I tip my face to his, and he looks down, closing his eyes briefly. “I’m sorry that I didn’t listen to you. If I had, we could’ve avoided all of this. I should’ve—” He winces, stops. “You wouldn’t have hurt me. I know that.Now. And I also know the truth—Zandra tricked you. Not only did she do that, but she also played a role in Tess’s death. It was Elmore who helped me see that.”
“Elmore?”
“He came to me.”
Oh, so that’s where he’s been. “He figured out how to escape the compact?”
He laughs. “Yes. Of all the things for you to be worried about, that’s the one?”
“It’s an important detail.”
He smiles, making the corners of his eyes crinkle. “I’ve done so much wrong in this.” He turns my hand over and kisses the inside of my wrist, which makes tingles cartwheel down my arm. “I’m sorry about the bookshop.”
“You restored it.”
He nods. “I hope you can forgive me for burning it.”
“Only if you promise never to do that again.”
“I do.” He exhales as he sweeps his thumb over the back of my hand. “Right now I have a chance to do something right. Addison—” His voice breaks.
My heart’s beating wildly against my ribs because it feels like something big is about to happen.
“Addison,” he starts again, “you are my everything, and you were before I ever admitted it to myself. I’ve loved you longer than I know, and I wasn’t lying when I told you that if this isn’t true love, then true love doesn’t exist. I love you so much it feels like my heart’s going to explode. I love you with every last breath that I have. I love you. I love you.” He presses his forehead to mine. “I love you.”
I don’t even have my own breath as I take in what he’s saying.
He pulls back, drops my hand and lifts the lid of the box. “If I’d given you this gift first at the fire ceremony, I doubt that any of the rest would’ve ever happened.”
He tips the box so that I can see that inside lays a perfect red rose. My brows wrinkle as I put two and two together. “Is this a Golden Rose?”
He pulls it from the box and extends it in offering. “From me to you.”
Part of me doesn’t want to take it. I want to live in this perfect moment, where we’ve each admitted that we love one another. Because if I take ahold of that flower and it turns black, then we have to walk away from each other. Forever. I can’t do that. Not now. Not when we’ve come so far.
But at the same time I want to know that what we feel for each other is true. Because ever since he told me the story of the rose, I’ve wanted—no,neededhim to gift me one so that I could prove to myself and to him that our feelings for each other dive deeper than some joining or strange twist of fate.This is destiny, and I’ve known that since…well, since right after I puked on his shoes.
It’s that thought that spurs me to reach for the flower, trembling hand and all. Every muscle in my body’s twitching from anxiety. Yet peace blankets me because I intuitively know what lies on the other side.
My fingers brush his as they curl around the stem. I clutch it in a stranglehold, cinching my breath and watching with my heart in my throat as the crimson begins to wash away and is slowly replaced by?—
“Gold,” I whisper.
“Gold,” he murmurs as he slides his hand across my cheek and pulls me into a kiss.
That kiss shatters every last sliver of anger that I might’ve been holding on to. In one sweeping kiss all that confusion and fear is replaced with love.
And with that love, magic pours out of me, circling us and wrapping the two of us in a powerful embrace.
When we separate, Feylin brushes his mouth over my forehead. “There’s one more thing.”
I cock my head in worry. “What?”
He pulls back, eyes sparking. “Will you marry me?”
49
“Where’s the bouquet?”
