I feel the way his shoulders fall, sinking us further into the bed, into each other. “It’s slow work. Many are set in their ways, many too hurt by the past. But there’s hope. I see it in their faces, I hear it in their words. And you, my dear,” he reaches a hand to my chin, tilting me to face him. “…are my every hope come true.” He presses a tender kiss to my forehead.
“From what Ace tells me, you’re already making quite an impression on court.” His wry smile stirs a mix of pride and nerves within me.
“Charming a few ladies at tea is a far cry from winning over a kingdom. Even more so when it comes to the expectations on their king.”
“You are more powerful than you know, my flame.” His eyes hold my own, speaking truths I struggle to accept. “The dinner before I left, the prominent members of court…” Shaking his head, tilted away, then a long, drawn-out exhale. His confession. “I already knew I wanted to spend my life with you. That night showed me even more, Mira; you are ready for this. To be my wife… my queen.”
I must look like a startled woodland deer, my eyes wide, utterly frozen in place. Flame or not, this is a shock. “Qu-queen?” I blink; surely I misheard him. Being accepted as the woman by his side for however many years the gods might bless me with is one thing, but this… Heat rises in my chest.
“There is no rush, my dear. We will take things in your time.”
Resting my head on his chest, unable to look directly at him, my eyes scan the room searching for answers that lie only within me.
“When I said I would marry you right now, it wasn’t just words. I love you. I want to spend my life with you. My fleeting mortal life,” I say with a laugh at the end. If I cannot find a thread of humor in this, there is no way I’ll survive.
“So I ask now, in earnest… How will this work?”
There in the quiet of early morning light, we plan. Nothing concrete, but solid enough I can feel even slightly readied for what awaits us. There will be a banquet tonight. It needn’t be a grand affair, but a gathering to mark the new season and Vale’s return. He will not announce anything directly but will start planting seeds of the future. For Caerhollan. For us.
I asked if we might have a more private reception amongst those we trust the most. It feels impossible to keep something like this a secret. That’s when he confessed once more, “They already know.”
His chest is hard as steel as I shove him playfully. “I’m sorry,” he lets out with a rumbling laugh. “As second in line, I asked Ace for his blessing. And Soria…. You know how keen-eyed she is. I reached for my pocket when we sat by fire, fiddling like a fool. The healers had done their work, and all we had to do was wait while you rested. She saw it, of course. I confided inher that night.”
Wrapped in his arms, hearing how much planning and thought he had already put into this, how intentional it all was, gives me peace. I would follow him to the ends of the earth if he asked me to. I will stand at his side through this. The banquet tonight, an announcement not long after. I would do my best to endear myself as best I could along the way.
He means every word. Every vow. And I do too. I will stand beside him through what comes next.
Shirt hanging loosely across his broad chest, he steps toward me, then past, to the vanity table. Brushing his fingers through the various pins and accessories Soria chooses to adorn me with, he picks up a piece of jewelry. Removing a pendant from the chain, he brings it to me. Acting as one, we take the ring from my hand and thread the chain through. As he clasps it around my neck, my hands rise. There, next to his heart, the talisman faintly glows. I press one palm over it, another at the promise now placed across my own breath. “For now,” he whispers, his hand over mine. Then, taking me fully in his arms, “Forevermore.”
We seal our promise with a kiss. And with that, each set about our days.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The expectant grin on Ace’s face when I find him in the library is too plain to ignore. If I were a better liar, I would have played ignorant just to see how he might try and draw the information out of me. Instead, I just nod, my own smile taking over, as he scoops me into the biggest hug. “I already have sisters, but you are my new favorite. Ssh, don’t tell them.” His laugh is the warm welcome I need.
Soria had been kind, as she always is. But I can sense she carries a deeper mix of emotions than she lets on. She is happy for us, truly. There’s more left unsaid, though. I didn’t press. Not today. Today I just wanted to enjoy myself.
Ace is the perfect companion for just that. Well, perfect, given that Vale has work to attend to and Ace continues on without a care in the world. Just what I need right now when duty and expectation loom on the horizon for me.
We make no pretense of gathering any books. He takes me arm in arm to our usual spot, the gleam in his eye never wavering. As we sit, he takes my hand, a brow raised at the sight of it bare.
I pull the chain tucked into my bodice and the ring resting by my heart. “Just for now,” I assure him. “We will let everyone know soon.”
“I’m sure he wants to shout it from the highest turret. I don’t know that I have ever seen the man such a mix of nerves and excitement as he was when he came to me.”
“It won’t be the easiest announcement, telling everyone their king is slumming it with the likes of me.” I hide my fears behind humor.
Ace doesn’t laugh. He only softens. “You have already gained so much favor in such a short time.” No fake niceties. For as much as he jests, he speaks the plainest truths. “Yes, some are set in their ways. Gods…” The turn is dramatic, even for Ace. “Do you know what your kind called us?”
“Immortal?” I am completely caught off guard in how he switched.
Utterly bemused by his own thoughts, he continues, “No…. You may call us that now, but before, before we were The Blessed.” He says it in such formality, straightening his posture and tucking his thumbs in some imagined vest, before buckling into a ruckus of laughter. I give him a moment to contain himself.
“Sorry, sorry. It’s an old wound for many that I find easier to just laugh at.” More seriously now, “Mortals called us that because of how we were connected to magic. Our kind, we never needed a name for ourselves until we started to live more closely with mortals and were revered for how we worked with magic. While very few truly wielded magic, we all lived in harmony with it. Rains were sure and steady, crops were more reliable, life was something special. We were special. Or at least that’s how some still look back at it.
After the Fade, as war and hunger tore the lands to shreds, any mortal that might remember viewed us as cursed. Until eventually, the world moved on; we became utterly separate, and for many, irrelevant. Those who lived through it all, they cling to the old days. To the feeling of being special, to being The Blessed,” he chuffs as he says the words. Shaking it off and fighting to remember where he had started when he spoke, he turns to me. “But those old bags are few and far between. Some may have spewed their rhetoric to the new generations, but overall, I think most people just want more. More than these walls.” He gestures around us.
Placing a reassuring hand on my arm, “There is still fear, but there isalso hope. People are craving change. They want something different. And you, m’lady, are as different as they come.”
