SWNOVELS The Dark Elf’s Surprise Baby: Chapter 29
We return to the manor and Demethys and I climb into bed with our very confused, very tired daughter between us.
Demethys promised me that we would hire all new staff. Human staff. I feel bad for Ivrir. He didn’t deserve to be fired, but Demethys explains that he was too old to do his job properly anymore and that he will be given a retirement stipend every month and be housed on his parents property, in a cabin with another retired servant. He’ll be comfortable and well looked after there.
The cook will be given a new position. He was never really disloyal but Demethys feels like it’s better to have a completely fresh start. The rest of the staff that were left turned out to be conspiring with Bryrion and her flunkies so they’ll be sold off as slaves for their actions.
It all works out for the best and true to his word, Demethys sells his home and we buy a new one, much closer to Kerym and Layla. Jasper and Addie get to see each other almost every day now.
And we hire an entirely new staff, with help from Kerym. We have new maids, a new butler, new kitchen staff, even a full-time nanny for our daughter now.
She’s amazing. Her name is Jenny and she keeps Adelaide entertained with her stories about her travels. Addie loves her nanny and I love having a little more free time with my future mate.
Demethys revealed the real reason he was gone so long that night finally—he was not fetching a watch but my engagement ring, which he presents to me with a flourish on one knee, in front of Layla and Kerym. He had planned a whole proposal but it was ruined by the zagfer servants attack.
I cried when I saw the beautiful zanthenite ring and slipped it on immediately. He tells me it’s imbued with a protection spell, so that I will always be safe even when he’s not around.
Addie cries too, asking if that means that Mama and Dad will get mated like Jasper’s Mama and Dad. We tell her yes, and that she’ll even get a special part in the ceremony.
She’s so excited she can’t stop talking about it for weeks. I take her with me to my dress fittings and she helps me pick out flowers and decorations…it’s wonderful to bond with her.
Layla comes along as well. Dark elves don’t usually have people stand up with them when they mate but I want Layla as a bridesmaid and Addie will be the flower girl.
Demethys was fine with it, telling me that I can do whatever I want with the ceremony and he’ll pay for it. His family seems to have endless coffers.
They will be in attendance as well. It turns out that Demethys’ mother, while soft-spoken, makes sure his father gives her children whatever they wish and since Demethys picked me, she ensures that no one makes a fuss.
I like her. She’s strong and clever while appearing quiet and unassuming. She earns my respect immediately. And it seems she likes me too, for similar reasons. She likes that I can stand up to her spoiled younger son.
It takes months to plan the ceremony because it’s going to be quite an event. It turns out that while I assumed that Demethys’ family was a minor miou family, they were actually quite a powerful one. They supplied quite a bit of goods to the military and were paid handsomely for it, accruing quite a fortune. It makes sense to me why Demethys always seemed to have so much money despite being merely a squad leader.
“Dear, you look wonderful in your dress,” Misisso Herahi tells me when we attend my last fitting in the seamstress’ shop. “You will make a beautiful mate for my son.”
“Yeah Mama, you look like an agelios, like Dad calls me!”
I smile at that and step down from the platform so I can take the dress off. “I’m so glad that I found him again,” I tell Misisso. “And that he was stubborn enough to pursue me.”
“The both of you have a stubborn streak,” she tells me. “It balances you out.”
We leave and head back to our new manor home and Demethys teases me about wanting to see my dress.
“Only a few more days,” I tell him. Our mating ceremony will be at his parents estate, in their grand garden.
“I can’t wait,” he tells me, wrapping me up in his arms to kiss me soundly.
A few days later, Adelaide is running around in her pink flower girl dress while Layla and Misissi help lace me into my dress. Jasper is sitting on the small couch in the room we’re using to get ready, looking bored and kicking his feet.
I turn around to face the mirror and gasp. I look better than I could have imagined in my dress. It’s made of lace, with a high neckline and sheer sleeves that puff out around my arms and end in lace cuffs. A lace bertha drapes around my shoulders, going all the way to the lace waistline. The dress is long and goes all the way to the ground with a train.
I wear a morning glory cameo pendant around my throat and lace gloves. My hair is down, swept to one side and I wear a little rouge on my cheeks and lips.
“Demethys won’t know what hit him,” Layla promises, hugging me carefully. She’s got on a pink dress with cap sleeves and a ruffled hemline that matches Addie’s pink dress.
They affix my lace hat to my head with hatpins and Addie hands me my bouquet of morning glories to carry.
She’s also got a basket with morning glory petals that she will distribute through the aisle as I walk down to meet Demethys in front of the high priest.
It’s a mix of human and elven customs, perfect for us. We want to show the world that we are stronger together—human and elf.
The two women escort me down the stairs, through the back door and out into the garden where the celebrants are waiting, along with Demethys and the high priest, who are standing by the altar.
Demethys’ eyes tear up as he watches Addie walk carefully down the aisle, scattering petals in her wake. Layla takes her to sit with Jasper and Kerym and then returns to stand next to me, helping me down to meet my future mate.
I feel my own eyes welling with tears as I approach him. We stand together and the priest begins the ceremony.
“Beloved, I seek to know of you, and ask the Thirteen that I be given the wisdom to know you as you are,” he says. I reach out and squeeze his arm as I repeat his words.
“I pledge to you my living and my dying, equally in your care,” Demethys says.
“I give you my waking life, so that you may walk side by side,” I tell him, watching as the tears finally slip out and down his cheeks.
“You cannot possess me, for I belong to myself,” we say together. “But while we both wish it, I give that which is mine to give.”
Adelaide steps up from where she’s sitting, joining us in front of the altar. My eyes widen and I look at Demethys, who mouths just watch.
The two of them join hands and close their eyes. Above us, in the sky, a sudden burst of magical energy appears in the form of a flash of lightning, but in the most beautiful blues and purples that I’ve ever seen.
It’s utterly magical and I stare at my baby and my mate in awe of their powers. They continue to keep going, opening their eyes to watch as another burst of shattered lightning appears, this time in reds and oranges.
They continue for a few minutes, sending off sparks of lightning in different colors, the explosions getting bigger and bigger until it climaxes in a rainbow explosion.
“That was beautiful!” I tell them when they finish and open their eyes again. “Did you practice this?”
“We practiced for a long time Mama!” Addie says excitedly, rising up and down on the balls of her feet.
The priest continues as Addie goes to sit with Jasper again. “Above you are the stars, and below you the earth. Like the stars, your love should be a constant source of light, and like the earth, a firm foundation from which to grow,” he declares.
And with that, Demethys pulls me in for a searing kiss while our guests applaud and Addie squeals in excitement in the background.
We did it! We finally got mated. I feel like everything in my life has come full circle. I have the life and the love that I longed for.
Demethys takes my hand and we walk back down the aisle together, heading for the ballroom. There is a lovely reception planned, with plenty of food and drinks and even some musicians set up to play for us while we dance and make merry.
Addie joins us as we enter the ballroom together and we take her to sit with us at a table. “Are you going to be my Mama and Dad forever now?” she asks.
“Yes,” I say with a laugh. “We’ll always be your Mama and Dad. But now we’re also mates, like Auntie Layla and Uncle Kerym, remember?”
“Oh right,” she giggles. “Can I have a brother or sister now?”