King of Slaves (Jenna's Story) (The Slave Series Book 5) (44 page)

Jenna stopped walking and put a hand on Aya’s shoulder to stop her too. “Without Sybina, Aston would probably have been dead. Without you, Kato would have never had the motivation to escape.”

Aya nodded slowly “I guess that’s true.”

Jenna frowned. “You have daughters.”

Aya nodded. “Yes, Liv and Freya.”

“Soon I’ll have two daughters too,” Jenna said, and placed a hand on her belly. “I want my girls to grow up and have strong female role models to look up to. Especially since they will grow up in this male-dominated country. Please don’t try to make what you did seem like nothing. It took great courage and personal strength, and I won’t have you dismisse it as something insignificant. Aya, you played an important part in the modern history of Spirima. Without you, I probably wouldn’t have met Kioni or become the mother of my children.”

Aya looked stunned.

“Are you coming?” Alex called out and both women started walking again.

“So you’ll have three children like me,” Aya finally said.

“Yes, Emily is five, Victor is three, and then there is this little princess, who is due in three weeks’ time.”

“You know it’s a girl?”

“Yes.”

“Have you found a name for her yet?” Aya asked with a smile.

“Yes, we have.”

“Is it a secret?”

“Yes, but I’ll whisper it to you if you promise to keep it a secret until the naming ceremony.”

Aya nodded. “Of course; you can trust me.”

They stopped again and Jenna leaned in and held up her hand as she whispered.

“My baby’s name will be Aya Hunilla Golma Kopilus.”

“Nooo.”

“Yes,” Jenna smiled conspiratorially. “Aya after you because of your bravery and Hunilla after Uma’s mom, who gave her life to protect her daughter. Those are two great role models to be named after, don’t you think?”

“Can I tell Uma?” Aya whispered with excitement.

“If you don’t mind, I would like to tell her myself before the naming ceremony.”

“I don’t know what to say. I’m extremely honored.”

“You don’t have to say anything.” They continued walking and when they came to the park a little blond girl came running toward them. “Mor, Mor,” she called and threw herself at Aya.

Jenna smiled. “I assume ‘mor’ means mom in Norwegian?”

“That’s right. This is my youngest, Freya.” Aya kissed the little girl, who had adorable blond curls and had to be around three or four.

“She looks just how I imaged Liv,” Jenna said.   

Aya looked down at her little daughter and brushed her curls back. “Actually, Liv did look a lot like Freya does now – oh, talking about the sun.” Aya placed Freya on her hip and pointed ahead to where a girl came toward them with a young man holding her hand. She had long hair and looked shy, with her head bowed down.

“Hey, sweetie,” Aya said.

“Hi, I’m Aidan,” A handsome young man offered his hand to Jenna.

“Hello, Aidan, my name is Jenna.”

“I know, Your Majesty,” he answered politely.

“Just call me Jenna; we’re all friends here and this is not an official visit – there’s no need to be formal,” Jenna told him and turned her attention to the girl next to him.

“Hello, Liv,” Jenna said and bowed down in front of her. “It’s nice to meet you.”

Liv dared a quick look into Jenna’s eyes before she looked to the side, stepping on her own toes in embarrassment.

“Do you want to give the queen the flowers you picked for her?” Aidan asked softly.

Liv held out her little hand with a small bouquet of flowers.

“Oh, thank you, dear, they are lovely.”

Right then loud voices were heard behind them and Kalen, Emily, and Victor came running around the corner. Jenna waved them over. 

“Liv, I want to introduce you to my daughter Emily. She’s a bit younger than you, but I’m hoping you can be great friends.”

Emily stepped closer, looking a bit shy too. “Hello,” she said and rubbed her nose. “Who are you?”

“I’m Liv.”

The two girls stood for a while, not speaking, both looking up at their moms for help.

“Why don’t you show Liv your playhouse?” Jenna suggested.

Emily turned to Liv again. “Do you want to see my playhouse?”

“Okay,” Liv followed Emily and while they were still within earshot Jenna heard Liv ask. “Are you a real princess?”

Hours disappeared as the group had lunch and talked in the park. Stories were shared and questions answered, and when the children begged for a game of circle ball all the men got up to play.

“I don’t know what circle ball is,” Aston admitted. 

“Neither did we, but it’s the Spirimian version of softball,” Alex told him. “Just hit the ball and run as fast as you can.”

“Got it.”

The women cheered, and when Uma joined the game and outran the men, the women cheered even louder.

“How old is she now?” Alex asked Sybina.

“Uma just turned twenty.”

“And what are her plans?”

“She’s studying at the university; her dream was to become a human rights attorney, but her grades weren’t good enough to get accepted to law school.”

Jenna looked over to see the dark-haired girl stick her tongue out at Aidan as her fiancé passed her and slapped her hard on her butt. He grinned back at her and winked.

“So what did she choose instead?”

“Journalism.”

“Oh, that’s great. And Aidan, what does he do?”

“He’s working for Kato now. He got his degree in economics and is really talented with numbers.”

Jenna looked down and picked at the grass. “We were worried that you might not want to come back to Spirima… we thought that it might be a reminder of the horrible things that happened to you all here.”

Aya was thoughtful for a few seconds. It was clear that they had just moved from cozy small talk into an emotionally loaded territory.

“To be honest, we were surprised to get the invitation to visit. I mean we read about your engagement and wedding and were hoping that an American would bring a breeze of fresh air to this country, and you certainly have. But still, Kato was a Masi warrior and if he had been caught back then, he would have been executed for it, so to suddenly be invited to the palace as a guest…”

“Ohh, but he helped bring down the Masi movement, so we see him as a hero,” Jenna said quickly.

Aya smiled but there was a sadness behind her beauty. “I really don’t know how he feels about it. He lost a lot of family members in that awful war and for years he was taught to believe the king did his family wrong.”

The women looked at Kato, who was swinging Thor, his son, in the air. They were both smiling from ear to ear.

“He looks okay to me,” Alex said.

Aya nodded. “He does, doesn’t he? Yesterday we all talked about going back to see the Masi headquarters and the apartment where I was held captive… but there are mixed opinions about it in our group. Sybina and Aston think it would a good kind of closure, but Uma says she’s never setting her foot in that place again.”

Jenna placed her hand on Aya’s. “You can’t go back.”

“You think it would be too hard?” Aya asked.

“No, I mean it has all been torn down. The area was so destroyed that it was decided to remove it and create a completely new area of the city. You won’t recognize a thing. It’s all modern buildings and green parks now.

Tears welled up in Aya eyes. “Is it all gone?”

“Yes.”

“Everything?” Sybina asked.

“Yes,” Jenna confirmed. “Both the headquarters and the apartment. We built new things instead.”

“Good,” Sybina said. “But I would still like to go and see the area.”

Aya was clearly affected by the news and held her head down, drying away tears. Sybina put a comforting hand on her back. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know what to feel. I was always conflicted about that apartment. It was the place of my nightmare, but without my nightmare I wouldn’t have met Kato. You know?”

“I understand, but isn’t it good that the decision has been made for you? There is no apartment to visit; it’s done, over, and you can have complete closure now.”

Aya nodded. “I think my biggest relief is to know that Kato is no longer in danger of being prosecuted for being a terrorist.”

“No, don’t worry about that. Kato is a friend and always welcome in Spirima. You all are,” Jenna assured her.

“Thank you,” Sybina said softly.

“I hope that you’ll all come back to Spirima and visit us more often.” Alex sat up on her knees. “We’re moving here soon, you know.”

Sybina looked confused. “Oh, but I thought you lived here already.”

“No, we live in Washington D.C., but not much longer.”

Jenna gave Alex a spontaneous hug. “They just told us the good news today, and I’m still pinching my arm that my sister is moving here. It’ll be amazing for our kids to be closer to their cousins.” She beamed with happiness. “As you can tell, I’m really excited about it.”

“Me too,” Alex exclaimed. “I just wish you all lived here too.” She looked at Aya and Sybina.

“We can come visit you from time to time,” Sybina said with a warm smile.

Jenna got excited. “Oh, it would be wonderful if you could all come back for the naming ceremony in July. We have more than a hundred guest rooms, so really, come any time you want to.”

“Thank you, and of course we would be honored to come and celebrate your new one,” Sybina said and turned to Aya. “Right?”

“Absolutely, and hopefully you’ll want to come and visit us in London too.”

“I’ve always wanted to go to London.” Alex widened her eyes. “Jenna went right after high school but I never got the chance.”

“Well, now you have an excuse,” Aya told her. “You’ve got to come and try Sybina’s amazing cooking. We don’t have a hundred guest rooms, but London has excellent hotels.”

Alex nodded her head enthusiastically. “Deal. We’re coming to London and you’ll come here for the naming ceremony.”

Jenna raised her glass with strawberry lemonade.
“To new great friendships,” she said with a smile.

“Yes, to new great friendships,” Sybina, Alex, and Aya all agreed. “And love,” Alex added and was elbowed by Jenna.

“You just had to sneak that in, didn’t you?”

“Of course.” She grinned.

Jenna grinned back. “Alex is a born romantic, and she just started writing historical novels about Highlanders. Everything is about love to her.”

Alex knitted her brows. “People always make fun of the romantics, but I’ll have you know that we are the bravest bunch there is.”

Jenna chuckled. “Really?”

“Absolutely. Love is not for the weak. Love requires immense courage.”

“What do you mean?” Aya asked.

Alex talked with great passion. “Lovers have to face all their fears… there’s the fear of failing, the fear of rejection, the fear of losing your loved one, not to mention the biggest one of all… the fear that you won’t be enough.”

She raised her hand and pointed a finger at all of them. “And with all those fears hammering in your head, you still have to take a huge risk and open your heart up, giving away power that could potentially crush you. Now that is true bravery in my book.”

Sybina smiled and nodded her head. “So true.”

“All right,” Aya said and raised her glass up. “I see your point, so let’s drink to great new friendships and love.”

“To great new friendships and love,” they all said smilingly, banged their glasses together, and drank the refreshing drink while their kids and husbands were playing in the background.

This concludes
The King of Slaves
and the Slave Series. 

A message from Elin Peer (before your bonus):

Thank you for staying with me and the characters all the way to the end. What an emotional journey we’ve been on together!

When I took on the challenge of writing a book, my goal was never to write the
best
book.

My goal was to write a book that would grab the reader. The best way to let me know if I succeeded is to leave a review on Amazon. 

Allow me to express my gratitude to all the readers who cheered me on with messages, comments, and the biggest thing of all,
positive
reviews
. You helped me push through my limiting beliefs and I’m slowly growing into the role of being an author, using your kind words of encouragement. 

Now, dear reader, I invite you on a new journey with some amazing people in my next series called Clashing Colors. Just like in the Slave Series, the Clashing Colors Series offers you five different emotional turbulent stories.

Here’s what you can expect…