Silver Mask

Epilogue - Mare

Hey guys, it's been a while (and by a while I mean several years). I haven't been active on Wattpad for a long time, but I recently remembered this and decided to finally crunch out the epilogue to at least give you all and myself some closure. I don't know if I'll ever post on Wattpad again, but I wanted to thank everybody who's supported this fanfic. It meant more to me than you'll ever know (also when did this get to #4 on mareven??)

Anyways, since I wrote this a while after the rest of the fic, it's going to be a little different tonally. I'll also probably be going back through the chapters and fixing some grammar or word choice. Again, thank you to everyone, I love you all, and enjoy!

A few months later...

I snap awake. 1:58 a.m. This keeps happening. Even though the war is over, the nightmares won't stop. Maven doesn't come to my rooms anymore, since he's respecting my plea for time and I've figured out a way to muffle my screaming. I kind of wish he would, though.

I'm enough of a veteran of nights like these to know that I won't be able to fall back asleep, so I quietly slip out of bed to make myself some tea. I use the passageway between mine and Maven's room, which conveniently also connects to the kitchen. As I descend the narrow space, I easily avoid the steps that creak, the muscle memory of the journey burned into my mind. 

When I pass the entrance to Maven's rooms, I pause slightly, brushing my knuckles against the wood. We still haven't really talked since he'd made the broadcast to make Norta a monarchy. He's been wrapped up in fielding off the High Houses and fixing the country, while I've been gathering Newbloods and helping to rebuild the Red communities.

I miss him.

I finally reach the kitchen, and am surprised to find someone else already there.

"Mare?" Maven looks gaunt in the blue glow of the flame he was using to light his way. He stares at me intently, pinning me with his gaze. "You're up early." He smiles, and despite my pounding exhaustion, my heart flutters.

"Hi," I say.

"Hi." He smirks.

"I was gonna make tea," I add, by way of explanation.

"Oh perfect, I already have a pot going." He doesn't stop smiling or looking at me. "It's chamomile, if you don't mind."

"Um—yeah, that's fine," I reply awkwardly. We wait for the water to boil in silence. I can't help but sneak glances at him: at his fingers tapping on the counter, at the disheveled mess of his hair, at the pool of his silk pyjama pants around his feet. It's been so long since I last saw him, since we'd last been alone like this.

"Hey." I blush, caught, but meet his gaze. His eyes are so goddamn blue, it steals my breath away. I steel myself against him.

"Hi." I try, but it comes out more like a whisper.

"Mare," he sighs, "what's going to happen to us? Because I'll wait for you as long as you need, but I have to know if you want me too."

"I do want you," I say quietly, "but I'm scared, Maven. I don't want to get hurt again. I don't want to be the choice you can't make."

"I will never do that to you, Mare," Maven says intensely, "I don't need the crown, but I need you.

I want to be by your side. I want to be here when you cry and when you laugh, and when you need someone, I want that someone to be me. Goddamnit Mare, I love you."

The light flickers across his face, and I study this beautiful man, so different from the Maven I'd met long ago, who'd told me to hide my heart. Now here he is, baring his heart to me, and I don't want to fight alone anymore. 

"I love you too, Maven," I say softly, and fall into him, fall into something warm, and soft, and safe, and good. 

With his arms around me, I can see the truth. We are just two broken, scarred, and healing people, stumbling our way towards each other. I don't quite know how the future would play out, but I know him. I look up into his eyes and he leans down to press a soft kiss to my lips.

And he turns off the stove and leads me back upstairs, leaving our silver masks on the kitchen counter with the long-forgotten chamomile tea.