The Prince's Fiancée | ✔

Epilogue

Luca's POV

In the summertime, I could smell the budding flora and fauna around me and I welcomed the feeling of the summer-infused breeze that brushed across my skin. It was the time just after spring; the time when new life thrived abundantly and welcomed the heat of the changing seasons.

Isabelle lied beside me, her cocoa brown hair splayed about her on the grass, and her face concealed by yet another book. I watched as her fingers twitched against the hardcover for the third time. I'd give it another minute or so.

In exactly fifty-eight seconds, she sat up and slammed the book down on the ground beside her. "I can't believe it!" She glowered at the guilty copy.

There it was. "Which character has gotten on your nerves this time?"

"The author! How could they kill off my favorite character? My favorite character!"

"That character was purely fictiona-"

Her glare made me realize my mistake and I offered her a smile to appease her. It was always fascinating being with her. She ran a gentle hand over the bump of her stomach, and all her previous anger about the book seemed to melt away as she smiled. I placed my hand on her belly, just in time to feel a small kick.

"Just a few more months," she hummed softly. "Then our child will be here."

"Elizabeth." I smiled. My heart was full of happiness. "A girl who will be just as bold and beautiful as her mother."

"And as strong and determined as her father. Maybe even as mysterious..." she trailed off with a frown. "Lucas, you still haven't told me everything."

I sighed, knowing how much she still wanted answers about my identity. It was only natural for her to be curious about this and it was hardly fair of me to abstain from telling her. But I couldn't yield to her curiosity. "I'll tell you when the time is right. For now, it's too dangerous for you to know everything. It would put you at risk from them. If they knew that you carried my child, they would stop at nothing to destroy her."

"The royals, you mean." She pursed her cherry colored lips. "What has your family done to make them hate you for so many years? I worry for your safety, Lucas."

"I promise, Isabelle, that I will protect you and Elizabeth at any cost."
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"Luca." Ezra's voice drifted to me.

I opened my eyes, feeling as if a century had gone by since I'd last closed them. The summer of my memory was gone and was now replaced by the drab cloak of winter.

"Were you having a dream?" he queried.

"I'm not sure if it was a dream or a memory," I murmured raspily. "After all these decades, everything seems to blur into one incoherent concept."

"Incoherent," he mumbled. His violet eyes, the trademark of his family, were grave as he searched my face. "Perhaps you haven't fully recovered yet," he suggested after a while of thinking. "It's too soon for you to see Malekh."

"Are you concerned for my safety?" A smile tugged at my lips.

"Of course," he answered immediately.

"I don't think you're strong enough to be worried about me, Ezra. Are you putting me on the same level as Malekh?"

"No! I just don't find him trustworthy is all. I overstepped my place, please forgive me." He refocused his eyes on the road. "We're almost at the Spade Kingdom."