"Love you, baby," he declared there.
"And I you."
He pressed his face deeper in my neck and his voice was gruff when he went on, "She would have loved you too."
I closed my eyes at more rapture.
But I said nothing.
I just held on to my love.
And I basked in the beauty of midnight.
Chapter Twenty-Five.
Never Far Franka Noc had chosen the place.
He"d also chosen the time.
We walked there together in the moonlight.
When we got to the spot he wished to be, standing amongst the shadows of trees dripping their moss gracefully, he turned me in his arms and bent his neck to touch his lips to mine. After, he tucked my cheek to his chest and rested his on top of my head.
I had one arm around his back but the other hand I rested on his biceps.
I did this for two reasons.
One was to touch him, obviously.
The other so I"d know when it was time.
We remained in each other"s arms as the minutes on my watch ticked by.
And I watched through the moonlight as the second hand warned me the time was nigh.
Only then did I step slightly from Noc"s embrace.
Keeping hold of him with my arm around him, I swept my other down then up in a wide arc.
And from my fingers, a flock of doves flew, their gossamer wings glittering among moonbeams, the tips of their feathers trailing delicate shimmers that dropped in an exquisite fade to the earth.
They flew direct toward the waning quarter moon and disappeared in its light.
It was midnight.
My favorite time of day.
And it was the anniversary of Judy"s death.
When the least I could do was make doves fly.
My gaze turned to Noc to see him staring into the sky where the doves had disappeared.
I gave him a moment to spend with Judy.
Then I whispered, "It"s time to go home, my love."
His eyes drifted down to me.
I saw pain that would never fade.
As it should be.
But I also saw peace.
"Yeah, sweetheart. It"s time to go home."
Holding hands, we made our way to his car, leaving moonlight and magic behind.
However, Judy stayed with us, for I was certain no matter what day it was, or what time, the love Noc had for her, the love she"d earned, she was never far.
Epilogue.
Every Way Love Can Be Franka "I would say that"s a job well done," Valentine noted.
We stood, Valentine, Lavinia and I, on the pavement across from the restaurant where the maintenance man and the woman who"d loved him from afar, the woman who had loved him so much she scrimped and saved to buy his love for her in return, were sitting at a table at the window eating hamburgers.
Their first date.
I was aghast.
Surely, my magic said more than hamburgers for a first date.
"I find this highly disturbing," Lavinia murmured.
I did as well.
I mean, hamburgers?
Valentine and I turned our attention to her.
She shifted her eyes from the couple to us. "All the beauty you can make with your magic, you use it to meddle in people"s lives?"
"We give them what they want," Valentine replied.
"And that man," Lavinia gestured to the restaurant across the street, "did he want her?"
"He does now," I shared the obvious.
Lavinia rolled her eyes skyward.
Even though we"d just started, Valentine made it known that she was quite done talking about this.
"We"ve a booking at Arnaud"s in half an hour. Noc, Dax and Circe are meeting us there. We must be going."
Lavinia sighed and we all moved to where Valentine had parked her car.
"These conveyances, I cannot get used to them," the other-world witch muttered as we did.
"I felt the same," I shared. "As you seem to enjoy spending time in this world, we"ll teach you how to drive. Trust me, it"ll make it better."
Lavinia cast horrified eyes to me.
I smiled a small smile.
The car made a noise while its lights flashed, telling us the doors were open.
Valentine headed to the driver"s side speaking.
"That job complete, having been away, I have many lined up, Franka," she said to me. "Are you ready for your next?"
This one was hardly a challenge.
And it ended in hamburgers.
I was very much ready for my next.
"Of course," I replied to her over the roof of the car. "Do you have one in mind?"
"Yes," she stated.
I studied her face and the look on it made a thrill gather at the small of my back.
"Your next client seeks revenge," she whispered.
I held her eyes, and at her words, my smile was still small.
But it spoke volumes.
Korwahk "Stop drooling, sugarlips."
"Mm?"
"Babe."
"Yes?"
A shaking "Frannie," mingled with an arm tightening around my shoulders, curling me to Noc"s front meant I was forced to tear my eyes from the Korwahk warrior.
Oh so many moons ago, I"d briefly met him back in Fyngaard, although after the troubles he"d quickly been away home.
He was one of Lahn"s most trusted lieutenants.
His name was Zahnin.
And his ferocity of appearance was a match for Lahn"s. I"d found him most frightening, and as lovely as many things on him were to look at, at the time I did not admit to the relief I felt when I heard he was gone.
But now, here, in his homeland in its capital city of Korwahn, standing on its Majestic Rim, awaiting the ceremony that was soon to commence, he was with his wife.
And his children.
Before Noc pulled me away, I"d been watching the little boy crawling up his long, stout leg while Zahnin was tickling, squeezing and throwing up in the air his baby girl, catching her as she giggled uncontrollably. And she kept doing so while he blew kisses into her neck.
Then, easily tucking her in his long, strong arm, he"d bent to haul up his toddler son, the boy going up shrieking his glee, and the warrior juggled them both against the large expanse of his bare, brown-skinned, painted chest, to their abandoned delight.
Through all this, his exceedingly pretty Fleuridian wife, Sabine, stood pressed close to his side, both her arms wrapped around his middle, and looked on with unconcealed adoration.
Of her children, of course.
But mostly her husband.
I could understand this.
His smile was white and wide, transforming his face.
There was no fierceness there, not now.
Only love and happiness.
Something that veritably beamed from him when he"d finally turned his attention from their children and gazed with open and frank devotion at his wife.