Hey, anybody who is still reading this. I'm really sorry for the long break, I've been trying to write this chapter for a really long time, plus working, plus starting uni and it just all kind of got lost in the mix. Anyway, sorry, and here is the last chapter of this story. Not quite Ruby Circle, but what could live up to that book of awesome? XD Thanks for sticking with this story until the end and coming back for this last chapter, I hope you enjoy it. Please let me know what you think.

Billie. xxx

Epilogue

"Adrian, are you almost ready yet?" I shouted up the stairs. "We need to leave soon."

"Shit, we're going today?" Adrian's head popped out through the doorway.

"Yes, we're supposed to be meeting everyone at the airstrip in an hour."

"Huh, I have a little while left then." His head disappeared again.

"Seriously?" I muttered to myself. I had a feeling that he would stay in there until the last second unless I dragged him out.

I stepped into the room, the smell of paint hitting me. Adrian's studio was a mess, much like his flat in Palm Springs. He spent most days shut up with his brushes and pains, his paintings had not only decorated our home but the homes of Moroi all around Court. Even the Queen had some "Ivashkov's" hanging in the palace, but that was more to do with their close friendship than anything else.

"Adrian, you are covered in paint and I'll bet you haven't even started packing yet."

"Just five minutes more," he pleaded.

"I swear it's like having another kid. In fact, that might be easier because you're worse than all of them," I sighed.

"If I was kid though, I couldn't do this," he said, grabbing my waist and pulling me close to him. He kissed me with so much passion and love that I momentarily forgot about being late to meet our friends and potentially missing the flight to Saint Vladimir's.

"Now I don't want to go either," I said against his lips.

"Tut, tut, Sydney. We couldn't leave everyone waiting, could we? And they say you're the responsible one." Adrian smirked.

I rolled my eyes and using the hand he was holding, dragged him out of the room.

"As attractive as I find the whole paint splashed look, you need to shower."

"Only if you come with me." Adrian smiled a seductive smile that he knew I couldn't resist and I allowed him to pull me into the bathroom with him.

We finally got out of the house, amazingly only fifteen minutes late, but when we made it to the airstrip, nobody was in sight.

"Mr and Mrs Ivashkov," an attendant said as he approached us. "The Queen asked that you meet her on board the plane."

"You see, Adrian, we are late!"

"Sydney, it's no biggie. With Lissa on that plane, it's not going anyway until she says so."

"Sorry," Adrian called out as we boarded the small jet plane. "Sydney just isn't as organised as she used to be, it took forever to convince her that she actually needed to pack."

"Are you kidding me, Mr Just Five Minutes More?" I started dumbfounded at Adrian.

"Adrian, I can see inside your head, and that is such a lie!" Jill teased as he led me to our seats. We made ourselves comfortable and prepared for the flight.

I woke up just as the plane was landing at Saint Vladimir's Academy. It was late in the vampire evening, the sun just beginning to tint the horizon orange. Once we were off the plane and someone had collected out bags to deliver them to guest housing, we were free to go our separate ways. We agreed to meet the others in an hour for dinner in Lissa and Christian's guest suite.

"Who is it?" Asked a bright and cheery voice. Moments later the door opened to show our eldest daughter.

"Sage, it's so good to see you!" I threw my arms around the seventeen year old.

"You too, I missed you." She grinned. "Where's Dad?"

"I am right here, kiddo." Adrian appeared being me, picking her up and swinging her around. I watched as he set her down and playfully ruffled her hair, she screeched in horror and ducked out from beneath his hand.

"Are your brother and sister around?"

"Tattie is probably in the library and I haven't seen Julian for a couple days."

"You haven't seen your brother for two days?" I gaped at Sage, unable to believe that they could avoid each other for that long in a place this enclosed.

"It's a big school and there are separate dorms for male and female dhampirs, you know that, Mom. He's probably… somewhere."

"You two are far too much like your father," I sighed at her lack of concern.

"And Tatiana spends far too much time in the library, just like her mother." Adrian smiled, placing his hands on my shoulders. "Don't worry, he'll be fine. I went off the grid for a week one summer and I was fine."

"Yes, Adrian, but I hope that our fifteen year old son does not indulge in quite the same activities that I am sure you did during that week."

"If by activities, we are talking women, then that is a fair point."

"Ew, guys, daughter present. I really don't want to know what you got up to in your misguided youth."

"My youth was not misguided, I will have you know."

"I beg to differ." I laughed, receiving a frown in return from my husband.

"I shall go to his room now and check that he is still alive," Adrian said softly.

"Thank you." I smiled, pressing a kiss to his cheek.

I watched as Adrian disappeared down the corridor and then took Sage's arm. "Shall we go and see if we can find your sister?"

Dinner was a simple affair; we sat around the table in the royal suite, plates piled high with delicious cooking. I liked to believe that the Academy's cooking was this nice all of the time but Julian, who had thankfully been found alive in his bedroom, said that it was a special perk because the Queen was present.

"Don't believe a word he says, Sydney, you've visited without Mom and Dad before and the food was still delicious," replied the Queen's son, Aidan.

"I agree with Julian," Rose grinned. "I swear the food was never this good in our day."

"It wasn't so bad, perhaps not as good as this, but that never stopped you tucking in day after day," Lissa teased.

"Hey, why let food go to waste? If they're going to make twelve doughnuts, then all twelve doughnuts should be eaten."

"It's a wonder that you're the size you are, Rose." I shook my head in disbelief. I wasn't as worried about my weight as I had once been but I was still slightly jealous of the easily maintained petite size of the Moroi, which had been passed on to Rose and my own dhampir children.

"I get a lot of exercise." She winked back at me whilst also bumping Dimitri's shoulder. He rolled his eyes and blushed ever so slightly whilst the youngsters at the table cringed.

"That is a disgusting thought." Tatiana grimaced. She was the most innocent of our three children, and perhaps the most like the old, Alchemist me; hard-working, bookish and almost completely ignorant of the male sex and their appeal. Unlike her brother who had taken after their father in many a way that greatly worried me.

"Speaking of, who is young love, Aidan, Sage?" Jill smirked at her goddaughter.

"I'm not sure that I like the link from Rose's sex life to my daughter's relationship." I frowned. Aidan and Sage had been friends since birth; forced playdates whilst their parents hung out had turned into a real friendship that had then blossomed into romance a few months ago. I knew that they were in love but it was not easy to think about my teenage daughter having sex, especially at the dinner table.

"It's going well." Aidan smiled at Sage. I couldn't help looking at Adrian; only to find that he was already looking at me with an expression similar to the one on the seventeen year old's face.

"And what about you, Julian? Any sign of a girlfriend?" Christian asked.

"As if, the day Julian has an actual relationship with a girl is the day pigs fly," Alex snorted. He was similar to his father, Eddie, in many ways. Most significantly, he had the same sense of humour as his father whilst also being one of the most skilled and serious novices that I knew.

"Oh right, following in his father's footsteps, eh?" Rose grinned.

"Hey, I tried to be faithful to one girl, but you just wouldn't have me, Little Dhampir!"

"Nice one, Rose." Julian grinned. "Left the old man hanging."

"Hey, she succumbed to my charms. Eventually. But then I met your mom and realised that Rose just wasn't the one for me. She was heartbroken," Adrian said melodramatically.

"That isn't quite how I remember it but whatever you say." Rose rolled her eyes and we all laughed.

The conversation continued on but I stopped paying much attention. Instead I looked around the table at all the people who meant so much to me; my husband, our children, our friends and their children. I had never imagined that I could be so lucky, that life could make me so happy. Adrian glanced across at me and smiled. It was a soft, sweet smile but it conveyed as much love as it had on our wedding day and every day since.

He pulled me close to him and whispered in my ear, "I love you, Ivashkov."