My own smile wobbles as I search his gaze. “The council won’t like the message we’re sending.” Even if it is unintentional. Though I doubt very much Nox hadn’t already thought of any implications that might arise when I show up on his arm adorned in a Mage Kingdom crown.
“They’ll get over it,” he says much too confidently, then chuckles at the less than convinced look on my face. “It doesn’t matter, Rhea. As long as you’re mine, everyone else is going to have to get on board. Now, come on. We have two things we need to take care of.”
“Two?” I question, interlacing my fingers with his and walking at his side as we exit the room. I knew of one thing that Nox wanted—Iwanted—to do before the ball tonight. One that I had spent time talking with him about ever since Selene brought it up on my last visit to the Middle.
“It’s a surprise.” His eyes sparkle, something knowing and excited gleaming in them. I expect to head to the first floor, but instead, we continue up the stairs to the third, my steps slowing when we come to his room. “Not here.” He gestures farther down the hall, where the secret door to the garden is. Nox turns us so that we are facing each other, the door like an ominous ghost hovering at our sides.
“I know you’ve tried going down alone, and unless you haven’t told me, I’m assuming that you haven’t made it to the bottom yet.” I shake my head as I hold his gaze. “I was hoping we could try again, together. If you want.”
I turn my gaze to the door, as if it will give me its opinion on the matter. But this decision, like all of the ones I’ve made while with Nox, lies solely with me. I could feel defeated that I hadn’t been able to conquer this on my own, or I could celebrate the fact that I wasn’t alone anymore. That I had someone who loved me unconditionally and who knew when to push and when to give me the time and space to figure things out on my own. Whoknew me better than I sometimes knew myself, but who never forced me in a direction that I hadn’t chosen on my own.
Looking back to him, his face open and gaze soft, I smile and say, “Let’s go.”
Chapter Seventy-Four: Rhea
There’s a door atthe bottom of the staircase.
I had assumed as much, but what I hadn’t imagined was how beautiful it would be. Inset in its middle is a stained-glass window with the image of a tall albero tree under a twinkling night sky. My fingers trace over the glass, the temperature cool despite the trickling of sunlight pouring in at its center. “This is stunning.”
Nox rubs his thumb over the back of my hand as he nods his head. He never once let go as we descended the stairs. I used mymagic to light our way, but Nox moved with the practiced ease of someone familiar with the darkness that lingered there. It was as exhilarating as it was frightening, and my legs shook with every step, but we had made it to the bottom. Together.
I let loose a long exhale at the gentle flowing breeze and the calming light of sunset when Nox opens the door. We step down onto a pristine white stone path that leads away from the palace and winds through the garden, and I gasp as I take in the view. The colors are resplendent, and as I look around, noticing the natural perimeter created by albero trees, I can’t help but feel like this is less of a garden and more of a work of art.
Centered between the walkway and a small teal-colored stream is a massive tree. Though not as tall as some of the others that line the forests of the Mage Kingdom, this one is much wider, its branches growing high before forming an arc and drooping back down towards the ground. Beyond the tree, the plants and flowers seem to shimmer from certain angles, their floral scent heady in the air.
I take in another deep breath as our steps click against the stone, the sweet-scented air reminding me of a different place—a different time. “When I was in the tower, sometimes a breeze would carry the scent of flowers up to my balcony. I would close my eyes and daydream about dragging my fingers along their petals, how delicate they would feel beneath my fingertips. What walking in an entire garden might smell like as opposed to getting wisps of the fragrance along the wind.” I reach out and carefully touch the velvet-soft petals of a burgundy flower and then a purple one, its petals long and curling. “Sometimes, I’m afraid that this is a dream.”
“Which part?”
“All of it. Being with you and living in this place. Having friends and training out in the open with my magic. Living withoutfear.”
Nox nods his head, the diamonds of his crown glinting beneath the sunlight and casting white flares on the emerald-green grass. “What convinces you that it’s real? That you’re really here?”
“Going for a walk and seeing the dots of sunlight streaming in through the canopy of the trees above me. I don’t think I could dream up a sight more beautiful than that. Occasionally, it’s remembering that Alexi and Bella are gone and that if thiswerea dream, they’d most certainly be here.” He squeezes his hand around mine, leaning over to press a kiss to my head. “But the biggest thing, the one that works the fastest to bring me into the present and prove to me that this life I’m living isreal, is your touch. Your scent. The way you love me. Justyou.”
I hear Nox’s breath hitch as he guides us to a shady spot right underneath the majestic tree. Its dark branches stretch overhead, while leaves in lavender and deep blue pour from the ends like mini waterfalls.
“You anchor me. You have since the day you entered my life.” We turn to face each other, my hand reaching up to brush a strand of hair off of his forehead before I cradle his face and continue speaking. “I don’t think I’ve ever said this to you, but you saved me, and I don’t just mean in the literal sense. You kept me from sinking into a place there would have been no return from. I think I finally comprehend what you mean when you say you choose me over your crown. Because I could be given every treasure, every valuable piece of land or the highest title one can have, and none of it would compare to how it feels to be loved by you.”
Nox covers my hand with his own, turning his face to kiss the center of my palm. “Damn it, Rhea,” he breathes, blinking the glassy look in his eyes away. “Iwas supposed to be the one who gave the big declaration of love today.”
I scrunch my brows together as he places another kiss on my palm before bringing his hands to my shoulders and slowly spinning me to face the trunk of the tree.
“Close your eyes,” he whispers as his hands slowly travel down to my hips, holding me in place. I do, feeling him draw his magic out. “When I was a boy, shortly after my Flame Ceremony, I would come out here to the gardens and test my magic. Test the limits on my own of what I could do as someone with more power than the kingdom had seen in centuries. I understood the responsibilities I would bear, even if I didn’t yet know the lengths to which I would go to fulfill them. But, like I told you when you woke up from the Middle, I was happy to give all of myself to protect this place. To protect these people.” Nox removes his hands from my body just as the breeze picks up, shaking the leaves of the tree above us. “I have two gifts for you,” he says softly, his fingers moving over my shoulders and down to my collarbone, where I feel the shock of cold metal against my chest. He clasps what I assume to be a necklace before his hands leave me once more. “Turn around and open your eyes,” he says, emotion thickly laced within the words.
My eyes flutter open, and as I begin to turn around, my gaze catches on the way the leaves are falling from the branches all around us, like a twilight-colored rain. The last remnants of the golden sun before it sets paint the garden with a luminous glow, the scene almost too beautiful to be real. Cool air caresses my skin, the rattling of the leaves and gentle babbling of the small stream heightening the storybook effect of this place.
Nox grabs one of my hands and draws my attention to him, to where he’s kneeling on one knee in front of me. “What are you doing?” I ask, smiling at the way his eyes brighten.
“The first gift is hanging around your neck,” he says, gesturing with his chin to the necklace. I reach up with my free hand to find a small oval-shaped gold locket layered abovethe dragon pendant. “In a normal situation, I might have asked permission from your father or guardian first. I might have gone to them and explained all the ways I planned to love you, to keep you safe, toworshipyou as we grow old together. I might have tried to sell myself as someone honorable and worthy of your love in return.” My heart beats more harshly, the sound reverberating over my bones, while my magic uncoils from within me and rises to attention. “But our story is not anormalone. My love for you is anythingbutnormal. While, for you, I will always be honorable, I know that being worthy enough to call myself yours is something I will have to strive for every single day.”
“Nox,” I whisper, pressure building behind my eyes as I fully take in his position. As the words he’s speaking to me finally settle between my ears. “What are you doing?”
There’s a slight tremble to his hand, and his inhale is shaky, but when he speaks, his voice—deep and captivating—rings out into the air with conviction. “When I first met you, I thought there was only one kind of love—the kind you would die for. I had been ready and willing to die—and do far worse—because I loved my family and my kingdom. That’s what I remember thinking about as a little boy here in this garden, how true love meant you would be willing to sacrifice every part of yourself to protect it. Then I met you, and you showed me what it was to have a love worthlivingfor.”
I release the locket from my grasp and reach up to wipe away the tears that have gathered in my eyes. Nox’s thumb gently brushes the back of my hand in reassuring sweeps as his other hand dives into his pocket and reemerges with a small black velvet box. Everything stills—each tree and flower and star flickering to life in the dusk sky pauses to watch.
“I never realized how deprived I was until I tasted your lips—your skin. I never knew home could be a person and not aplace until the day you told me you loved me for the first time. I now understand with absolute certainty that if I were to follow the threads of my soul through the immeasurable distance of time and space—in this lifetime and every other—I would always find yours entangled within them at the end. Our love is not a beginning or an end but aninfiniteconstant.”
