Epilogue

Hilda had said she'd planted the seeds, in the hopes of sabotaging herself, and indeed she had. It was just that no one had been able to pick up on them or know where to look. It all started when Edith ordered Hilda to kill Prince Reynold. Reynold was apathetic and cruel - destined to be a tyrant. Hilda had seen killing the prince as doing Hyland a favor. However, she could not abide by Edith's methods. The Council would have likely agreed Reynold was too unstable to inherit the throne, and perhaps they could have found an alternative path that didn't devolve into murder. But pacifism wouldn't suit Edith's ambitions. Not when her eyes were on the crown for herself - to become the true queen and not just the bearer of the king's children. For that, she needed chaos.

So Hilda made Reynold's death an apparent assassination, reached out to Alisha, and drugged Edith during the visit. If someone uncorruptable could discover the murder, perhaps the situation might be salvaged. Sadly, it did not play out as she'd hoped. Edith had Hilda orchestrate one disaster after another, inching their way closer and closer to war with Rolance. A war would have put the necessary pressure on the Council to consider Edith a valid candidate for the throne. She held her head high, and radiated wisdom all while Hilda wrought havoc on her behalf behind the scenes. In an humorless ironic twist, Edith's chosen codename was Cypress - the flower of mourning. Hilda became Narcissus, the vanity that Edith wielded. As Roshe had suspected, they were using florists as a front to communicate with their people.

Hilda did her best to keep the ragtag rebel group she'd amassed - all given nicknames based off flowers as well - from causing too much damage. She convinced them to believe in a bigger picture and that all they had to do was prepare and wait for the right moment. Unfortunately, Edith had found an ally in Lunarre. Hilda did damage control. It was not always successful, as with the cases of Malfore or the knight Derek.

She hadn't initially intended to let Rose into the group. But Hilda's network was nothing to sniff at. She knew how the Scattered Bones operated. They'd be watching and evaluating whether their cause was truly just. Perhaps Hilda's group would be wiped out. But the night of the delivery, Hilda recognized Alisha at Rose's side immediately. That voice - the way she carried herself. Hilda would know it anywhere. She was trained to. That's when things got truly interesting.

The night of the engagement party, Hilda had made sure the extremists' stash of weapons disappeared. They were forced to throw together what they could - no better opportunity than this would come. And then she had made sure they walked right into the Platinum Knights' trap that Edith had warned her about. Hilda slew Edith and Halbridge at the party, her surprise fellow conspirator, and now she sat in a heavily fortified dungeon in the depths of Hyland's castle, awaiting her judgement with a serene smile.

When Alisha had returned to Hyland, her engagement canceled, with a terrorist leader in her custody... the Council and the people had been impressed. Belle, who'd had no involvement in Edith's plot, fully supported the princess' ascension.

...

"I can't believe I finally get to sleep in my own bed again!" Alisha threw her arms back as she fell backwards onto her canopied bed and sunk into the mattress. She propped herself up on her elbows and looked at Rose who was watching her from the doorway with her arms crossed and lips graced with an amused smile. "Not that it's likely I'll be doing much sleeping tonight though," Alisha laughed nervously.

Rose's smile twitched wider and she raised a single brow.

Alisha hastily looked away and cleared her throat loudly, her cheeks betraying a soft pink hue. "I just meant because I'm nervous about tomorrow and how fast this is moving."

"Ah." Rose's brow fell back down to meet the other one as she kicked away from the door frame and made her way over to the bed. "Yeah. A lot of changes are coming tomorrow."

Alisha let out a long sigh that sagged her shoulders. "Sorey and Mikleo won't stick around for more than another day or two before they're off on an adventure to find another way to purify Maotelus and the land, and I'll be... I'll be-" The sentence was more difficult to finish than she'd expected.

"Queen," Rose finished softly for her, this time leaning against the bedpost.

"Yeah," said Alisha, the word a shaky breath. She sat up and grabbed Rose by the sleeve, and pulled Rose onto the bed with her. They fell onto the pillows. Alisha nuzzled into Rose's shoulder. "But I don't want to think about that right now."

Rose's arm came up around Alisha and pulled her closer. She cupped Alisha's cheek with her free hand, angling her face so she could place a kiss to the corner of her mouth. "Are you asking me to distract you, Princess?"

Alisha's face erupted into redness and she turned to bury her face completely her pillow. "Um..." Her head shifted just enough to peek one eye at Rose. A shy smile crept across her face. "You could… if you like."

The crooked grin Rose wore – fond and smug all at once – sent a hot shiver down Alisha's spine.

"With pleasure." Rose sat up to shrug out of her jacket and toss it into a forgotten corner of the room. She gently rolled Alisha onto her back, and brought her lips onto hers. They were soft and warm and parted at the slightest whisper of her tongue.

Alisha let out a sigh that was half-moan as their tongues brushed. Another shiver of heat, this one lingering in her loins and quickening her pulse. She curled the fingers of one hand in Rose's red hair and used the other to push herself up – to take Rose's shoulder and roll them over, pushing her girlfriend into the bed. It was Alisha's turn to look smug, straddling Rose's hips as she looked down at her. Her hungry gaze interrupted by the tug of her shirt over her head, it going to join Rose's jacket. Then she returned her hands to Rose's hair, sealing their mouths together again.

"You're awfully eager," Rose panted between kisses, her face flushed. "I thought you'd want to take our first time together slower," she added even as she brought Alisha down for another kiss with a hand on the back of her neck.

Alisha pulled away slightly, regarding Rose carefully. "Are you complaining?"

"Not at all." As if to punctuate her how completely okay she was with this, Rose deftly unhooked Alisha's bra and flung it across the room with a flick of the wrist. "Just a little surprised is all." She slid her hands up Alisha's sides. Her thumbs teased the underside of Alisha's breasts.

"I feel like I've waited a thousand years already." Alisha bent forward into Rose's touch, her breasts falling into Rose's open hands. Calloused palms brushed over her nipples and a plaintive whimper fell from Alisha's lips as a spark of pleasure filled her with heat.

"Fair enough," Rose breathed, in awe of how readily Alisha melded to her touch. A gentle roll of the sensitive peaks of Alisha's breasts between thumb and forefinger, and Alisha was scrabbling to relieve Rose of her own shirt and even the playing field. Alisha's hungry mouth fell onto hers, nibbling at Rose's lower lip.

Rose tilted her head back with a moan and Alisha seized the opening to rake her teeth along Rose's jaw, placing a slow wet kiss just below her ear, dragging her mouth along Rose's neck to suck on her pulse point. Rose arched off the bed, her fingers curling in Alisha's hair, holding her closer.

Alisha reached under Rose's arched back to unhook her bra. Then she was kissing a tender trail down Rose's neck – to her shoulder, to her collarbone. Her fingers slipped under the loose straps, and she carefully inched them down Rose's arms, until she'd freed her from the undergarment. All Rose can hear is her own heartbeat and then her breasts are exposed to the air and Alisha's waiting mouth.

Rose hisses a hot "yes" on the tail of a loud groan. Distantly she heard the pop of a button being undone and a zipper sliding open. It didn't fully register until Alisha's hand was teasing her clit over her panties. Her hips bucked eagerly in a plea for more friction. Then Alisha's other hand was gone from Rose's breast and a pair of hands are helping Rose shimmy out of her pants. Alisha yanked and Rose kicked herself free. Alisha's mouth released her nipple to plant a kiss just below Rose's belly button.

"Oh fuck, Alisha," Rose breathed, every bit ready and in awe of what was to come.

"That's the idea." Alisha smirked.

Any witty reply to that stupid joke is wiped clean from Rose's mind as Alisha wasted no time parting the folds between Rose's legs and burying her nose in her curls.

"Oh gods, yes," Rose panted.

Alisha's hot mouth, hot tongue swirling around her clit elicited a cry of agonizing pleasure from Rose and stoked a fire at her very core. It licked at the edges of her every nerve. A particularly hard suck quickly had the pent up heat boiling over with a scream of Alisha's name. Her body shivered with the aftershocks still as Alisha crawled back up to give her a sloppy kiss flavored with her own taste.

Rose grinned, reversing their positions. "Okay. Now it's my turn to make you scream." Her words floated along a soft chuckle what warmed Alisha's heart.

Rose began to inch her way downwards, but Alisha's hands stopped her, cupping either side of Rose's face. "Wait."

"Hmm?" Rose almost melted at the soft way Alisha was looking at her, her hooded eyes swimming with affection and glinting with lust.

Alisha pulled her in for a kiss. She let out a satisfied hum that reverberated through the kiss. "I like kissing you," she said, their lips still touching.

"I like kissing you too," Rose echoed, pressing their mouths together. Her fingers fumbled with the doings of Alisha's pants. She could feel Alisha smiling into the kiss as she reached down to help. Rose's own lips quirked upward affectionately.

Her hand slipped beneath Alisha's panties, a finger teasing her slick opening. Alisha whimpered, sending another little shiver of an aftershock through Rose. Rose slowly circled the entrance, memorizing the way soft heat of Alisha felt on her fingers, noting every twitch or flick that made Alisha's breath hitch.

"Rose, please just-" Alisha cut herself off with a moan as Rose's finger taps that sensitive spot just inside.

" 'Please?'"

"You have all the rest of tonight to tease me, but please, just this once-"

"All night you say," Rose chuckled warmly, gracing Alisha's lips with another affectionate kiss.

Rose pulled her finger out to draw quick and dirty experimental circles over Alisha's clit, finding the right rhythm until Alisha was shuddering beneath her and moaning into her mouth. Rose settled in beside her as Alisha's chest heaved to regain her breath.

"What was that you were saying about all night?" Rose asked, punctuating with a kiss on Alisha's nose.

Alisha laughed, a bright bubbly thing. She hooked on leg over Rose's hip and snaked a hand into Rose's hair, her bare skin flush against Rose's, warm and slick with perspiration. "I was saying we could keep doing this for all of it."

Rose split into a grin from ear to ear, pulling her in for another kiss in response.

And in the morning, if anyone noticed how they shared the same content exhaustion or the glances they stole during Alisha's coronation, no one said anything. Not that it would have mattered. Alisha was queen now, she was free to love who she wanted, and to open a new chapter in Hyland's history.

FIN

A/N: 4 years and 100k words later and we finally made it. Even though I burnt out towards the end there, I hope you all were still able to enjoy it. Thank you for sticking with me :)