Page 92 of Dark Destiny: The Turning Of The Loom

"I am angry with you." The chin tilted higher.

"I can see that." He waited, but she did not turn back. "What can I do so you will not be angry with me?"

For a long moment, she did not answer, and he thought she might not. Then she turned and looked at him, and the glow in her eyes had only intensified.

"Move into my room." Each word was distinct. "Today. I will tell Oridu to move your clothes into my closet and your toothbrush, razor, and cologne onto my vanity. From this day forward, it will be called our room, our closet, and our bathroom. I also do not want to hear the word worthy from you ever again."

How could he say no to her?

He had a feeling he had never once been able to say no to her. He had lost every argument to this goddess and had counted himself blessed for losing them.

"Very well," he said.

Her eyes blazed. "Very well? That is what you have to say to me? How romantic, Khiann." She turned her face away again.

She had a point. It had not been romantic. It had been a concession, not even a graceful one.

He looked down at his hand.

The ring was on his finger now, not on his thumb, where it had been for the first weeks while his other fingers were too thin to hold it. He worked it off, which took a moment because his fingers had thickened with the rest of him. He turned it to the light and looked at the inscription inside the band. He still could not read it. This was not something Vrog could teach him. But Annani had read it to him in the clinic, and he had not forgotten.

For eternity and beyond.

He remembered her putting this ring on the groom's hand in the dream, when he had watched the radiant couple from the edge of the crowd, from the wrong side of the square, with the smell of petals and roasting meat in the air. He knew now that the stranger had been him, but knowing it was not the same as feeling her slide the ring onto his finger, and it never would be.

"Marry me," he said.

She turned. "What?"

"Marry me again, Annani, daughter of Nai and Ahn." He held the ring between them. "This is a new beginning for us. Let us do it properly, in front of your clan and the rest of your community, with me on my feet and you putting the ring on my finger where I can see and feel it. Not in a dream."

The smile that broke across her face could have lit a city.

She uncrossed her arms, took his hand, the one with the ring, and closed both of hers around it.

"I will marry you," she said. "Khiann, son of Yaeni and Navohn."

33

ANNANI

Khiann sat at the dining table with the laptop open in front of him and his lips moving.

He did that when he read, shaping the words without sound, and Annani wondered whether he was aware of doing it.

She did not comment on it in case he was embarrassed. Instead, she took a moment to watch.

He noticed and turned to look at her. "Do you need anything from me?"

Everything.

She did not say that. "I am going to shower and get into bed," she said instead. "When are you coming?"

"Soon. I am nearly at the end of this lesson."

"Do not be too long."

"I will not." He smiled tightly.