“She sees auras.”
“Oh.”
He sighed and took her hand in his, squeezing it gently. “I have my pride, Ashta. You left me with nothing. Not even something to fight against to win you back. There was nothing I could do to protect you or my own child. I am not accustomed to feeling so helpless.”
“It was a child you didn’t want”, she pointed out quietly. “You made that clear from the beginning.”
“The time wasn’t right, that was all. I was going to battle. I couldn’t bring myself to leave behind an unborn child that might never see his father. I didn’t want to leave a family behind, unprotected.” He smiled ruefully. “I was determined… I thought I was strong enough to wait. I wasn’t.”
Nessa’s whole body relaxed. It wasn’t that he didn’t want a child, just that he hadn’t wanted to leave one behind unprotected. And now the battle was over.
This time when she looked at him, she knew she was glowing. She could feel it. “You don’t know it’s a boy.”
He looked sheepish, and her lips curled into a smile.
“Meara again? I guess I’m having a boy, then.”
“Weare. And I want him. I want him with all of my heart. And I want you, with all of my soul. Now that I know what it is to have you, I would never be able to live without.”
She leaned closer, desperately needing to feel his mouth against hers after everything they had been through, but he surprised her by standing up. He reached into his pocket and pulled something out, holding it tightly in his fist. Then Bridei, bold and proud King of the Picts, dropped to his knees in front of her. Her heart stuttered when he looked up, and she felt as if she were barely breathing. In his eyes, she could clearly see his love for her, burning bright and fierce.
“I am a king and a warrior, Nessa. I have killed thousands of men, and led still thousands more into battle. I have done none of this by being humble, or weak, or fainthearted. I have been ruthless; brutal and without mercy when I have needed to be. And Nessa,I kneel before no one. But without you, I am nothing. You are in my blood; you are the fire in my heart.I love you, my Ashta.”
He opened his hand, and in it lay a golden amulet. She sucked in a breath. It was a smaller, more feminine version of his own. He took her hand, placed the amulet in her palm, and folded her fingers closed around it.
“If you wear it, I will know that you are mine.Mine, Ashta. No one else’s.”
She squeezed her fingers shut as tears welled in her eyes. Then, without a word, she opened them again and slipped the golden chain over her head so that the amulet rested just above her breasts. “I am yours”, she barely choked out.
He growled in answer, low in his throat, a bestial sound—but she wasn’t afraid. Instead, it made her blood thrum in her veins as her body responded in a most primitive way.
“Bridei”, she said on a sob, “I need you…” And she did. She felt ungrounded, adrift in this new world and the frightening intensity of her emotions.
He was on her in an instant, taking her lips in a deep, hard kiss. “I’m here…from now on and forever, I’ll always be here. We will wed tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow? So soon?”
He rolled over, pinning her beneath him. “I am an impatient man.”
She knew that wasn’t true. He had spent nearly a decade carefully and strategically uniting his kingdom. He was the very definition of patience. “No, you’re not”, she told him with a smile.
He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her forehead. “Then I am impatient only to make you mine front of all of my people and the gods.” He traced her lips with a gentle finger as he looked down at her.
“This…what is between us, I can’t begin to believe it. I have plundered hundreds of treasures. I have more gold than I could ever need. But you…you are the most precious thing I have ever known. I will never give you up, and if ever again a man even thinks of trying to take you from me, Iwillkill him. I do not make the same mistake twice.”
Nessa smiled. “Then we’ll be wed tomorrow.”
“Are you certain, Ashta? Once we are united by blood and by the gods, I will never let you go.”
“And you would let me go now?”
He shook his head once with certainty. “No. I would die to keep you with me.”
“Then what is the difference?”
“The difference is, that I would make you my Queen.”
Nessa had never seen so much gold in her life, let alone worn it. A gold band circled each of her arms, and another wreathed her head. The dress she wore was adorned with both gold and precious stones, as well as fine embroidery.
