This heartbeat is for him.
I trace the lines of his face, treasuring each one.
“I won’t lose you ever again,” he breathes. “I’ll make sure of it.”
“You are mine, High Prince of Autumn,” I say, reveling in the truth of it.
“And you are mine, Queen of the Vale.” He sinks to one knee and bows his head. Keldarion must have told him the discovery of my lineage.
I lift his chin with a finger. “So, you know.”
“I’m both shocked and not surprised. Though, knowing the truth, I want to go back and reread everything we’ve ever found about the Queen. It will all have such a new light. In fact, there was one text I—” He looks toward the door, but I pull him up to his feet and back into my arms.
“You’re not going anywhere,” I laugh.
He laughs too, throwing his head back. Thankfully, he’s not wearing his glasses, or they would have been tossed straight across the bedroom.
Laughing together—it feels so good. For a moment, I forget about all the empty spaces in my chest.
“Rosie.” The way he says my name, like all his dreams are wrapped up in it.
I’ll keep them safe, Farron, I think.I’ll keep you safe.
We kiss again, soft and slow. A kiss filled with those dreams. His skin grows warm beneath my touch, and a white light shines through my closed eyelids. I blink open.
“Farron,” I whisper, “you’re … glowing.”
“Huh?” He looks down at his hands. A soft white light radiates from his skin, warm like the coals of a fireplace. “Oh, what do you know.”
Another laugh bubbles up my throat. “Whyare you glowing?”
“I think it’s my magic telling you how happy you make me.”
It’s amazing that despite feeling like I know Farron with my whole heart, there’s still new depths to the love and magic we share.This is the first time our magic has ever manifested in this ethereal glow. What else is our love capable of?
He gives me that smile, the one that I can never resist mirroring on my own face. I step back from him, then reach behind my back and loosen the ribbon of the corset around my dress.
Then I let the dress fall.
Farron’s eyes roam over me, and his smile fades, turning into a hungry grimace. I swear his golden eyes flash black.
I think of his love, of the pure happiness I feel in his embrace, of my mate bond so strong and alive in my breast, beaming out for him. I think of an Autumn sunrise, warm light chasing the chill off the heather. I think of the fire that burns between us.
A soft glow radiates beneath my skin, shimmering out toward his.
“I can do it, too,” I say.
“I see that,” he says, voice now low and raspy.
“Now, High Prince of Autumn,” I say, “I’ve been waiting three months for you. Remind me who I belong to.”
CHAPTER 21
Rosalina
Farron doesn’t say anything. He moves with an otherworldly speed and I’m caught up in his arms, thoroughly kissed, and spun onto his bed. His weight falls over me, the soft fabric of his clothes rubbing against my bare skin.
I kiss him feverishly and blindly tear at his clothes, yanking off the cravat and ripping open the buttons of his vest. He struggles out of his shirt and trousers, and I have to push him away from me so I can drink him in. Sevenrealms. How did I survive under the water without being able to look at him?
