Kylene sat on the grassy bank, watching Hardane and her twin sons splash in the river's shallow depths.
Two years had passed since the Interrogator's death. Two years of peace and happiness.
In that time, she'd seen all her dreams come true. Her father was happily married to Sharilyn and they were expecting their first child in the fall. She had met her sisters and their families. To her delight, she had eleven nieces and nephews, and three cousins by marriage.
Best of all, she was pregnant again. The child was due any day. She knew Hardane hoped for another son, but Kylene knew in her heart that it was a daughter with hair as black as night and eyes as gray as a winter sky.
She smiled as Hardane and the boys scrambled up the bank toward her. Her sons flung themselves into her arms, showering her with water and kisses, exclaiming over the monstrous fish their father had almost caught with his bare hands. And then, too filled with energy to sit still, they ran off to the woods to look for lizards and squirrels and whatever else they could find.
Shaking the water from his hair, Hardane sat down on the grass beside her.
"How do you feel?" he asked as he placed one hand over her swollen girth.
"Fine."
"No pains yet?"
"No."
She smiled up at him, touched, as always, by the love and concern in the depths of his eyes. The bond between them had grown stronger in the last two years, so that she often felt as if a part of herself was missing when he was not nearby.
Kylene let her fingertips glide over his cheek. "Do you think you're ready?"
Hardane grunted softly, remembering how her pains had become his during the birth of their sons.
"I'm ready," he said gruffly, and knew he'd walk through the fires of Gehenna if it was what she desired.
Gently, he pressed kisses to her forehead, to the tip of her nose, to each cheek, and then, to her lips.
"I promised to love you for all time," he murmured, "in joy or sadness . . ."
"In good times and bad," Kylene added, threading her fingers through his hair.
"In happiness and pain," Hardane finished.
"I love you," she murmured.
"And I love you," he replied.
Lifting her to her feet, he drew her into his arms and kissed her with all the love in his soul, and then, hand in hand, they walked toward the woods, drawn by the happy laughter of their sons.