I will start uploading the first chapter of the sequel tomorrow. I decided on a separate story because it starts off with a bit of a time jump. It will also clarify some things on the Romitri front. So if you aren't following me, please do, so you'll get an alert when i post the next story. Or just check my profile page.

Epilogue

Adrian's POV

I was standing in front of a statue depicting two people I held dear. The likeness of the statue was eery, still the bronze depicture of Dimitri and Rose was a poor substitute for the real thing.

I was holding Lera on my hip and Sasha was standing holding my leg. I didn't know if they realized this was supposed to be their parent's grave and that the remains of them were buried underneath. We had tried to tell them that they were gone and when they had asked where they went we told them the cheesy answer of 'they are in heaven'.

I had choked up when they asked five minutes later when mommy and daddy would be back from heaven. They were three. They didn't understand the concept of death.

It was heartbreaking taking them to bed and tucking them while they cried for their parents.

It was a few months after their deaths and they seemed to get better during the day, but still at night they asked about them. I wondered how long it would take them to stop asking. Part of me wanted for them to stop asking so they wouldn't hurt so much anymore, but part of me wanted them to keep asking because it meant they still remembered their parents. But I knew the day would come when they would forget them. Sydney and I would of course tell them about them and I would take them here where they paid tribute to the great sacrifice they had made for the world. But I knew by the time they were all grown up they wouldn't remember them. They wouldn't remember how much they loved them and how they would read stories and would play Strigoi and guardian with them as they moved around the house chasing each other.

It had been a hard couple of months for all of us. When we got the phone call I personally went down to the field to see. I had to make sure. I had to see it with my own eyes.

When we arrived in the field the scene had almost been serene. Except they weren't sleeping like in a fairy tale as was obvious by their gray pallor, several bite marks and various other horrific injuries. But somehow they had looked at peace. I saw they were still holding hands. I thought it fitting.

Lissa had been sad for the twins because they lost both their parents, but as I was looking down at them in the field I had been grateful. Even if it meant they left their twins, it also meant that they would be together, wherever they were. I hoped our theory was true and they were in a better place together. I knew one wasn't complete without the other and I wondered if either of them had survived what kind of person they still were. I imagined Dimitri would be as closed off as he was before he met Rose times a gazillion and Rose would go through the motion trying hard not to cry when Lera or Sasha would do something that would remind her of her husband. It may not have been better for the twins, but it was better for them to have died together.

The ground around their bodies was saturated with a greyish substance. It took me a moment to realize it was the ash from Strigoi. I wondered how many of them there had been here to create so much grey. But I suppose the grey was preferable to dead bodies around them. But it was a sight I would remember till my last breath. Their lifeless bodies in a field with poppies and ash.

After that Lissa had issued a statue to be made in their honor, and nobody not even the most conservative Moroi had objected. We learned a little later that Rose and Dimitri had taken out the oldest Strigoi we know of. The alchemists had confirmed it a few weeks later. It meant that Strigoi attacks around the world had slowed down. It was as if they were grieving with us and had called a temporary truce.

Of course Lissa had done this after she cooled down enough after learning that Rose and Dimitri had appointed Sydney and I as legal guardians. In the letter they had left they mostly talked about financial stuff they had put aside for the twins. And if they needed any help in that department that we could always call Abe to help them. But Rose had also said in the letter she hadn't told Lissa about them picking us. She had joked that that was the only good reason about being dead because she didn't have to deal with Lissa's reaction. I had laughed and cried because it was such a Rose thing to say. It had taken Lissa a few weeks to calm down after that before she could see that being around Declan could have been important to them as well. We did have to come clean about that with Lissa. I think she took it well. All things considered. But maybe she was just numb from their deaths.

We also read the letters of the twins. It mostly said that they loved them and wish they could have been there to watch them grow up. It also explained why they chose to fight instead of staying at home with them. They apologized for putting their safety and that of the world above staying with them, but they said that it is important for those that have powers to use them instead of idly stand by. They even included a quote that evil prevails when good people do nothing. I imagine it was Dimitri who wrote that and Rose would have rolled her eyes at his zen crap.

We had moved closer to court since. We didn't live inside of court because Sydney was widely uncomfortable but we were close enough so Lera and Sasha still saw plenty of Eric, Lissa and Christian. Also Abe and Janine often stayed at court so that was a favorite as well. Abe had insisted to ward the place and every two weeks they were renewed. There had also been funds for a new house because Rose and Dimitri had anticipated that new accommodations would be necessary. I didn't know if we would have stayed in our old house, but Declan was eight now. He attended a human school, but we noticed he wasn't satisfied with this. He wanted to be a guardian like his aunt Rose and uncle Dimitri and we both knew it was in his blood. He would have to attend an academy soon. Lissa had insisted that they form an academy at court so it would be easier to protect Eric. It had been a while since a monarch was young enough to have school going children. Lera and Sasha would attend the same school and so would Declan when they would open after the summer.

I was standing in front of Rose and Dimitri's statue and was telling them exactly that.

"Lera, why don't you tell Mommy where you and Sasha and Eric are going next year."

Lera who looked to wise for her years, a look I had seen in my own daughter too, looked over to the bronze statue and cocked her head.

"We will all be going. Me and Eric and Declan and even Dani, oh and Sasha too of course. We will learn to be strong like you and Daddy, so we can learn how to protect Eric and even his little sister when she is born."

That too had been a source of distress for Lissa. She had wanted to tell her best friend she was pregnant again, but she died before she could. She recently had found out that they were having a girl and she had made a point of naming the girl after Rose. I am sure she would have been honored.

"Come on my little Dhampirs, Lets go home, I am sure Sydney will have dinner on the table soon."

I set down Lera as both children were running towards the direction of the car. Nothing gets them excited as food. Well maybe training. I was glad we had a big backyard because they were always running around chasing each other playing and mock fighting even at three years old. They were so much like their parents it hurt sometimes.

I looked back to the statue again. Their features captured perfectly, even the way they stood together, looking fierce and lethal and loving towards each other at the same time. At the plaque beneath their feet were their names and dates of birth and death and a zwezda for each. Yeah they killed countless of Strigoi, more than any in history.

Under the mandatory stuff, Lissa had engraved a sentence which captured their lives perfectly.

'Protectors of us all.'

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