Baron and Baroness Vaughn were also seated in the front row. Athena was sniffling into a white handkerchief and—miraculously—dateless, for the occasion. Of course, that was probably because I’d made it a condition of her invitation that she show up alone and not start a fight with my father.
After the events of the tournament, including Melanie’s second betrayal, came to light, my father pulled me into his office and told me that he would honor his end of the bargain. He would not be holding another tournament, pulling a name from a hat, or forcing me to go vampire speed dating. He did, however, expect me to take up my role as Lady Vaughn. After that, he’d pulled an elegant book from the top drawer of his shelf and opened it for me. The inside pages showed a map of all the territories, including the ones under my father’s control as the Baron. He drew a line with his fingertip around a significant chunk of them and then met my gaze.
“These are your territories now, Lacey,” he’d said.
I’d wanted to argue, to refuse the gift, but stopped myself. My father giving those territories to me was more than him gifting me parcels of land. He was recognizing me as a governing power. I would effectively rule over those territories and now had a seat at the Council for the East. My voice would not only be heard, but based on the amount of land, I would have a majority vote.
My father was essentially handing over the reins of the East, without abdicating his official title.
It was a massive responsibility and not one I’d expected. But the unspoken meaning behind the gesture was impossible to ignore.
He trusted me.
There would be changes. It would take work and skill to convince the other nobles to trust me too, but I would find a way, and I wouldn’t stop fighting until the work was done.
But none of that mattered today.
All I cared about was that at the end of the day, I would be in Matthias’s arms, and I would never have to leave them.
The music swelled and crested as Matthias leaned in for the kiss that would seal us to one another from that moment forward. He stopped short, his hand cupping my face as he whispered, “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
We kissed and the sliver of time suspended, cataloguing itself in our eternal memories. Cheers from the audience brought our toes back to the ground and we grinned at each other.
“I do have one regret,” I said, smiling up at him.
He lifted a brow. “Oh?”
“I kind of hate that I’m making my parents so happy.”
Matthias flashed a rueful grin and brushed back one of the curls framing my face. “I'm sure it won’t take you long to think up something to rile them up again.”
“Here’s hoping,” I said, my giggle fading as his lips found mine again.
And just like that, on a wintery Hallow’s Eve, my fairy tale began.
THE END