“It is my fault,” he said thickly. “I should not have let him spy. I should have kept him safe. I should not have listened to him. You were right. I was wrong. I should have kept our friend in our home. Under our roof. Safe under my protection.”

She whirled, one hand going to her slightly rounded belly.

“It is not your fault,” she hissed.

He moved direct to her.

She lifted both hands to his face.

And he smelled honeysuckle against her skin.

Her cheeks were wet, her eyes swimming.

“He would do what he would do. You know our Teddy,” she reminded him.

He did.

“Mio amore,” he said hoarsely.

“I just wish…wish…” She swallowed visibly painfully and finished on a whisper, “The last time he saw me…” She shook her head. “I just wish I could have said goodbye.”

Lorenz pulled his wife into his arms.

She sobbed into his chest.

And he put his cheek to the top of her head as he felt the wet fall from his eyes.

A breeze blew through the bright pink and yellow and cream blooms behind her, their scent enveloping the couple in its embrace.

And their Teddy said goodbye.

Queen Elena

Port of Nautilus, Nautilus

MAR-EL

I looked to the ship, then back to my sister.

“All right, well, I just want to be on record stating I don’t want you to go. And that’s not a jealousy thing, seeing as, if you two best this situation and Chu wrests control from his evil cousin who killed his brother to take his throne and now rules with tyranny, then he marries you, you’ll be a queen like me. But because you go to fight his evil, tyrannical cousin.”

My sister quirked a grin at me.

Always up for a fight, my Serena.

“Serena—” I began.

“The Dragon’s Breath are going to train me in the Arts,” she stated.

I glanced at the four remaining Mystics, their faction known as the Dragon’s Breath, all of them standing at the railing of the ship, gazing transcendentally down at us, and this did not make me feel any better.

I looked back at my sister. “You know it takes great amounts of spiritualism to advance in the Arts.”

“I’m spiritual,” she completely lied.

“When was the last time you meditated?”

She searched the sky with her eyeballs.

I burst out laughing.

I stopped of a sudden when she tugged me violently in her arms.

“I will return,” she said fiercely in my ear. “I will want my sons and daughters to meet their cousins.”

And then she let me go, turned so quickly, her cloak whipped my body, and she made her way up the gangplank.

Chu came to stand in front of me.

“I’ll be assassinating a king if anything happens to her,” I decreed.

He shot me an audacious grin, bent in, touched my cheek with his lips then looked beyond me and jerked up his chin.