Head high, she promptly spins on her heel and stalks away.
Grayson hunches beneath his wings, his body deflating. He’s only had his wings for two seconds but he’s already exhibiting all his emotions with them. There is no point hiding behind a mask anymore. He walks quietly, as if he’s afraid he’ll startle everyone more than he already has. After two steps toward our table, Adalie jumps down from the breakfast table and runs right up to him, staring wide-eyed at the chain around his neck. Without a word, she holds up her own, proudly pointing at the single talon on it.
A faint smile lights up Grayson’s face. Adalie is a very little girl, small for her age, and the acknowledging nod he gives her says that the fact she has killed a talon crow—even a small one—is impressive.
She holds out her arms to be picked up and his eyes turn into saucers. He glances left and right.
I shake my head with a laugh. “She doesn’t mean me.”
Adalie says, “Golden Gargoyle, you need a hug.”
She calls him a gargoyle. His eyes widen even further.
Baelen grins at them both. Any hint of distrust on his part disappears. Adalie can see right into Grayson’s soul and if she trusts him, then none of us have anything to fear from him. Baelen swings Adalie up and deposits her into Grayson’s arms. Grayson catches her and she giggles, throwing her little arms around his big chest, snuggling her head against his heart.
“Careful, Grayson,” I whisper as I glide past. “She will steal your heart and discover all your secrets in a single beat.”
Grayson is frozen. He holds her as if she’ll break, shocked when she doesn’t. Thawing with each second, he drops his head to briefly press his cheek to the top of her forehead. He is full of amazement. “Her hair is so soft.”
He has never held a child before. I widen my eyes at him with emphasis. “You should hold the babies. They have the softest skin you’ve ever felt. But first… breakfast.”
After that, Grayson works very hard to assimilate into the gargoyle way of life, taking up work with Iago traveling all over Erador repairing damaged homes and rebuilding ones that Howl destroyed long ago. One morning, I enter the food hall to find him sitting with Roar and Gilda and their two children. He and Roar have similar wing structures and I find them comparing the patterns on their wings.
Afterward, Grayson tells me, “I’m trying to find out who my father was. I think he might have been from the same clan as Roar—the Sunflight Clan.”
“That’s also Talia’s clan.”
He falls quiet. “I have one more apology to make, but I don’t know how to make it.”
“Not to me, surely.”
A self-satisfied smile touches his lips. He almost laughs, but not quite. “The only thing I’ll apologize to you for is that I’m not sorry.”
I try not to smile. I’m glad Baelen isn’t here to hear him say that.
“No… this apology is to someone who did nothing but try to protect her friends…”
I purse my lips. I’ve seen the way he looks at Talia. He wants to bridge the gap but doesn’t know how and she is definitely not making it easy for him. If anything she has become even more fierce and distant. “Talk to Roar. He may have some ideas.”
Grayson nods and goes on his way.
I hardly see him for months. Winter comes and goes. My peoples’ battles become smaller: a crop that fails, a storm that destroys several homes (not my doing), and finally, the hilarious debate about how to fit the elven crown on my head at the same time as my headpiece.
Ten months after the battle, I awake to the day of my official coronation. Today I will receive both the elven crown and the mark of the Supreme Incorruptible. As my eyes open to the new day and sunlight drifts through my window, Baelen strokes my hair, kissing my forehead and then my lips. “Good morning Supreme Incorruptible.”
“Good morning, Wrathful One.”
He gathers me up against him so that I’m lying on top of him. I push up so I can see his face, my auburn hair falling like a curtain around his face. He strokes my back, a slow smile growing as he finds the base of my shirt and my bare skin. His feather-light touch scatters shivers all the way to my toes.
I will never get tired of the look in his eyes that tells me our bodies are too far apart. “I love you, Baelen Rath.”
He rears up beneath me, gathering my legs around his waist and raising us into a sitting position. “I love you, Marbella Mercy.”
My answer is a kiss. There are no adequate words to tell him how much I feel for him. Only actions. A long time later, a discrete knock at my door tells me we’re late. I throw the door open, fully clothed and dressed now, surprising Talia and Elise who both wait for me and probably expected me to be scrambling right now. They are both dressed in simple, elegant gowns, their smiles making them glow. Behind them, my family beam at me, rushing forward to hug me until I’m breathless. My brother knocks the air out of my lungs with his enormous bear hug.
We are in the Rath House because this is where I have chosen to be crowned.
Elise flaps her hands at Macsen. “Don’t crush her dress.”
