with the Night Court. I'd still help you whenever you needed so nothing really needs to change."

I was even more confused now.

"Of course you can stay, but why do you want to?"

"I- I don't want to leave my mate."

It took a moment for his words to sink in. But it did.

"MATE?!"

He smiled and held out his hand, which was taken by another.

"AZRIEL?!"

They smiled, and suddenly a lot of things made sense.

Feyre started to squeal and Mor had a look on her face I couldn't name. Cassain looked proud of them while Rhys and Rowan were wiping away 'tears' like happy fathers.

I grinned. "Why didn't you say so at the beginning?! Of course you can stay with him! I would never want to separate mates! Just one question."

He nodded. "What is it?"

"How long have you known?"

His smiled faded. "Uhhhhh since.... since we got here."

"WHAT!? And you never told me!?!? How could you?"

Azriel chuckled softly, but stopped when he saw the look Feyre was giving him. He quickly tried to explain.

"We didn't start doing anything until a week or so ago. So don't get mad."

"Hmph. I guess that's okay then."

We talked a bit more, but I realized we were just stalling.

So I clapped my hands and finished the portals.

"Time to go."

I took Nehemia's hand and held Sam close, Rowan holding onto Lyria. The others waved goodbye, and we stepped through.

We were finally home.

Wow. I never thought I would finish this. It's been about a year I think. I honestly didn't really know how to end this so I hope it's good enough. Thank you all so much for sticking around and reading it, even though it's long and I kept forgetting what I was doing.