“I know,” he finally croaked. “Signe told me about it. Leuxrith used to mine the tanzanite here but decided to leave the glade alone when the snowdrops started to bloom. They realized that if they let this place be, the flowers would stay all through the summer instead of just blossoming in the spring like they do everywhere else.”
Mariah’s arm wrapped around his. Her forehead nestled against his chest.
“Thank you,” she said, “for showing me this.”
Andrian dropped a kiss to the top of her head before extricating himself from her. “Come here,” he said, tugging her into the glade.
With a soft, coy smile, she followed.
He easily found what he was looking for. A makeshift pallet of furs, blankets, and down-filled pillows was nestled amongstthe grass and blossoms. A bed beneath the stars, more than large enough for two people.
Maybe he’d been a bit presumptuous when he’d set this up earlier that day. But despite his moments of panic and doubt, he knew his queen.
Knew there was likely nothing more she wanted than a night being worshipped under the very moons she rivaled.
Mariah folded herself onto the blankets, leaning back on her hands. He slipped off his boots and joined her. She curled into him, a familiar, wild hunger flickering in her expression.
“Wait,nio,” he whispered. She lifted a brow.
He chuckled. “Don’t look at me like that. I fully intend to give you every bit of worship you deserve.” He paused, heart beating faster. His hand slipped into his pocket. Its contents had been burning against his skin for days—weeks. But the moment had never been right, not with all the fears and trauma and heartache that had lingered between them.
Those were gone now. Now it was just her and him and the comfort that came with being truly known by the person who loved you most.
Not even Kol could ever take that from them again.
Her gaze followed the movement of his hand, expression twisting with curiosity.
“Are you going to hold me in suspense?”
Andrian cleared his throat. “Sorry. I was just—” He pushed a hand through his hair, tilting his head up to the sky.
“There’s so much I want to say, but I’ve always known that words would never suffice. How are you supposed to tell the person who saved your very soul all that they mean to you?” His gaze dropped, finding her eyes in the moonlight.
“I once swore that I would never make another promise to you. And maybe at the time, I meant it in a very different way than I do now. But truthfully, Mariah, what I meant is that Iwould never make another promise to you that I wouldn’t be able to keep.”
Her brow furrowed. “What are you talking about?”
“Nothing bad.” His hand slipped around her neck, her cheek pressing against his palm. “Only that any promise I swear to you now will be one that I make upon my life. Even the heavens don’t know how far I’d go to keep an oath to you.” Andrian swallowed. “Which is why…”
He wrapped his fingers around the cool metal band, pulling it from his pocket. Mariah watched, expression veiled, as he lifted his hand between them, slowly unfurling his fingers.
Lisabel Salis’s ring gleamed between them in the moonlight, the tanzanite stone twinkling like the veined canyon walls.
“I’ve been waiting for the right moment to give this to you,” he said softly, chest tight and aching. “Anniliese Hareth gave it to me when I was escaping Khento. She found it—” He stopped himself. “It belongs to you. Tonight felt like the right night to give it back.”
He searched her face, but she was quiet. Expressionless. The only visible sign of her thoughts were her eyes, locked on the ring, and her hand, clenched tight around the panels of her skirts.
His heart pounded heavily in his chest. But he waited. He let her have her silence, let her brilliant mind wrap around what he was giving her, whom it had belonged to. Let her wade through the layers of her grief, all those emotions he knew she fought to keep at bay.
Finally, she lifted a hand, fingers trembling slightly. She traced the delicate silver band and the small purple-blue stone set in the middle.
“It was how I knew,” she said, barely more than a whisper. “When I first met you, even when I hated you, even when you were arrogant and an asshole, it was how I knew. You had eyesthat matched my mother’s ring, a ring my father had made using a stone he’d found himself on a northern tour. My family didn’t have much, but we had my grandfather’s dagger…and this ring. When Donnet collected taxes, my mother parted with that dagger before she parted with this ring.” She swallowed. “She hardly ever wore it. That was how closely she guarded it. So why was she wearing it that day?”
“I don’t know,nio.”
Her lips tilted into a heartbreakingly sad smile. “I think I do.”
He pinched the band between his fingers. “Give me your hand.”
