Epilogue

Adalee's POV

Victoria and I are going on date, back to the cave covered with crystals.

However, what we find there is a huge surprise.

A baby boy, wrapped in a blue blanket, staring at the shining blue crystals, is laying on the shore of the cave. His hair is dark, with blue eyes shining blue like the crystals.

We swim over to the shore and I take him in my arms. He couldn't have been here long, he seems perfectly healthy for an abandoned baby.

He smiles up at me, his toothless grin making me smile. Victoria is behind me, looking over my shoulder. "He's adorable," I say, feeling a growing connection with this baby.

"I feel the power of the crystals in him, they have made him stronger," Victoria tells me, looking at me with love in her eyes. "We will see if anyone is missing a baby, and if not, we will raise him as our own."

I bounce up and down lightly, excited at the prospect of having a child to care for. I would do better than my dad did with me.

The baby giggles, liking my bouncing.

"What do you want to name him?" Victoria asks, and I know the perfect name.

"Axenus."

-

Axenus wants to go to the shore of North Carolina and people watch. As he is only ten years old, we accompany him.

We couldn't find his parents, and have raised him with the love and care we knew he needed. We love him like our own child.

Victoria and I watch Axenus from a distance letting him watch people on his own, while making sure he doesn't get too close to the shore. His blue tail is the same color as the blue crystals that were in the cave.

I look at Victoria, who is smiling at our son. I love my family so much, never wanting anything to change.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" She asks through the mind link, finally turning to me.

"I'm just so happy. You, my Mermaid Queen, have shown me more love than I've ever seen before. I'm so grateful I met you," I say honestly, giving her a lingering kiss to her cheek.

"It may have been under difficult circumstances, but I'm glad I met you too."

"Mom! Mommy! I think a really pretty little girl saw me," Axenus swims over to us quickly speaking through the mind link we all can use. "When I saw she was pretty, I mean really pretty. She was looking at me, as if she knew I was there, even though I was far away."

I look to Victoria curiously, wondering what is going on inside her head. She seems to be thinking something over, before saying, "Maybe you'll meet her again someday. Maybe she was made for you."

"Like you were made for Mommy?" He asks innocently, his young eyes looking at us curiously.

"Exactly like that." Victoria grabs his hand, swimming closer and grabbing his hand. "You have to be more careful as the future king to our kingdom. You have to preserve our secret, not letting anyone know about us. Dangerous things can happen if people know about us."

I think back to the mermaid hunters. We are all on good terms, my sister protecting us good mermaids since she knows they aren't all bad.

"Since you let someone see you, no more people watching for a month," I say, feeling bad about the punishment, but knowing he needs to learn.

"But Mommy," he whines, grabbing my hand. I give him a stern look, and he relents.

We swim back to the kingdom in a peaceful silence.

I'm so grateful for my family, and I owe it all to the Mermaid Queen.

-

Thank you so much for reading to the end of this book! I hope you enjoyed it, I had a lot of fun writing it. There will be a sequel, it will combine with my story Frost and Flames.

Thank you so much for reading my book! -A.P.W