Soccer. That one also makes me laugh because, come on. Rabbit feet?
Where is he today?
I dodge that one.
What’s he doing?
Negotiating deals, I tell them, deliberately vague.
But the most important question is always the same.
When’s he coming back?
I explain that he travels a lot for work.
Which is technically true.
It took all of spring for Sorren to secure his throne and root out the last of Rion’s loyalists. The White Warren he inherited was wounded and fractured. He’s spent months carefully stitching the kingdom back together.
But now summer has finally arrived, and today is the last day of school. Three glorious months of freedom stretch out in front of me.
This summer I’m taking a trip. To the White Warren.
Sorren is finally taking me to his homeland.
I’ll see his palace. Meet his people. Walk through the gardens he has described to me so many times that I can already picture them perfectly in my mind.
Silver fountains.
Arching bridges.
Fields of pale flowers that only bloom under the double moon of his world.
We both know this trip is more than a simple vacation. It’s a chance for me to see if I could truly belong there. Make a home there. We’ve talked about it during the weeks we spent apart.
Moving.
Marriage.
Starting a family.
The thought sends a warm, nervous flutter through me.
Across the room, one of the girls carefully places a paper crown on Sorren’s head, and he freezes in surprise. Then he tips his head back and laughs. The sound fills the room.
Open. Warm. Joyful.
For a moment he doesn’t look like a king.
He looks like a man who’s happy.
That’s when I realize with absolute certainty that I would follow this man anywhere.
Even to another world.
Later, after the last child has been picked up and the classroom has finally fallen quiet, Sorren helps me carry the bunny out to my car. Mom has agreed to watch the class pet while I’m away.
Sorren carefully places the cage in the trunk and lowers the lid slowly, so he doesn’t frighten the little rabbit.
