“We hit him!” Avery whispered. “We just hit a kid.” Her voice shook with emotion, but Savine didn’t let it get to him.
He dismounted Jari and helped Avery down. Immediately, she knelt at the boy’s side as Jay hopped down to move Jari away from the injured child. Savine crouched beside Avery. The boy’s arm appeared to be broken, crushed under Jari’s weight.
“We need a healer!” someone yelled from the crowd. Hyacinth had to be somewhere nearby, but Savine felt helpless as he scanned the folk pushing in close.
“Kyla! We need you!” She was at Avery’s side immediately, assessing the child’s injuries.
The guards pushed the growing throng back, with Garnel barking orders to the citizens to give them space.
“I can do this,” Avery said in a small voice. “I can heal him here.” Kyla nodded and Savine stood, giving Avery room to work.
She sat beside the boy and pressed her hands to the young child’s arm just as a woman ran frantically from the crowd. “That’s my boy!” she shouted. Savine let the woman pass as she looked at Savine with a shocked expression. “What does your witch do to him?”
“Do not fear,” Savine replied as he held the woman back from her child. “She’s a powerful healer.”
As he spoke, green light poured from Avery’s hands, encircling the crying boy’s arm. She continued to pour her light into the child. He could hear her singing softly, whether to call her magic forth or to comfort the child, he wasn’t sure. The language was in her native tongue and had a soft, soothing melody. Slowly, the boy’s cries became a quiet sniffle.
Avery slumped back, rocking with effort, and Savine let go of the mother, grabbing Avery’s arm to steady her as he helped her sit down. “I guess I’m still a little weak,” Avery said.
The boy jumped into his mother’s arms. Savine heard the two crying and laughing together. The woman turned, still holding her son tight in her arms. “Thank you, My Queen.” She bowed low, stooping so low she was below Avery seated on the ground, low enough that her dress became wet from the ground.
All around them, the citizens of Orofine followed the mother’s lead, bowing low enough to bring themselves below Avery’s tiny frame. Kyla and Garnel, Jay and Raikin, and all the procession with them prostrated themselves with the city before their human queen.
Savine joined his people as they bowed before his queen, the only person he’d ever bow for. Avery’s eyes brimmed with tears as she stood up, taking in the crowd around her.
The small boy rushed from his mother’s side and tugged on Avery’s dress. Avery stooped down, getting face to face with the little one. Savine couldn’t hear what the boy whispered inAvery’s ear, but he saw the kiss the boy planted on her cheek and the big grin on Avery’s face.
Avery turned to Savine, pulling him up beside her. “How do I get them to stand up?” she whispered.
Savine motioned with his hand, releasing the people from their low kneel. He helped Avery up on Jari before he mounted behind her. The delicious warmth of her body sunk between his legs as she moved back to avoid Jari’s impressive antlers.
An adolescent shifter shouted, “A kiss! Kiss your queen!”
Who was Savine to deny his folk and his queen? Savine pulled Avery close as she turned her face to meet his. For the briefest moment, Avery looked at Savine. Her deep brown eyes danced with playfulness and there was a rosy glow to her cheeks. She looked at him with such undeserved adoration it burned his chest. Then her lips met his in a tender kiss that left the crowd around them cheering.
This jubilant procession was so familiar to his homecoming. The overwhelming pride from the folk around him, the acceptance of not only Savine as king, but Avery as his queen. It felt too good to be true. He knew the next street over there would be an angry mob, seeking revenge on Jasper’s death.
And yet it never came. Street after street, revelers cheered and bowed as Savine and Avery made their way through the streets with the other people who mattered most in his life.
“I’m feeling a bit jealous of that boy who gave you a kiss,” Savine whispered into the curved shell of Avery’s ear. He felt the goosebumps raise on her neck and she leaned her head back on his chest.
“Maybe you should be a bit jealous. He was a little charmer.”
“What did he say to you?”
Avery smiled with such happy contentment. “He said, ‘Thank you for taking away my owie.’ I did that though, I helped him. Savine, I want to do that each day. Is that okay? As a queen?”
“Ave, I told you in Nephel that you choose how you spend your time here. Crown or not, I hold no expectations for you.”
Avery nodded and pressed her lips to the bit of Savine’s exposed neck. “Have I told you how much I love you?”
Kyla
Kyla had felt the confidence in Avery’s emotions when she chose to heal the young boy’s broken arm on her own. Her talents as a witch were slowly building each day, and Kyla beamed with pride at Avery’s skillful techniques used to heal the boy’s arm.
The display of support for Avery as the crowd bowed before their queen was something Kyla never expected to witness. From what she remembered in Orofine, there had always been a distinct separation between the king and his residence, and the citizens of Orofine. However, Savine and Avery were already breaking down that barrier between themselves and the city folk.
It only made sense that her brother wanted to break that tradition. He’d never kept himself from his folk during the war, always being there to hear their needs and find a solution to help them. Yet he’d been so unwilling to let anyone do the same for him. Now that he had Avery, Kyla had no doubt that he’d found that emotional support he’d been denying himself for far too long.
