Sass pulled back. “Did you now?”
Vaskel pushed up his sleeve to reveal his unmarked arm.
“It worked!” Lira clapped her hands. “I can’t believe it actually worked.”
“I can’t either,” Iris whispered. She was hanging back, her eyes not quite willing to meet Vaskel’s yet.
“I beg your pardon, ladies.” Erindil drew himself up to his full height. “You doubted my potion?”
“Aye, let’s be fair.” Sass flipped her dark braid behind her shoulder. “Potion in a cookie seemed like a long shot.”
Even Vaskel laughed along with the rest of the group at that. It had been a long shot, and it had only worked because of the efforts of everyone working together to help him. He doubted he could ever repay them all.
“You should get going.” Erindil said once the laughter faded. “They might be tied up, but we don’t want them waking up on the way.”
Lira hurried over to Korl, and he bent down to kiss her, dark splotches on his green cheeks evident even with only the moon for light. Sass hurried to Val’s side of the wagon, giving the guardswoman a kiss that wasn’t nearly as shy as Korl’s.
In the flurry of the reins being jiggled and the horses being urged on, Iris stepped closer to Vaskel. “I’m glad you’re rid of the soul bind, but I wanted to apologize for my enthusiasm earlier.”
He tilted his head at her. “You mean the kiss?”
Her cheeks mottled, and she flicked her fingers through the curls near her temple. “Yes, well, I might have gotten swept up in the moment, but?—”
Vaskel wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her flush to him as he curled his tail around her legs. “Then consider this me getting swept up in another moment.” Then he crushed his mouth to hers, pouring all his feelings, all his suppressed longing, all his desire into a kiss.
When he finally pulled away, Iris blinked heavily at him. “Oh, my.”
“Unless you have any objections, I plan to get swept up with you much more in the future,” he husked.
Her chest hitched, and lifted a hand to his head and ran her fingers along the ridges of his horn before tangling in his hair. “I have no objections.”
Vaskel was about to pull the apothecary into another kiss when he realized he could no longer hear the flapping of reins or the creaking of the cart’s wheels. He turned to find that the cart had rolled off down the road and over the bridge, and all their friends were gaping at them.
Iris giggled. “Maybe we should continue this discussion in my shop?”
Vaskel knew he should probably debrief with everyone and spend more time thanking all his friends. He also knew it could wait a few hours. They would understand.
He took Iris by the hand and tugged her toward the village. “I think we should.”
Forty-Nine
“Look what the goblins dragged in!”Thrain thunked his tankard on the bar when he spotted Vaskel slinking in the tavern door the next morning.
Vaskel had hoped that the place would be empty, but it appeared that no one had retired for the night.
Sass lay sprawled across the arms of Val’s armchair by the cold fire while Cali was curled up in the chair across from hers. The dwarf startled at the sound of Thrain’s booming voice. “What? Who? Are they back yet?”
“Not yet,” Thrain said, turning on his barstool to face the hearth. “It’s just Vaskel returning from his lady love’s.”
Part of Vaskel wanted to groan, but another part of him very much liked the sound of that. Iris was his love, after all, and it felt wonderful not to hide that anymore. It had been more wonderful to stay up talking with her in her back room, with her cuddled on his lap on one of her overstuffed chairs as the bookwyrms slept and the snow fell.
Cali opened one eye, then closed it and wrapped her arms over her head to block out any light.
“Why are you back, anyway?” Thrain blinked bleary eyes at him.
“I wanted to let Iris get some sleep, and I wanted to check on Lira. I’m assuming that she’s heard about her brother by now?”
Sass waved a hand toward the back of the tavern. “She’s with him and Erindil at the encampment. They’ve been talking all night.”
