Chapter 42

Chapter

Forty-Two

EMRYS

T housands of sunsets and sunrises were witnessed as the years passed. Our bodies were the same but our souls were not. Never in all my years of existence would I have thought that this was where I would end up.

In a home, surrounded by family and love and light. Our days melded together along with our hearts and even in the darkest days, I held my wife closely and whispered the words that have been on repeat for decades. "Always yours, forever yours."

Despite the royal titles, we led an ordinary life filled with ordinary things. We laughed and cried and cherished like the rest of the people in the world because in the end we are all nothing more than love and space dust. Nothing more than a soul put into this realm to enjoy its simplicities.

After all of my sins, I never thought the Divine would reward me with this life, with this Mate and this country. Because why would someone as brilliant and beautiful and kind and cunning as Selene choose to be with someone like me? Someone with years of violence and past mistakes hanging like an anchor around his neck, someone murderous and heavily feared.

The name I was born with had been Durreos Seraphim the Second, and I was my father's son and weapon for years. But that's all I was to him. A weapon, a tool to be used and discarded at will. I'd thought love had to be earned and showcased through acts of savage honor and death. Through blind and wrongful acts of submission and pain.

But that was just the name I was born with and he was just a tool that had been discarded at my sire's death.

Now in his place was Emrys Choryrth, named after his mother's father, once a member of the Dreamwalker Tribe in the Court of Shadows. The Mate to Selene Choryrth, and King of Menodore.

Emrys Choryrth was a father, a brother, a warrior, and a friend.

Over Selene's and my time together, I'd learned not only that I was worthy of the love that she'd shown me endlessly, but also worthy of the love of my friends, of my family. I would never not be thankful that the Fates brought our lives together for this period of our existence despite the centuries of torment prior. My heart would always answer before my lips when I thought back onto my past and the mistakes I had made and if I would change anything.

The answer was a simple no, because I wouldn't have found her had I not fallen so far.

My Selene, my love, my life, my heart.

My moonlight in the darkness.

Even when both light and darkness died, I would still love her for everything she was and how her love slipped around me as easily as breathing.

She was my anchor and I was hers.

Lifting my head, I met her emerald eyes again and saw my truth in them. Saw the love that I had always deserved, despite my upbringing.

I saw the moons and stars and darkness in those eyes.

But most importantly, after all those years of wandering this earth and looking for a purpose, I found home.