“Where was I?” I ask as I finish feeding the baby in my arms her bottle of milk. I place the bottle on the bench next to me and carry on my story.

“We won the battle against the bad king of demons, and the big dragon that lives in the mountains now, killed the other bad dragons and demons here. There were many brave people lost in the war, but they will never be forgotten. Now, we live in peace, with cute little babies everywhere like you,” I tell Ella, as I rock her in my arms, and she looks up at me. Not that she understands a single word I’m saying, as she is two months old. I glance up at my home, the Goddess’ castle and see how it looks far better since the war. The dragons destroyed a lot of it, so we had to build again, but it didn’t matter to us. The only thing that mattered was the fact that most of the supernaturals got inside the castle and to the underground dungeons before the massive, dragon fight. I wish I could say thank you to my dragon that won. He lives in one of the mountains around the castle, and we see him fly over the castle at times. He is like our protector now. The castle has been made more modern while we did the fixes it needed. There is a lot we had to deal with, like the humans who now hunt our kind or anything that seems supernatural since the war. The governments have an order to kill any supernaturals they find, but our witches send out messages to any stray supernaturals, to come here and we will keep them safe. I hate that our people can’t be safe everywhere anymore, but it’s not something I can change. We have the witches’ city back, after a long time of building new wards around it and safely removing the humans who found the island.

“I doubt the stories of how the war was won are the best kind of baby story to help my daughter sleep,” Alex says as she walks over to me. I glance up at my best friend as she laughs at me.

“I didn’t know what to say to a baby. Everyone keeps handing me babies and expecting me to know what to do.” I laugh as I hand over her daughter to her.

“Well, auntie Winter, maybe try fairy tales next time,” she says. I guess that makes sense.

“Like the big bad wolf?” I joke, and she laughs.

“Speaking of wolves, your mates want you. They’re waiting outside the castle,” she says, and I stand up from the bench I was sitting on.

“Alright.” I say and kiss her cheek before walking back through the newly planted trees that lead to the castle. My mates are sitting on the bottom steps, Wyatt is laughing with Jaxson over something, and Dabriel is looking at something on Atti’s phone. For the first few months after nearly losing Wyatt, I never let him out my sight. I kept all my mates close as we rebuilt everything we lost in the war. I wasn’t happy that Wyatt died for me and that my other mates knew, but then, I was prepared to do the same sacrifice for him. In the end, we all love each other that much that we want to make sure we all live. I don’t see how that can be considered a bad thing. I look over to see Dabriel straighten up, his eyes going white like he does when he has a vision. I run over and stop in front of him, all of us silent as we wait for him to come back from the vision. When his purple eyes come into focus, he looks down at me and I take his hand in mine.

“Adelaide,” he whispers, and I frown at him.

“Who is that?” I ask, considering it’s an unusual name, and I think I would remember it.

“The fray you will meet. I saw you shaking hands with her and someone else saying ‘this is Adelaide,’ and then what looked like a portal opened,” he tells me.

“How did you know she is the fray child?” I ask him, hoping for any way to get out of this vision being right.

“I could see her aura, it was so red and bright. It looked just like a fray’s, and I doubt a portal would open for anyone other than the royal,” he tells me, and I nod, letting him pull me into his arms. I feel sick at the idea of Lily being anywhere near Adelaide, even if I don’t know her. I have spoken to many of the fray that survived the wars, and they all speak only of her cruelness. They say she is an insane queen that is touched by the God of Death, but I don’t understand their Gods enough to make sense of that. All the fray are slowly losing their powers, now, and they say it is what they want, but I still feel sorry for them.

“We will worry about the promise another day, we can’t do anything about it now,” I say after a long pause, and he sighs.

“That is true,” he leans down and gently kisses me.

“I heard you all wanted me?” I ask, and he smiles.

“We found something and want to show you,” Atti says and links my other hand in his. We walk around the castle, where we pass the outside training area. Freddy and Nathaniel are training, both of them circling each other with swords. Mich and Josh are watching from the sides and drinking water. It’s good to see them all together, all friends. It’s like what my mates had with each other growing up.

“They have gotten close since the war. Freddy told me that Mich, Josh, and Nath saved him, and that’s how Mich ended up getting hurt in the war,” Wyatt tells us. Wyatt and Freddy have gotten closer, too, and I couldn’t be happier to see that change come about. Freddy actually calls him Dad since the war. I think losing Wyatt for that brief time made Freddy realise how much he actually loves Wyatt, but he wouldn’t admit that out loud to us. Stroppy, teenage hormones and all that. Josh waves as we walk past, and I wave back. I was sad to learn of Lucifer’s death in the war, and I’m keeping my promise to bring Josh up. I moved him into Freddy’s room, and now he is part of my family, despite the fact Josh doesn’t speak to us much, and I have no idea what he is.

“So, why are we going into the woods?” I ask, trying to distract myself as we take a path into the woods to the left of the castle, where I have never been before.

“It’s a surprise,” Atti laughs.

“You know I don’t like surprises, unless they are chocolate-covered,” I say, making them all laugh, but I’m being deadly serious. A chocolate surprise is always a good one. We walk around the woods for a little while before we get to a lake that is hidden within the trees. You couldn’t see it from the castle before, but now that some of the trees were burnt down, the sun is shining down on the lake, and it’s really beautiful here. I think it’s the calmness of the water and the way it feels like you’re away from the world here.

“It’s beautiful here,” I comment, looking up as Dabriel pulls me to his chest.

“You remember that vision I had of us all by a lake, and Freddy was much older? The one I told you about once,” Dabriel asks me.

“I remember. Was it here?” I ask, knowing that Dabriel said he felt complete in the vision. Much like I do now with all my mates when war isn’t chasing us, and we have our lives to enjoy.

“Yes, and I didn’t tell you something about that vision,” he says, and I pull away a little to look up at him.

“What was it?”

“You. You were pregnant in that vision, Winter,” he tells me, and I lean up and kiss him, knowing we will have our future we fought for. It was worth all this. I lean back and catch a glance of three figures in white dresses floating in the middle of the lake, feeling their love from here.

This was my fate and my future, with all my mates.