Finding Bliss Page 7

  “Leave,” Maurelle said. “Leave and never speak to me again. From now on, I will remember the death of my uncle as the day both Roldan and Blissa died.”

  “Maurelle, please don’t be like this.”

  “Leave.”

  Her eyes were cold and black, blacker than Blissa had seen them before. She hesitated a moment, uncertain if now was the time to push the issue, to try to make her case again. But, she had a feeling Maurelle would be intractable at the moment. She’d try again later.

  “Alright cousin, I’ll go for now. Just remember I love you and I want nothing more than for you to be happy.”

  Epilogue

  The band was playing as Blissa and Edmund danced to the wedding tune, a custom here in the kingdom of Epesland. Her smile faded as she looked out at the gathered crowd. There were so many people there, both fairy and human, but it still pained her that Maurelle had not come.

  “Your cousin will come around,” Edmund said.

  “Did you gain the power of emotions that I gave up?” she asked, as he twirled her around the floor.

  He chuckled and said, “No, of course not, dear. I just know it hurt you that she refused to see reason, that she refused to forgive.”

  Blissa nodded. Edmund was right. “I just thought that if we did the things she asked, gave her time to calm down, that eventually she would understand.”

  “Sometimes grief is too great, Blissa,” he said. “Sometimes it changes people for the worse, so that all they feel is the bad and never the good anymore, and then, eventually, all they’re able to do is give anger.”

  Blissa frowned. “Don’t say such things, Edmund,” she said, pulling him closer. “I know what happened to your father haunts you, but not everyone is ruined by grief. I’ve lost my father and I’ll be alright.”

  “You have me,” he said.

  “And Maurelle has Eldred,” she said. She took a fortifying breath and looked around the room. “I think we just need to give her time. She’ll realize that we’re family and she should forgive. I especially think if she finds bliss, that will help.”

  “She just has to find you again, and then she’ll be happy?”

  “Not Blissa,” she corrected. “Just bliss. It’s a fairy expression—‘may you find bliss in all you do.’”

  Edmund chuckled. “I do like the sound of that,” he said. “I think we will have to make it an expression in our kingdom, too. And let me be the first to say that I have found bliss eternal with you.”

  “As have I,” Blissa said, and they danced the evening away.

  THE END

  (At least for now. If you haven’t read Dream Trysts: A Sleeping Beauty Story, be sure to check it out. This story complements that one, and while the bulk of Dream Trysts is about the princess Briar Rose and her love James, we do learn what becomes of Blissa, Edmund, Maurelle and Eldred.)