She’d said yes in a heartbeat.
My parents werefurious. I’d ruined their plans, they said. I was supposed to marry a nice, respectable daughter of nobility, someone to oversee the North Territory with me once I became regent lord and bear me plenty of suitable heirs. They thought this was one of my “rebellious phases” and that I’d grow out of it eventually.
They never understood. Father came from a family bred to do as he was told, to marry well while holding duty over love. They hadn’t known what it felt like to have your entire soul, your entire being, wrapped around a single person. Iris was that person. Iriswasmy future, my duty and my love.
Until she wasn’t. Until the same heart disease that took her father shortly after we were married claimed her life too.
The feel of our daughter’s hand pulling mine into the bed beside her dragged me from my memories. “Read me a story, please?” she asked, those sweet brown eyes staring up at me.
I cleared my throat. “What would you like me to read?”
“That one.” She pointed to a small book on her nightstand.
Leaning across to pick up the new book, I read the title on the cover aloud. “Frostine the Fairy and Her Tower in the Sky. This one looks new.”
“Mo’s nanny let me borrow it!” Marigold said enthusiastically. “She told me I look like the fairy.”
She was right. Frostine the Fairy was front and center on the cover, with her brown, wavy hair spilling onto bright blue wings as she stared out the window of a tall tower. I opened to the first page and began to read, with Marigold’s fingers sweeping over the pages, as was our nightly tradition.
“Frostine the Fairy was born in Fairyland, a magical forest full of all sorts of creatures. She lived with her mother and father and baby fairy brother, until one day, a wicked witch took her from her home and flew her to the highest tower in the kingdom of the giants.”
The rest of the story went on to describe the friends Frostine made in her tower, from the birds who would fly by to the flowers on the vine outside the window that sang songs with her. They tried to help her escape, but Frostine’s fairy wings weren’t strong enough to get her down from the tower.
The wicked witch told Frostine the only way she would be able to leave was if she found her one true love. Frostine spent year after year locked in her tower until one day, a friendly, handsome giant heard her beautiful singing from all the way on the ground. The birds and butterflies who loved Frostine so much told the giant to climb the tower to rescue her.
“The giant used the vine to climb up to her window, and when he saw her, he thought she was the most beautiful, kindestcreature he’d ever seen. They fell in love at first sight and, true to her word, the wicked witch gave magic to Frostine’s wings that let her finally leave her tower. Frostine and the giant celebrated with her new friends, and they lived happily ever after.”
I looked down at Marigold, whose soft snores filled the room as her head drooped over my arm. I smiled and lightly kissed the top of her head before extricating myself from the sheets. When I stood and faced the open door, I saw my mother leaning against the frame, a glass of red wine swirling in her grip.
“That’s an interesting story to be telling her,” she said as we backed into the hall and I shut the door with asnick.
“Let me guess: you don’t approve.”
“It’s just these stories of finding your one true love and love at first sight,” she waved her wine glass in the air with a heavy sigh, “it puts all these fanciful thoughts in her head.”
“And you don’t believe in those things, Mother?”
“They’re pretty to think about, but that’s not life. Love won’t rescue you. Only you can do that for yourself.” Padding across the hall to her guest room, she added, “I remember what this idea of love did to you, Thorne. I remember how it broke you. And I would never wish the kind of pain we’ve had on that little girl.”
“I think both can be true,” I said quietly. “I wouldn’t trade away what I had. The good or the bad.”
Iris had rescued me. She’d saved me from a future caught under my parents’ thumbs, from a downward spiral of regrets and shallow pleasures that would have never fulfilled me. And, in the end, her love was what helped me rescue myself. What gave me the strength to overcome her loss and be the father Marigold needed me to be.
“Then you’re a fool,” Mother said simply, settling into an armchair in front of the fire in her suite. Her navy gown trailed at her feet, the dark blue jewels around her neck catching the light of the glowing embers.
I rolled my eyes but didn’t argue, knowing full well how she was when she got in these moods. Azura Reaux wasn’t a dreamer.She was ambitious and pragmatic, doing what needed to be done to reach a desired goal. Principled and realistic. I believed she loved my father, in her own way—out of a sense of responsibility and loyalty. Because that was what she was supposed to do. And when he left her four years ago, I’m not sure it broke her heart so much as it broke an intrinsic part of her that trusted him to fulfill his duty. She was betrayed and left to pick up the pieces of a life they’d made for themselves. It had turned her even colder and more calculated, and part of me couldn’t blame her.
Her next words were so soft and unexpected, they startled me.
“I do know what it’s like, you know.” She stared into the crackling fire. “I was in love once. Long ago.”
I sank into the chair across from her. “I’m guessing this isn’t about Father.”
“Your father was…well, he was good at what he did.” She shrugged, her gaze still on the fire. “Managing the territory. Keeping the people in line. Answering to the king. Everything we were supposed to be. But…he was not the man I’d intended to marry.”
She’d never spoken of this before. I didn’t know much about her youth, besides the fact that she and her parents hadn’t gotten along. I’d never met my grandparents because of their estranged relationship.
“We grew up together,” she continued, the firelight dancing in her eyes. “He was…everything to me. A best friend, a confidant, one who could always make me smile. You know, I saw a bit of myself in you that first time you brought Iris home to us. That same epic love.” She smiled wistfully at me, and warmth settled around us. “I know I was hard on you about her. I supposed I just knew the kind of heartache that could come from a love like that, and I feared for you. I never wanted any pain to come to you.”
