I returned the half hug by looping an arm around his waist. I was ready for a new adventure. One with new experiences and emotions and feelings and—hopefully—one with a tall, powerful, horse-loving summer fae.
She let her walls come toppling down,
He admitted he was wrong,
They saved each other from their pain,
And now their love is song.
Epilogue: Andar
exactly 1 year later
I slipped under the Apothecary sign and opened the door to the shop Khiona and I had set up together on Vitana.
The island had survived my neglect hundreds of years ago—the death that I’d remembered had actually been a magic attack that’s now chronicled in the island’s official histories, as well as the couple who defeated it. But that was history now, and the magistrate had been open to both Khiona and me living here when we arrived last year.
“You can give him this tea every night before bed,” Khiona said as she handed another fae a package. “It should help him relax enough to sleep.”
I held the door for her customer and then flipped the sign on the door around so it read “Closed” instead of “Open.” Khiona watched me and laughed. “The shop is closed?”
“Yes.” I offered her a hand. She untied her apron and hung it on a peg before wrapping her fingers in mine.
She smiled at me—that glorious smile that I fell in love with a little more every time it graced her face. “What are you planning?” She glanced at her shop dress. “If I need leggings or a fancy dress, we’ll have to stop by my house first. This is all I have here.”
I squeezed her fingers. “You are dressed perfectly.” I plopped a quick kiss on her knuckles and led her out of the shop. “We’re actually going to my house. It’s time for me to show you my project.”
Her eyebrows lifted adorably, and I resisted the urge to scoop her up and carry her. She knew I’d swapped work with the Saylor brothers for a project behind my house. A big project. But they’d promised secrecy. Hopefully nobody else tipped her off.
I led her behind my house and down a cobblestone path I’d built just for this project. After about a minute, we reached the little building I’d been working on for almost a year. There was still enough sunlight that she could read the plaque above the door. The Winter Pavilion.
She arched an eyebrow at me, one that looked royal and curious and reminded me just how lucky I was to have her here and not trapped in some castle trying to rule Kalshana.
I stepped up onto the wooden porch that ran around the front of the building, and handed her a key. “I—” I’d been looking forward to this moment for months, but now that it was here a spike of nerves made me pause. Would she like it? Would it mean what I hoped it would? Or would she be upset by it?
It was too late to change my mind now. I rubbed the back of my neck. “I’ve been working on this for you. I… hope you like it.”
A curious smile played across her face as she took the key and unlocked the door. We crossed another setof doors, unlocked, but firmly latched, and she turned to me. “Two doors?”
I grinned. I couldn’t help it. This was where it got good. “Trust me—you’ll see why on the other side.”
She tipped her chin up and pressed through. A wall of cold air and several rows of fabric strips hanging from the ceiling fell into her face, and she laughed. “Andar. We don’t have piles of cloth smacking our faces in entryways in the Winter Realm.”
I laughed back, activating my magic so I was warm in the cooler building. “No, but it’s important in The Winter Pavilion.”
When she cleared the hanging cloth strips, she stilled and reached for my hand. “Andar,” she whispered. “This… is amazing.”
I squeezed her fingers with a gentle firmness. I had things to say, but emotion tightened my throat. Instead of talking, I held her hand and we looked around the little piece of the Winter Realm I’d brought to a summer kingdom. A fountain rose in the middle of a huge room, but instead of the water pooling at the bottom, I’d carved out four little river-like channels along the ground. Trees native to the Winter Realm surrounded the edges of the building like a forest, covering all signs of construction and making our pavilion feel like a piece of winter forest. Plum trees in blossom, pine trees, cedars, and a dozen others wove a magical canopy around us. Cardinals, juncos, and several other small birds I’d forgotten the names of twittered in the branches, and a flurry of ice crystals shook while wewatched a kaleidoscope of ice butterflies fly off a tree and settle onto the crystalline flowers that I’d had to travel all the way to the Kahunamons to transplant.
She turned to me with glistening eyes. “How—” She swallowed and shook her head, blinking the tears out of her eyes.
I dried her cheeks with my thumbs. “Not how. The important question is why. I did it because I hope it will make you happy.” I grinned. “I hope you’ll enjoy standing here and freezing in the middle of the most beautiful bit of Winter I could bring to you. I hope you’ll pick out more plants to grow here and use in your healing concoctions. I hope—”
My grin turned more sincere as I uttered the most vulnerable words I’d ever said. “I hope you’ll stay with me forever. Because I love you. I love your stubborn confidence and your incredible bravery. I love how you risked leaving everything you’d ever known and moved to the Summer Realm. I love how you let me be wrong but still strong. I love how you trust me. I love you. Everything about you. Khiona, will you marry me? I— I don’t have a kingdom, but I hope you’ll come to my home, and share my heart, and be my queen.”
Her face turned up in a glorious smile, and she set her hand on my heart. “My heart has wanted yours for months. Maybe even a year. When you first caught me flying off a cliff. Every time you did something for me and said there was no debt. I couldn’t understand it then, without my emotions, but now— The more I feel, the more I want you. And this—”
Shewaved her arms around us at the pavilion. “This is the biggest thing anyone’s ever done for me. My heart is so full I can feel it pounding in my chest. And you—” She put her hand back on my heart. “It’s reaching for you. I would be thrilled to marry you and live here in Vitana.”
