The central stone was Paraíba tourmaline, the exact color of Pharis’ eyes. It was surrounded by a sea of smaller stones,diamonds that reminded me of the stars we’d seen every night during our long ride from Waterdale to Havendor.
“It’s gorgeous,” I gasped.
Of course I wouldn’t have cared if it had been forged from one of Dargan’s melted horseshoes. I wanted it.
I wantedhim.
Pharis gave me a tremulous smile, his brilliant blue-green eyes wet and shining.
“You know I love you. You’ve said you love me. I want us to spend eternity together. Will you, Raewyn Hennessey, give me the only thing I’ve ever really wanted in my life? Will you be my bond-mate? Will you marry me?”
A fountain of joy gushed from my heart and flooded my whole body.
I touched his face, stroking my fingertips from his temples over his cheekbones and down to rest on that masculine cut-granite jaw of his.
“When I met you, I thought you were the most beautiful—and most wicked—man I’d ever seen,” I said. “It turns out you were all of that but so much more. You are fierce and protective and powerful, but you also have the most tender, deeply loving heart I’ve ever encountered. I can’t imagine an eternity apart from you.”
I paused to draw a shaky breath, fighting tears. “So yes, Pharis Randalin. I will be your bond-mate. I will marry you. And I will love every part of you for the rest of forever.”
Pharis let out a whoop and surged to his feet, pulling me up with him and spinning me around.
Setting my feet on the ground, he kissed me, and that single act was filled with more love and joy than I’d ever expected to feel in my life before we’d met.
When the kiss ended, I looked up into Pharis’ sparkling gemstone eyes, seeing myself in them. Seeinglovein them.
The real kind no spell could ever hope to imitate.
“I want you to know that whether we ever have a child together, no matter how long it takes, I will be happy just to share eternity with you,” I told him. “And I’m not opposed to a few centuries of trying to conceive.”
He laughed and gave me a heated look that was halfway between lust and worship.
“Istillthink you might have sexual glamour,” he said.
Giving him a naughty grin, I tucked one finger into my fiance’s waistband and began slowly leading him from the ballroom, casting a seductive look back over my shoulder at him.
“Why don’t we go upstairs… and find out?”
Epilogue
Mareth— One year later
Thanks to the Evanescing glamour of Stellon’s wife Kem, traveling between Seaspire and Stormcrest was a much faster and more pleasant journey than it would have been by horse and carriage.
Good thing, since I intended to visit my new nephew frequently.
“I do hope we’ve given them enough time to settle in before paying a visit,” Kem said.
She was clearly worried, glancing anxiously at the castle’s front doors as we awaited admittance.
Stells gave his bond-mate a reassuring pat and a brief kiss.
“We’ve been invited, remember?” he said. “There was no way my brother could wait more than a few days to show off the results of his ‘curse-defying virility.’”
Hopefully the speed with which King Pharis of Marinus and his bride had produced a royal heir was evidence that the Earthwives’ curse wasn’t real. Although, the fact that Raewyn was half-human might have had something to do with it.
The doors opened, and the butler smiled at us widely.
“Welcome, welcome in all,” Glave said.
