I am not expecting her to burst into tears. I fish it out of the toilet and hold it up. “Wait.” I frown. “Did you want me to wash it off first? I swear, it’s just fine. It’s not a permeable membrane. You could throw it in a bucket of?—”
She’s shaking her head. “We’re going to be parents soon, and we aren’t even married.”
Right. Married. Married. “I have somewhere to go.” I point. “You go sleep, and when you wake up. . .”
She blinks.
“Just trust me.”
Thankfully, she does. It takes me a long time, since I don’t know which blessed are handy with shaping and carving stones, and there aren’t many who handle gold, but just before dawn, I finally have a brilliant, red ruby engagement ring.
“You know, humans don’t usually give brides rubies.” Asteria’s examining it in her human form, peering at the rock intently. “But this one is really sparkly. They like that extra refraction.”
I have no idea how she learned so much so fast, but she’s now a self-proclaimed expert. Apparently Jade loves sparkly rocks even as a hatchling.
Asteria frowns and hands it back. “Are you sure you didn’t violate the terms of the agreement?”
“I found this well away from the Mistral Ruby Mine. In fact, it was nowhere near Hillrise.”
She nods. “Good.”
“Wish me luck.”
Jade’s rubbing her eyes. Humans and their need for so much sleep. “Good luck!”
Moments later, I’m poised beside the bed, ready to propose. Liz rolls over, rubs her face and eyes, and starts snoozing again. “Oh, for the love,” I mutter.
I kneel for an hour and thirty more minutes before she finally wakes up, and she has drool crusted on her cheek and chin. Oh, well. She’ll never know, and I actually find it kind of adorable. “My darling Elizabeth Chadwick, would you do me the great honor of marrying?—”
She shoves me on the shoulder and runs past me to the bathroom.
I nearly drop the ring. This is not going well at all.
“Where’s the egg?” She spins around. “Has it hatched yet?”
I shrug. “It could hatch today. It could take several weeks, or even months. Eggs hatch when?—”
Her mouth drops open. “Am I supposed to be sitting on it?”
I laugh. “I put it on warm sands in a basket in the corner of the room.” I point. “I’m perfectly capable of regulating the temperature.”
Her shoulders slump. “You’re proposing?” She rolls her eyes. “Please.”
I slide the ring into my pocket. “I thought you wanted me to.” It’s not even a big deal to the blessed, but I find that I’m strangely demoralized by her rejection and easy dismissal. “You really don’t want to marry me?”
She walks toward me slowly. “You don’t even remember our first kiss.” She presses a finger to my mouth. “You don’t remember stalking me all over that big room in the tower, or?—”
I nip at her finger. “Of course I do.”
She freezes. “What do you mean?”
“When I died, or when I killed Veralden, whatever happened, all my memories came back. I think I had to simply accept who I really am—and all that means—and I found all the parts of me that were missing, including the ones that loved you first.”
Her eyes widen, and her breathing becomes shallow, and the smile grows and grows on her face. “Do you mean that?”
I find myself smiling right back. “Is that a yes, then?”
She leaps into my arms and kisses me, so I’m thinking that it is.
