Epilogue

 

Mira gazed up the hillside.

“How’s this spot?” Jakk called from the top of a majestic plateau.

Pritzi raced up the flowered hillside to join him. She spun around with her arms out. “It’s perfect! Come and see, Mira!” The little girl wore a lavender dress, a wreath of braided flowers in her hair.

She, Jan, and Darley wore matching wreaths and the same style dresses, but in their own favorite colors—Jan in turquoise and Darley in red. Mira’s simple dress was white, as was the custom on Earth. She clutched a giant bouquet of wildflowers, picked by all five of them. Gav’n held her other hand, steadying her as she hiked up the mountainside toward the rest of the family.

They’d decided to have the wedding—or mating, as they called it—ceremony alone. No witnesses besides their family. It wasn’t a true, legal ceremony—that would be impossible with Mira’s status on Pra’kir, but it was a formal way to mark their union as a family. They’d considered inviting Jakk and Gav’n’s parents, who had embraced Mira’s sudden presence in their children and grandchildren’s lives, but decided they wouldn’t be able to make the hike.

The mountainside was similar to the one where she’d stopped to pick wildflowers with the girls, only it stood high enough they could see the ocean. She reached the summit where Jakk and the girls waited and turned around, breathing it all in.

Everything about it was perfect.

“Okay, so now what?” Gav’n asked. The entire family had participated in the evolving plan for the day. Pritzi had insisted on the flower wreaths. Darley had picked out their dresses. Jakk had chosen the location.

“I have something for you.” She pulled a little silk bag from Gav’n’s pocket. “On Earth, we have a tradition of giving rings for marriage, so I had a ring made for each of us. They all match, see?” She tipped the bag upside down, and six gold rings rolled into her palm. They were simple matching bands, inscribed on the inside with the words Family Forever.

The girls reached for them, but she closed her fingers and lifted her hand high.

“Wait, wait, wait. There’s a ceremony that goes with the giving of rings. You see, on Earth, the ring is a symbol of love, which has neither beginning nor end. It goes on your fourth finger, which on humans is the warmest, and, therefore, the closest to the heart.”

The girls jockeyed for position, lining up in a row before her, hands held out with the fourth finger aloft.

“With this ring, I thee wed.” She slid the smallest ring onto Pritzi’s finger. “Wear it as a symbol of my love.” She repeated the vow with each child. When she moved on to face Jakk, a sudden shyness overcame her.

Jakk reached for her, tugging her up against his body. “Why are you nervous, little human?” he murmured. “You’re ours, whether you give me that ring or not.”

Gav’n stepped behind her, sandwiching her between them. “Where’s your ring, pashika? We’ll put it on you together.”

Face warm, she opened her palm and picked out her ring. Gav’n slid it on her finger, and Jakk lifted it to his lips, kissing it. “With this ring, we claim you forever.”

She giggled. “Those aren’t the words.”

Gav’n flashed his roguish smile. “I forget them.” He held out his ring finger. “Give me mine.”

She slid one of the huge rings on his finger. “With this ring, I thee wed. Take it as a symbol of my love.” She repeated the words as she bestowed the last ring on Jakk’s finger.

“What do we do now?” Jakk asked.

“We hold hands,” Jan offered. She’d been talking more, though still not nearly as much as Pritzi.

“Like this?” Gav’n joined hands with her and Pritzi.

“No, in a circle,” Jan said. “No beginning, nor end.”

“Like love,” Darley finished.

“Like love,” Jakk murmured. “I love you all. You know that?”

The girls giggled, and her eyes misted. “I love you all, too.”

“Me too.”

“Me too.”

“Me too.”

“Me too.”

“Now what do we do?” Gav’n asked.

“We eat cake,” she declared.

“What’s cake?” Pritzi demanded.

“It’s the most wondrous food you’ve ever tasted. And I figured out how to make it on Pra’kir. But it’s at home. Last one to the shuttles is a rotten egg!” She tossed her bouquet over her head and ran, pell-mell, down the steep hillside for the shuttles.

Whoops and shrieks sounded behind her as her family followed, the sounds of their joy echoing on the rocks and pinging back, straight into her heart.