In the meantime, there were plenty of things I needed to discuss with Orin, anyway. Plenty of things he and Thalia needed to talk about, too. She was less than thrilled about essentially being forced to reconnect with her father, but I did see them exchange a smile by midway through the second day.
Progress, at least.
Meanwhile, Aleks continued to keep his distance from me. I still thought it was because of whatever effect the collected soul shard was having on him and his magic; he refused to even inspect it alongside the rest of us. When Zayn had attempted topress him about it, it had resulted in an argument, and now the two of them were hardly speaking either.
As the sun began to sink below the tree line on the second day, I left the shard of Lorien’s soul in Thalia’s care and set off to find Aleks. I was determined to understand his strange behavior, and to make sure our group didn’t continue to unravel.
To my surprise, it didn’t take long to find him; he sat on the edge of the rickety wooden porch, his gaze fixed in the direction of Rose Point.
I came to stand beside him, leaning over the porch railing. It creaked and swayed a bit, but seemed sturdy enough, so I let it support even more of my weight while I tried to decide what to say.
Aleks ended up speaking first.
“I imagine people have started to swarm Rose Point by now,” he said. “I wonder what they’ll make of it all?”
“They’ll be glad to be rid of it and the spells surrounding it, I’d guess. They’ll probably finish tearing it down. Burn it, cleanse it through some bizarre ritual…whatever they can do to rid themselves of the memory of me and the shadows I brought upon that place.”
He glanced up.
“…They never liked me much,” I said, quietly.
“Their loss, wasn’t it?”
My cheeks warmed a bit. Looking back toward Rose Point, I lost myself again in thoughts of what had been—and whatmighthave been, if things were really as simple as I’d once believed them to be. My political betrothal hadn’t seemed simple at the time, but I would have taken it over what we faced now, no questions asked.
“I was truly prepared to marry you that night, you know.” The words slipped out before I could stop them.
“Really?”
I took a deep breath, steeling myself just as I had on that fateful night. “For the sake of my family and this kingdom that I so desperately wanted to prove myself to, I would have done anything.”
Aleks laughed. “Anything? Well, that makes it less of a compliment to me, doesn’t it?”
I shrugged. “I might have been somewhat attracted to you, too.”
“Only somewhat?”
“Fine.Veryattracted.”
He got to his feet, amusement still lighting up his features. “Interesting.”
“You might not be aware of this, but you’re an incredibly attractive person.”
He drew close enough to kiss me but stopped just short of doing so. My heart skipped a few beats as I stared into the golden depths of his eyes. Those eyes always seemed to catch the moonlight in the most beautiful, intentional way, as if that heavenly sphere couldn’t help being captivated by him, too.
“I’m actually very aware of it,” he said.
I gave him a little shove.
He laughed again, and it sounded so real—the only real, meaningful thing in a day filled with unraveling truths and crumbling beliefs. It also sounded more like the Aleks I knew, making me forget about the odd way he’d been acting.
He looped his arm through mine. We walked for the better part of an hour, following a little offshoot of the larger creek I’d sat beside earlier. It was dangerous to venture too far, so we simply traveled in a circle, doubling back again and again, talking and teasing one another as if we were far more careless than we actually were.
I’d spent so much of these past months walking in frustrating circles, it seemed like. But I didn’t mind this. It felt good to bedirectionless with him. No thoughts of beginnings or endings, no fears about where we’d come from or where we had to go next.
The few stray clouds across the full moon parted, bathing us in bright blue light. We paused beside a relatively deep pool of the otherwise trickling stream, taking in the sight of our reflections. In the glassy water, I watched his arms circling around me from behind, his head coming to rest on my shoulder. The warmth of his body and the feel of his heart beating against my back made me feel steady. Safe.
Taking my hand and spinning me around to face him, he asked, “Would you still marry me?”
