While Malia was overwhelmed with people speaking to her, I watched the interaction between Elias and his wife.
Sereth spoke coldly. “Come to gloat?”
“I came to say goodbye.” His voice was quiet, aching even.
Snow White’s voice cracked, despite herself. “I did love you. Once.”
The prince stared into her eyes, his hand tightening on the hilt of his sword. “And I’ll always wish you had stayed that way.” He nodded to the guards and they took her below. He stood there a moment, looking after where she’d disappeared. Then Elias turned away, and that’s when our eyes locked.
I nodded to him, and he nodded back, but there was something new about him.
He had finally let go.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
MALIA
We sat on a driftwood log, watching the sunset on the horizon, Sereth’s ship still anchored in the bay. After everything settled down, Prince Elias prepared his own ship to sail back with us. He wanted to make sure that no civil war broke out once the truth of Sereth was revealed, and that the transition of leadership–potentially to me–was a smooth one. And, of course, he wanted to finalize his divorce to Sereth in the place where he had married her.
It was strange being royalty again, with Sereth’s guards and sailors nowmyguards and her counselors now at my call.
But the bestandyet the strangest thing was that Alaric was now my husband. We decided to get married before the journey back to Moanalei, and Elias was more than happy to do a small ceremony on the deck of the Moanalei ship. Surrounded by Alaric’s crew, the people of Moanalei that joined Sereth on her journey, the twins, and Jonah, Alaric and I said our vows on the spot.
As I held his hands and looked into his eyes justmoments ago, I couldn’t believe we’d gotten this far. That we’d finally made the decision to choose each other.
Even now, sitting with Alaric, his hand on my leg as we watched the sunset, I couldn’t believe a girl with such a dark past could have such a bright future.
There was so much ahead of us, including Alaric figuring out his whaling empire.
The Crimson Wake wasn’t quite ready for sailing, contrary to previous predictions, but Destin and Thatcher promised to meet up with us back at Moanalei.
“And you better be king,” Thatcher teased.
Destin just smiled and gave us hugs. “I’m truly happy for you,” he said.
And, before we walked away from them, Alaric turned around. “Thatcher!” he called. “Find that man who’s talking about drilling oil from the ground.”
“Are you crazy?” the navigator laughed.
“Our whaling days are coming to an end,” Alaric said, and I knew he meant it.
So now we sat on the log, husband and wife. My heart reeled in absolute delight and happiness. I couldn’t imagine the return journey being separated from Alaric because we weren’t married. We’d done enough of that.
A whale breached in the distance and my breath caught as Alaric wrapped his arm around me and drew me closer. It was still amazing to me that this man was in love with me…Me.The thought of spending my life with him thrilled me.
“Remember the first night we met?” he asked, breaking the silence.
“Of course.”
“You had no idea you’d fall for the huntsman.”
“And you had no idea you’d fall for the witch,” I teased,then became somber. “What if the people are afraid of me when they hear the truth?”
He didn’t answer with words, but gently turned my chin to face him. The scent of salt clung to his skin, wild and bracing like the sea he conquered as a whaler. He brushed a strand of hair from my face.
Then he leaned in and kissed me–slow and sure. It wasn’t rushed, wasn’t desperate or chaotic. It was the kind of kiss that steadied my heart, even as it stole my breath. I kissed him back, hoping he could feel my love for him.
When we finally pulled away, he rested his forehead against mine.
