Chapter 13: A Coronation to Remember

Hey everyone! I know, I've been actually updating like a proper author! Hehe, even I'm really excited. I had some block after the baby and the start of our story, but I'm back and I think I'll be good at least until after the coronation. J I'm seriously looking forward to writing this more, and I'm so happy that you all are still reading.

Lastly, I would like to thank you all for sticking with me, and I promise to keep up the updating for as long as I can. I don't see this story coming to a close anytime soon.

THANKS AGAIN!

Her heels kept clicking as she paced, her son in her arms. "Oh, Mason, what is your mommy going to do? I'm so scared. I'm not ready for this; I was never trained to be a queen!" she quietly confides in him.

Sky walks back into the room after seeing his daughter and their friends out to the seating arena. "Bloom, honey, you ready?"

She turns to him, tears on the blink of falling in her eyes. "Oh Sky, I don't know if this is the right time. I'm really scared." She clutches her new-born to her chest and rocks the baby deeper into sleep. A tear rolls down her cheek.

Sky steps over to her and tilts her chin so her eyes meet him. He catches the tear rolling down her cheek and removes it from her face. "Bloom, my love, it's just a coronation. It's not that scary. You've faced worse; we've faced worse together. Remember Darkar and the spell he used on you? Or the Three Ancestral Witches? We beat that. I know we can make it through this. And you've been married to the King for years now. Yea, my father was still ruling, but I've been king since that night, so you've been queen since you said yes. Today, you're just accepting the duties that go along with it, and marking our son as the heir to the throne." He cups his son's head and puts his arm around her. "You can do this. You are Bloom – daughter of Oritel and Miriam, King and Queen of Domino; daughter of Mike and Vanessa; sister to Daphne; one-sixth of the Company of Light; and my wife. You've given us two beautiful children," he smiles down at the sleeping baby in her arms. "And you will make Eraklyon a better place just by being by my side. You have already."

"Oh Sky." She leans into him, nodding her head even as more tears fall from her eyes – tears of love.

"So, are you ready now?" he asks her.

She looks up at him and smiles, "I am."

"Here, let me have Mason. My mother is keen to hold him while you are crowned, then we'll make the announcement that we had a son. The people will cheer, then we can relax. I promise."

She hands him the infant and smiles as his little hand reaches for her still. She straightens her back and nods her. "Let's get this done."

"That's the wife I know." Sky mumbles under his breath as he follows her out of their bedroom.

Trumpets blare on either side of the throne room, filling the air with royal sounds as she enters the cavernous room. Sky, Erendor, and Samara are all at the other end of the room, standing before their seats. Meadow is sitting on the edge of the seating arena with Morfo and Stella. Her friends are near the thrones as well, all smiling at her. Flora even has a tear roll down her cheek as she looks upon one of her best friends. Helia holds her hand a little tighter and pulls her to him. Juniper cuddles in between his parents, his feet swinging in the air.

The herald knocks the ground with his staff to introduce her three times. Princess Bloom, crown princess of Eraklyon and princess of Domino."

She takes her cue and begins the seemingly long walk to her husband's side as queen. One foot in front of the other, she strides across the room, her dress of deep blue moving about her feet. The reddest rose in her hair stands out as she crossing the hall and passes the fountain on her left. The nymphs and merfolk of Andros are there, watching her cross.

All eyes on her, all she can see is her family, her husband, smiling at her as if they were getting married again. The long walk finally comes to an end just in time for her to hear River (Musa's daughter) whisper to her brother, "Aunt Bloom looks so pretty."

She turns her head just enough to look at her friends' families and smiles as she sees Musa, Riven's hand in hers, waving to her twins to keep it down.

"Bloom, crown princess of Eraklyon and princess of Domino, welcome." Erendor's voice booms over her head as he begins the process of crowning her queen. "Today, friends and family of Ereklyon, we welcome a new member into our ranks as kings and queens. Today, I welcome a daughter to her rightful place on the throne." The smile he gives her makes her heart melt and ache at the same time.

She remembers the look of betrayal in his eyes as he admitted to Avram's destruction. He had forbid Sky from marrying Bloom, but such a thing seemed trivial now as they were family.

She bows as he continues. "In the light of the last month, I welcomed a grandson some of you might know, we now ask his mother to accept her rightful place on the throne of Eraklyon, alongside her husband, King Sky. Do you, Bloom," she raises her head as he calls her name out. "Promise to take the responsibilities of the throne of Eraklyon as your duty? To swear upon this land you call home that you will reign alongside your husband to create a more peaceful and more beautiful Eraklyon?"

"I, Bloom of Eraklyon and Domino, do promise to take my place on the throne beside my husband. I do promise to my friends and family and the people of this kingdom, that I will do my duty to make this land and its people happy and prosperous. On this land I call home and the people I call family, I do swear my allegiance to Eraklyon."

She bows again, and Samara, the previous queen smiles at her and nods to her husband Erendor, who then takes a crown his wife's head and steps toward Bloom. He raises the crwon above her head. "With this promise, I, Erendor of Eraklyon, do crown you, Bloom, to be the Queen of Eraklyon. May you reign well."

He places the crown on her head; the weight of it settles on her head and she adjusts it just some, holding it to her, as she rises and steps up the stairs to take her new position in front of the throne of Eraklyon, beside Sky.

Erendor and Samara, still holding Mason, step down from the stairs and Erendor raises his hands. "People of Eraklyon, friends and family, I give the King and Queen of your home!"

The cheers were deafening. A chant quickly rose up among the people, inside and outside of the castle as Bloom and Sky stood before the thrones. "Bloom!" could be heard throughout the kingdom that day as Bloom became the Queen of Eraklyon.

It took several minutes for Sky to gain everyone's attention again. As the chanting fell to a hush, he raised his hands and began. "Today, I welcome my wife to her place at my side as the Queen of Eraklyon, but I do not only welcome her this day, and neither do the people of our home. Meadow, please rise and take you seat next to your mother."

Meadow stands and walks toward her mother, Morfo at first going with her, then Lockette grabbing his hand and shaking her head at him. "But," was all he got out before the other pixies shook their heads at him and forces him to sit on the banister and simply watch.

"As my wife has taken her place, so does our daughter, Meadow, beside us now. In the last weeks we have been blessed again with another child. My wife has given unto me and our kingdom a young prince." He motions to his mother, who approaches Bloom and hands over Mason to the queen with a soft smile. "Mason Oritel Erendor Michael of Eraklyon, my son, now joins myself, my wife Bloom, and our daughter Meadow Vanara Estelle as one of the royal children and further as the crown prince of Eraklyon."

Again the cheers resounded through the halls of the palace, but Bloom still heard the gasp of her parents (biological, adoptive, and in-law) as they heard the full name of her son. She and Sky had named him with true intention of giving him the best names in all the universes – Mason as a stone for the Eraklyon people; Oritel as her biological father's name to honor the man who had given her life and fought off the Ancestral witches who then captured him in turn; Erendor for the strength that it took to admit his mistakes, and still the courage it took to make those mistakes right; and finally, Michael in honor of his Earth heritage and his adoptive grandfather Mike, who saved and raised Bloom alongside his wife, and who continually puts up with the magic that has entered his life over the years.

Meadow had been named in honor of the women in Bloom and Sky's lives – Meadow for Flora and Musa who had always given Bloom refuge from reality; Vanara for Vanessa and Samara who had been the mother's Bloom and Sky had always run to for help; and finally Estelle for Stella who had been the very best friend and who had brought Bloom to Alfea and eventually to Sky in the first place.

As the cheering quieted, Sky placed a small crown on his daughter's head, kiss his wife, and rubbed the head of his son. He was a happy man with everything to lose, but nothing that threatened to take it away.