Even after his release from Patrol custody, a large part of him expected her to take back her acceptance. When the crisis died down, it made sense for her perspective to change. He waited for it to hit after their return to the barracks. He waited for it the next morning. He waited for it the week after, and then the week after that.
He waited, but it didn’t come.
If anything, Cecilia becamemorecomfortable with him. Despite the fact that he wasn’t allowed to leave the barracks except for official business, she found ways for them to continue what they started in the Battery. Eventually they would be allowed to return to what she called their home, but until then they’d been moved into a larger room in the barracks, which Cecilia had decorated with gusto.
The barracks had never felt warm until her.
They diddate nightin front of the television he moved into his room and went for picnics around Stern Grove. She required his presence when she cooked, claiming it was important to hear about each other’s days during that specific activity. When he came into their room after a brutal training session, it smelled like sweet strawberries and sex andher.
It was a life unlike anything he would’ve dared dream of.
Walking beside her, holding her matching purple bag, to guide her up to the sovereign’s office, was the first moment in his life he feltproud.His consort, as beautiful and fierce as she was, stood tall beside him even when the other elves in the lobby gave him a wide berth.
And when she reached for his hand, seeking comfort, as they stood before the sovereign’s door… it was a gift he knew he didn’t deserve.
“This isn’t a prank, right?” she whispered as they waited for the door to open.
“It’s unlikely,” he answered. “But not impossible.”
A sharp elbow hit his side. Sloane flinched dramatically, as he’d been instructed to do in such situations. Cecilia rolled her eyes, but her smile was as wide and beautiful as it ever was.
He loved that look. It meant she found himcharming.
She also thought he was funny. And cute. And gentle. And sweet. All the things Fracture was beaten and tortured into believing they couldn’t be, she knew for certain that he was.
The sovereign’s smooth voice came through the heavy wood door. “Come in.”
Cecilia paled. Giving him a wide-eyed, panicked look, she whispered in a high-pitched voice, “Sloane, we could still run, right? Like grab a car and book it? No one thinks you kidnapped me anymore. It’d be totally fine.”
“We could, but we shouldn’t.”
“Why?” she squeaked.
“Because you’re brave.” He tilted his helmeted head to one side. “And Dahlia said we’re not allowed to cause another news-worthy incident or she’ll kill us both.”
“Damn her.” Cecilia straightened her matching tweed jacket with her free hand. Swallowing nervously, she whispered, “Okay. Okay.”
Giving her fingers a reassuring squeeze, he reluctantly released them to open the door for her. He stepped aside, allowing her to enter first.
He hadn’t visited the office many times in his career, but it was familiar nonetheless. A wall of glass backed the massive twin desks at the far end of the bookshelf-lined room. Lightpoured in behind the sovereign couple, who watched their guests enter with keen eyes. The captain sat in a leather chair before them, incongruously casual in his usual jeans, beaten jacket, and boots.
And then there was his consort, who stood in the center of the luxurious office dressed in a pastel miniskirt and jacket, her white boots shining and her nail polish glittering and so nervous he could practically feel it vibrating the air.
She outshone every fucking one of them.
Sloane stepped confidently into the room, her purse held in one hand and his other automatically falling to the small of her back. He didn’t snap into the rigid military stance he’d been trained to do since he was six. He didn’t stand before his sovereigns as a soldier.
He stood before them as Cecilia Warren’s proud mate.
The captain rose. Gesturing to Cecilia and the sovereigns, he announced, “Cecilia, meet the sovereigns. Sovereigns, this is Cecilia Warren, Sloane’s consort.”
Theodore leaned back in his chair. Dark eyes narrowing, he drawled, “So this is the famous Cecilia.”
“Um…” Cecilia sucked in a quick breath. He could almost see her putting on her shiny pink armor when she summoned a megawatt smile. In a voice he could only describe aschipper,she said, “It’s, like, super nice to meet you.”
Margot Goode arched her copper-colored eyebrows. “Is it true you punched Gibson?”
Cecilia’s smile flickered for just a heartbeat before she answered in that sweet, fake voice, “What kind of arrant would punch an elf, ma’am? That’d be crazy.”
