“I love you too,” she said with a smile.
His heart was hammering. And was this even the right place, the right way to go about it? Maybe he should have stopped the cart at an overlook like he’d been planning at first—but it was dark, there wasn’t much to see but stars.
He’d made up his mind, and now he had to live with it, whether or not there had been a better way to go about it.
He prayed she’d say yes. It’d just about kill him if she didn’t.
He helped Cassia down and moved Tiny to the pen, glad his father had agreed in advance to take care of the bull once they were back. Aevrin walked slowly up the steps with her, pausing to wipe his sweaty hands on his trousers, terrified. The light streamed out of the house’s windows, through the drawn curtains, and the porch was empty. Cassia reached for the door.
He grabbed her wrist to stop her. She looked back at him in surprise.
For a moment he just stood there, staring at her, as the small part of his mind that wasn’t bleating in panic repeatedkneel. This is where you kneel. Damn it, man, you gotta kneel.
He sank slowly to one knee, heart pounding, as Cassia’s eyes went wide. She clapped a hand over her mouth and stared down at him.
“Cassia,” Aevrin rasped, as he fiddled in his pocket for the ring. Had he lost it? No, there was the small wooden box. He pulled it out with a hand that shook.
“Really?” she breathed. “You really…”
He smiled, bowed his head a moment, then hunted for the words he’d planned. They didn’t come. He was just going to have to speak from the heart.
“I dunno if this is the best place to ask this, but I fell in love with you in this house, Cassia, and…”
“Yes,” she said, her voice wavering.
“I want to spend my life with you. I want to wake up with you every day, and raise our children together in that house we build. I want to take care of you when you’re sick and hold your hand when times are hard. You impress me every day with how sweet you are, and funny, and smart. I know it’s fast, but I’ve been sure you were the one since we got started and I waited as long as I could. Cassia Clarek, you’re all I want out of this life. Will you spend yours with me? Say you’ll marry me, please.”
He opened the box to show her the ring.
It couldn’t have been more than a second or two. It was the longest, hardest wait of his life.
“Yes,” Cassia managed to say, even though she was crying, and smiling, and nodding all at once. He grinned, grabbed the ring, and carefully slid it up the finger she held out to him. Aevrin stood swiftly and grabbed her around the waist. He kissed Cassia hard on the lips—difficult, as she was still laughing—then softly kissed just below each of her eyes, where the tears of happiness were running. She clung to him, gasping for breath, and stuck her hand out to look at the way the emerald ring sat there, flanked with small gold stones to represent Vada. He'd give the drake his own gift, the traditional piece of gold owed to a bonded dragon on a betrothal, tomorrow.
The front door slammed open.
“They were watching through the window,” Gramma Prisca hollered, as Aevrin’s brothers and sisters, all but Sorven, swarmed forward to congratulate them. “Itold‘em not to!”
“Oh,” Cassia said, still laughing, overwhelmed by the sea of hugs. And then she froze.
Aevrin put his hand on her back as her eyes lit on Rylan, frozen in the doorway, staring back at his older sister. He’d only been on the front half a year, but it had changed him. His hairwas cut short, and he’d lost considerable weight; the features of his face had gone from soft to sharp.
“What?” Cassia whispered.
“I’m just here a week,” Rylan said, and smiled nervously. “They let me come be here for it. On account of heroics. Sorven sends his love.”
She looked at Aevrin in shock, who nodded confirmation that yes, he’d known, and had kept the surprise from her.
“Pa arranged his transport,” Aevrin said. “I hope that’s alright. We all wanted to surprise you.”
Cassia stepped forward and swallowed her brother in a hug.
“I’m so fucking happy for you,” he heard Rylan whisper to Cassia. “Congratulations. You deserve this. Every second of it.”
“Come on inside,” Gramma Prisca called, as Mavek clapped Aevrin on the back with a big grin and crazy eyes, and Dariek gave him a simple, silent nod.
They filtered back into the house, Cassia letting go of Rylan, and wiping her tears one-handed as Aevrin took her arm.
In the living room Sath Riveker poured sparkling rose wine into an assortment of different sized and shaped cups on the center table. There was a platter of custards and miniature cakes from the town’s bakery on the table next to the cups of wine. Not up to Cassia’s standards, Aevrin knew, but he could hardly have asked her to cater her own engagement.
