Epilogue

"Wait—what?" Izael exclaimed as he took a step toward the throne. "You can't do this!"

Alex tried not to laugh. She tried very, very hard not to laugh, but she failed miserably. She hid her giggle behind a hand to keep from further offending Izael, the Duke of Bones. And now her husband.

It was odd, being a duchess, but she had only been that way for a week. She figured it'd take a little more time for it all to sink in.

Valroy was sitting on his silvered throne, grinning victoriously down at Izael. "We had a deal, Duke. Or have you so soon forgotten?"

Izael snarled. "But?—"

"If you believe that this"—Valroy gestured at Alex and Izael— "new arrangement will spare you the ramifications of our bargain, you are sorely mistaken."

Izael took a deep breath, held it, and slowly let it out, clearly doing everything in his power to keep from losing his temper. While Valroy didn't seem to be holding much of a grudge, all things considered, it was probably a really bad idea to push their luck. "Forgive me, but I am simply confused, my liege."

"Then allow me to explain it to you, Duke." Valroy leaned forward, clearly loving every minute of this. "You and I had a bargain. That if you could not convince Alex to use her wish to love you that the price would be your soul would become her possession."

Alex was really trying not to laugh at Izael's angry sputtering.

"What is wrong?" Valroy leaned back in his chair. "You have her soul. Is this not wonderfully poetic?"

"This is entirely different!" Izael exclaimed, unable to keep it in any longer.

"Oh, really?" Alex interjected with a grin. "Do tell."

"I. But. This—" Izael let out a long, heavy sigh and stared up at the sky. He didn't have a leg—or tail—to stand on, and he knew it. "Fine. Then can we be done with this nonsense, finally?"

"Gladly," Valroy replied. "I will trust you to do the deed on your own. I needn't sully myself with such a task." He gestured, waving them off. "Begone, both of you."

Alex was more than happy to leave the throne room. She wanted a vacation. A very long vacation, preferably in Tir n'Aill's version of a tropical beach.

Izael took them through the swirling portal back to his home.

She flopped onto his sofa, smiling at him. "Don't look so put out. Fair is fair."

"Fair has nothing to do with it. He just wants to make me suffer." Izael shifted back to his human form, straightening his tie in the mirror. "He wants to embarrass me."

"At least I'll be the one who has your soul, not him. It won't be that bad. I promise not to do anything stupid with it." She paused. "Too stupid, anyway."

An orange ball of fur jumped onto the sofa next to her. She scratched the cat's head as Pumpkin came up to greet her, rubbing himself against her hand. The tabby cat loved Tir n'Aill, even if the prey in the world of the fae gave him more of a run for his money than he might have been used to with Boston alley rats.

Though if you asked him, Pumpkin said it hadn't changed much.

Izael sat on the sofa on the other side of her, stretching his legs out and propping them up on his coffee table, careful to avoid putting his shoes on his tablet. They had brought all of the electronics from Earth that she could gather—not like there was any internet—but that didn't stop him from amusing himself endlessly with games and the like.

She leaned her head against his shoulder.

None of it felt real. If she had died and this was her afterlife, she honestly wouldn't be too surprised.

They were together. And they were happy, come what may—even if Izael wouldn't stop mourning the loss of their trips to Earth. She promised she'd figure out how to cook Chinese food for him.

So far, they had set up a weekly poker night with Bayodan, Cruinn, Perin, and Anfar. And, much to Izael's dismay, Puck.

But with Robin Goodfellow came Abigail, and Alex found herself wanting to form a friendship with the Seelie Queen, even if they were technically on opposite sides. It meant that eventually, Valroy would attend their poker nights. But it seemed the Unseelie King took his loss in stride.

Alex wondered how badly the King really wanted to win in the first place—but she knew voicing that question would probably result in her having her tongue ripped out.

Izael draped his arm over her shoulder "I'll give you my soul tomorrow."

"You'll give it to me later this afternoon."

"But—"

"I know you, snake. You'll keep saying ‘tomorrow' until a thousand years go by." She poked him in the side. "Go ahead. Deny it."

"Well, look. Tomorrow is subjective, isn't it? There's always a tomorrow."

"Exactly." She laughed. "Tonight before dinner."

"After dinner." He huffed. "Nobody should ever lose their soul on an empty stomach."

"Deal." She stuck her hand out. Just like she had done before when all this madness started—it felt like years ago. Not weeks.

He took her hand and shook it before turning it to kiss the backs of her knuckles. "Perhaps we can start our own jazz club, here in Tir n'Aill."

That got a laugh out of her. "What a wild visual that is." She snuggled into his side, shutting her eyes. "But it's not a bad idea."

Pumpkin climbed onto her lap, curled into a ball, and flopped down—clearly intending to stay there for a good long while.

Izael absentmindedly petted the cat. "Someday, we will return to Earth. Someday, Valroy will get his way, and the treaty will fall. Even if it wasn't because of us."

"I know." She let out a breath. "But I'm going to enjoy the peace while we have it."

"As will I." He kissed her temple.

They sat in silence for a moment before his stomach growled loudly. Izael whined. "Damn it—if I eat, I lose my soul, but I'm hungry!"

Laughing, she scooted the irritated cat off her lap. She had insisted Izael set up a kitchen for her. "I'll make dinner."

Izael draped himself dramatically over his sofa, tossing his arm over his eyes. "Woe is me! Caught between my primal hunger and my noble soul."

She left him to his dramatic monologuing as she went to make her second attempt at chicken fingers.

What an odd place to have found herself—to become Unseelie.

The Dutchess of Song, they called her now.

She really wished they'd just call her Alex.

Whatever waited for them, she didn't know. And to a certain extent, she didn't care. There was no point in worrying about the future anymore.

"Woe!" Izael continued on his rant. Truth be told, she was only half listening, though it did keep making her laugh.

Her second attempt at chicken fingers went better than the first—Izael was very flattering to her cooking, though he didn't hesitate to point out the things that were just a little off. She figured the oil probably wasn't hot enough.

He took them both up to the top of the tree where he made his home, to the landing where they had eaten dinner and watched the stars. And she sat beside him as he fashioned a glass orb of magic.

Her soul was now his. A bauble sitting upon his shelf.

And now it was his turn.

He cupped the orb in his hands and breathed into it. The glass sparked to life, glowing a brilliant sea-green before dulling to a faint, pulsing light. When he opened his hands, there was the image of a snake, coiled about itself, caught in the center.

"As I have given you my heart, I give you my soul." He held it out to her.

"I promise to try not to drop it." She smiled as she took it from him, looking down at it curiously. In all honesty, she'd tuck it away into the weird magical pocket-dimensions that it seemed all fae could summon. But it was funnier to joke about dropping it.

His lips turned downward in a frown. "This is a serious moment."

"Sorry, sorry." She straightened her shoulders and took a breath. "I accept this offering of your soul in exchange for mine." Leaning over, she kissed him. "I will take good care of it."

"You better." He tapped the end of her nose playfully. "Now…kiss me like you mean it. But first. Say the words again. I never get tired of hearing them."

She vanished the orb into her pocket dimension and shuffled closer to him. "I love you, my Duke of Bones. My husband."

He was the one who kissed her that time—deep enough that it took her breath away.

There was no way of knowing what the future might bring.

But they would have each other.

That was enough for them both.

Finis.

Thank you for reading The Deal of Shadows series.

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

I doubt this is the last we've seen of Tir n'Aill.