And Grayson … Grayson faced me with hard eyes and a tight jaw, as if bracing himself for the rejection he was certain would come.
Could I accept Pierce, Teal, Flynn, and Grayson without forgiving them?
Forgiveness was earned. And what had they done to earn mine?
They’d left behind their careers and families to follow me to Rymar. To rescue me. Even if I hadn’t needed rescuing, it was a start. A good one.
I took in each of them, meeting each of their gazes. Kind, patient, caring, impetuous, dominant, and grumpy as hell. Also, too handsome for their own good—or mine.
I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and said, “Yes, I accept them.”
Chapter
Sixty-Five
HAVEN
The moment the words left my lips, agony ripped through me.
Fire erupted beneath my skin, racing through my veins as it turned my blood to ash. I gasped, but instead of air, lightning filled my lungs. Ice crystallized at my fingertips, spreading up my arms in delicate, deadly patterns that should have been cold. Instead, they burned.
The floor beneath my feet rumbled, and cracks spider-webbed outward from where I stood. I felt the cold earth reaching toward me, grasping and needy.
A cosmic wind surrounded me, whipping my hair and dress into a frenzy. Stars—actual stars—materialized from thin air, spinning around me in tight, brilliant orbits. Their light seared my retinas, but I couldn’t look away.
Lightning erupted from the cracked floor. Not the weak flicker of a storm, but pure, concentrated power that could level cities. It rose in jagged spears of gold and white, weaving itself into a cage around me. The bars hummed with such intensity that the air itself seemed to shimmer.
I reached out, mesmerized by the lightning’s beauty, and my palm connected with one of the lightning bars.
Power slammed into me like a physical blow. Every nerve in my body ignited. I was no longer Haven Ford—I was the storm itself. I was the fire that consumed forests, the ice that split stone, the wind that tore at the world, and the green hope of springtime. Magic didn’t flow through me; I was magic, raw and untamed and infinite. My feet floated off the floor as my arms opened wide and my back arched.
From a distance, I heard men calling my name, but I didn’t have the strength to turn my head, much less answer them.
Magic poured into me, transforming me into someone entirely new.
I opened my mouth to scream—overwhelmed by the force of what I was becoming—when the queen’s voice cut through the maelstrom.
“People of Rymar, welcome your future queen. I give you Princess Haven.”
The magic vanished.
The lightning, the stars, the cosmic wind—gone as if they’d never existed. Except they had, and they still existed within me. Quiet now, but there. Ready to be mastered.
My legs buckled, and I would have hit the marble floor if powerful arms hadn’t caught me.
Zane clutched my arms. “Haven?”
I couldn’t speak. I was too wrung out to do more than nod as I stared into his terrified eyes.
Then came the first clap. More followed until the enormous room was awash with thunderous applause. For me—or whatever had happened to me.
The queen raised her arms in the air. “Tonight, we celebrate.”
Servers appeared and passed sparkling wine.
Musicians gathered and struck a dancing tune.
And I collapsed against Zane’s muscular chest. How could something so hard be so comforting? “I need a minute,” I whispered to him. “Away from all this.”
