His Lost Lycan Luna (Jessica Hall) novel Chapter 238

Epilogue

Azalea POV

One Month Later

We salvaged whatever we could. The thought of rebuilding led to the inevitable truth, a place that had become but a distant memory would now be our home, where we would rebuild our lives and our kingdom. Days we spent sifting through what was left of the castle. I felt a little guilty that I had destroyed the place but as Kyson told me, home is with our people not in a physical place.

However, sifting through the wreckage that we once called home, we managed to save a few precious things. Though how they survived was beyond me.

A few of Kyson’s treasured books and Clarice‘s favorite egg flip survived too. Oh and let’s not forget that dreaded apron Liam loved, the one that smelt as bad as it looked.

And of all the things to survive, I kinda hoped that wasn‘t one of them. But sure enough, it did, and his face lit up like a kid on Christmas when he showed me. I had a funny feeling his idea of a fabulous Christmas present involved blood and gore. And maybe more aprons.

Along with the knick knacks was my father‘s sword, the other was a jewelry box my mother gave me when I was a baby. However, with finding that precious jewelry box we learned it wasn‘t just a jewelry box, and the silver ballerina that twirled on top was in fact a key that unlocked a false bottom, hiding the real gift. Inside, what perceived as just an oversized pendant, was in fact the Azure Talisman which resembled an oversized Moon stone. Only when held up to light could you see the Azure crest of vines within its crystalline depths.

I learned from Cedric that it was a broken piece of the sword and was used to create Lycan Bloodlines. The stone represented my mothers‘ gifts and the sword my father‘s. Brought together they represented a sort of yin and yang, a constant balance, and created infinite power, yet in separate hands they kept peace. One never over taking the other, truth in the face of deceit and manipulation, love in the place of hate and war.

Cedric told me my father searched for the Talisman but it was rumored as myth and legend. Yet my father believed that it was with my mother and he was right. And all along it sat in a jewelry box right beneath his nose.

It showed how far my father‘s greed went, that he would give her an ultimatum. That she would either hand it over or he would force her to marry him, believing he could gain the advantage of her power through my birth. It also showed how much she was willing to sacrifice to ensure it did not fall into his hands she instead sacrificed herself just to keep the peace. But the most precious thing salvaged of all, was our lives and the lives of those we thought lost to us forever.

Damian managed to find Tandi‘s daughter, she was with Alpha Brock‘s mother the entire time, nothing beat the look on her face when Damian came through for her. He was determined to either bring their daughter home or get vengeance for her, though he kind of took care of both. Alpha Brock didn‘t want to hand her back or give up her whereabouts, it was Alpha Dean who did and Alpha Brock barely escaped with his life, though I had no doubt he wanted to kill him. Paige was safe and well and returned to her mother. Tandi had her family now with Damian. Abbie had Gannon and Tyson and for once we could all breathe, and we were happy.

Now we would finally find peace when we have known none. So as I looked up at the huge iron gates of what was once the Landeena Kingdom, t knew we were finally home. A fresh start. But the first thing to go would be the Landeena crest, it would be replaced with the Valkyrie one. Home for so long was some made up sentiment, embedded in us for so long that we forgot the meaning of it, growing for Abbie in me it meant death, we truly believed that would be the only home we would know freedom and peace.

But I learned, home was never a place or a thing but within all of us. Home was with those we loved. So I knew we would eventually find happiness here in this place that laid desolate for so long, forgotten and haunted by the ghosts of a past I never knew was mine.

Yet a future I was indeed excited to live in. One beside my King.

Arms wrap around my waist as his hands slide up and over my stomach, a growing bump that holds our future. “What’s wrong?” Kyson asks as his hands gently trace over my growing belly.

“Nothing. I just can‘t believe we are here, of all places,” I tell him as I watch the Landeena guards race around and secure the perimeter, almost as if it were muscle memory and they had never left.

“And where is that my Queen?”

“Home, with you, us” I whisper, glancing over my shoulder at him. He brushes his nose against mine.

“Home is wherever you are,” he murmurs, brushing his lips gently against mine briefly before the cars start pulling into the circular pebble driveway. This place reminded me of Marrissa. I had hardly any memories of this place, but for some reason it felt like she walked through those gates beside me. As if I could feel her, hear her in whispers traveling in the wind.

So many sacrificed for the Landeena name, for the Azure name. For so long my mother, the only woman! remember as my mother, was villainized for her betrayal yet she was betrayed by everyone, including her mate. She raised me, loved me and paid the ultimate sacrifice of her life to ensure one day I could come back here and take the throne again.

“We pledge our allegiance to Kyson Keller Valkyrie, Emperor of Lycania and the Emperor of Valkyrie and Azalea Ivy Rose Valkyrie, Empress of Lycania, and the Empress of Valkyrie, the true heir and Empress of the Kingdoms. I bleed for Valkyrie, I fight for Valkyrie, I die for Valkyrie. We are Valkyrie and our Empress and Emperor have risen. And so has the Valkyrie Guard. We pledge to serve and protect.” They bow their heads and fall to one knee in unison.

In awe of their display and how quickly they would accept this new place as home. I turned to Cedric and retrieved my sword, my finger’s wrapping around the hilt, the talisman was cool beneath my palm and I pledged to my people,

“I pledge allegiance to Lycania and to my people. I‘ll bleed for them, I‘ll fight for them, I‘ll die for them I am now and forever more, Azalea Ivy-Rose Valkyrie, Empress of the Lycania and this is now our Kingdom, And my people are more than my life.” I tell them before gripping the blade and swiping my hand from the hilt to tip

Yet as my blood washes over the steel it transforms. Gone are the crests and symbols of Landeena. In its place, etched in blue and red carved into the replenished steel lay the makings of a new one. A mixture of all the Kingdoms that rose and fell, the Kingdoms of Lycania. The steel glows and heats, branding and forging and I could feel the power that lay within its steel, feel the rightfulness of it in my hand when hands moved down my arms from behind and the familiar sparks I loved rushed over me.

Cedric takes my sword and Kyson lifts my bleeding hand to his lips from behind me, the warmth of his chest seeping into me as he traces the slice with his tongue, healing the wounds left. And the scar it leaves matches the new crest now emblazoned in the steel.