“I don’t understand.”
“As I mentioned to you before, there is magic in our blood. A symbiosis between an Alpha King and the land. A bond, if you will. My father worked out how to use it to reverse the curse.” Bestian pauses and it’s so quiet, I can hear the ocean waves crashing in the distance. “Even though I was no longer in acute danger, I was in so much pain, I begged thewhispsto put me under once more. The next time I came to, my father was dead… and so was my mother. So many in our kingdom. But the curse was broken.”
The wind wafts around me. It’s not until Bestian rises and comes to my side to offer a handkerchief that I realize there are tears sliding down my cheeks.
“Don’t be sad, beautiful Rose.” He kneels so we’re at eye level, and dabs my face with the cloth.
I take it and finish the job. “What happened to the Stone King?” I manage a tiny smile. “Tell me he got his comeuppance, like in the movies.”
“He’s dead,” Bestian admits. “Albeit not by my hand.”
“I’m so sorry you were hurt. And that you lost your family.”
“All things die.”
“Don’t say that. You don’t have to pretend you have a stone heart. Not with me.”
“My heart died with my parents. Only when you broke the spell around my castle and woke me from my slumber did it begin to beat again. You are my heart, Rose. That is why I need you by my side.”
Please don’t leave me.I hear it clearly, even if he doesn’t say it aloud. My head is spinning.
I gaze into his eyes. They’re more black than green.
“Come,” he says, rising and offering his arm. I take it and he ushers me to the edge of the balcony. Instead of leading me to the stairs, he stands with me at the rail, looking down over the garden.
“Where are we going?”
“Do you trust me?”
I blow out a breath. “Yes,” I say, because I do. I trust him more than I’ve ever trusted a man. Even if he is a growly, overbearing Alpha-hole most of the time.
He faces me and takes my hand. I let his huge one swallow mine. There’s a twinkle in his eyes.
It takes me a second to realize that we’re no longer standing on the balcony but on an invisible platform, rising above the garden.
“I wanted tonight to be perfect. I wanted to show you something beautiful, but there is nothing more beautiful than you. Your skin is like the midnight sky, your eyes are like stars,” he tells me.
He waves a hand and the air in front of us ripples, turning opaque and reflecting back the image of a giant Alpha with a slender Somali-American woman beside him. She’s wearing a crown.
“This is who you are,” Bestian continues. “This is who you were born to be. The universe brought you to me. You were the only one who could break through my barriers and bring me to life. “
He brings my hand to his mouth and kisses my knuckles. The part of his jaw covered by the mask is cool to the touch but his lips are warm, and heat surges in my belly.
“Dance with me,” he whispers.
I blink because we’re hovering over the garden. The clusters of moonflowers are glowing in various shades of pink, red, and black.
A gust of wind flurries around my skirts, lifting the train. I step close to Bestian and he pulls me against him. We’re eye to eye—but how? My feet should have left the ground. I look down to realize I’m standing on invisible cushions of wind. I’m face-to-face with the king, like his equal, with the wind supporting me.
I slide my arms around his shoulders.
I have been fighting so hard not to fall for Bestian, convincing myself it was all biological. That my feelings weren’t real. Worrying that it wasn’t safe to open up to him completely—to let him in.
But for the moment, I will allow myself to melt. I will allow myself to believe in magic. Because it's all around me, and ignoring it won't make it go away.
I’m floating high above a magical castle and dancing with an alien king under five moons with an invisible wind supporting me. None of this is possible—and yet it’s really happening.
So I close my eyes and rest my cheek on Bestian's shoulder. I let him swing me across a magical dancefloor suspended over a field of glowing moonflowers.
