“Always.” I capture her mouth in a swift kiss.
We’re home. We’re safe.
I want to show her my world. I want to take her into my city and let her explore. But first, I want to pick her up, throw her over my shoulder and carry her off to our chambers.
Someone clears a throat.
“As lovely as it is to see you so happy,” Finn says, “it’s starting to get a little awkward for the rest of us.”
I make a rude gesture in his general direction and then finally break the kiss. “Get used to it. Nothing is going to change—”
“For the next three months,” Eris says.
She’s sharpening a knife in the corner, her entire focus locked upon the blade.
As silence reigns, she looks up. “What?”
Sometimes I wish she didn’t have to be so fucking honest.
“Then we have three months.” Vi bites her lip and then offers me a shy smile. “I don’t want to waste another moment on worrying about my mother. I want to see your city. I want to meet your people. I want to… be your wife.”
There’s a blush to her cheeks at those last words.
Gods, even now she sees the good in the moment. I squeeze her hand.
“Thalia, you’re in charge of my city,” I tell her, making a sudden decision.
“I am?” My cousin’s eyebrows shoot up.
“You are.” I take a backwards step toward the door. “Don’t burn it down. Don’t blow it up. And don’t let your demi-fey take over the keep. Finn, you’re in charge of helping Eris get that stick out of her ass.”
“Me?” Finn holds his hands out. “Why are you throwing me to the wolves?”
Eris gives me a long, slow, unamused look.
“Where are you going?” Lysander looks intrigued.
“My wife and I are going to take a honeymoon,” I tell them all. “I want to forget about murderous queens and broken alliances. I don’t want to even hear a single murmur about politics. I am taking Vi to Valerian, where the only thing that might bother us is the wraiths.”
“You’re going to freeze your ass off,” Baylor mutters.
Vi clears her throat. “I don’t have very much magic, but if there’s one thing I am good at, it’s setting things on fire.”
I wink at him. “There. You see. Toasty warm.” I give her a considering look. “You set things on fire?”
“Long story.” Vi’s face closes over. “Maybe I’ll tell you about it when those nights are cold.”
“I’m fairly certain no stories will get a chance to be told,” Thalia says, as she shoos us toward the door. “Go. Have fun. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
“Well, that limits the options,” Baylor says.
“Ha, ha, you’re so amusing.” She scrunches up a piece of paper and throws it at him. “Don’t make me put you on guard duty for the next fortnight. You heard him. I’m in charge.”
“Maia save our souls,” Lysander says mournfully, looking toward the sky as if he’s praying directly to the goddess.
There’s a shy smile on Vi’s face as she takes them all in.
This. This is what I wanted to show her. This is what I want her to be a part of.
But in the meantime….
“Are you coming?” I ask, offering her my hand.
“Maybe soon,” she whispers, with a teasing twinkle in her eye as she accepts my hand.
We haven’t been alone since I won the right to have her.
“Definitely soon,” I promise, as I draw her through the door and kiss her in the hallway outside.
Epilogue
One year later….
It’s been eight months, twenty-nine days and seventeen hours since I last saw my wife.
I feel every single one of those days as I stand in the Hallow at Hammerdale and wait for Adaia to arrive with my wife.
“She’s coming,” Thalia murmurs, laying a sympathetic hand on my arm. “Stop pacing. Maren is watching.”
“It’s nearly evening.” They should have been here by now. I can’t help thinking that Adaia has one last trick up her sleeve, and this delay only tightens my nerves.
The last time I saw Vi she told me that she loved me.
Those words were hard-won by months of sweet kisses and quiet conversations, but also by the growing feelings within me. I’ve always carried her in my heart as a sign of hope, but I never realized that having her would be more than mere fate. I fell in love with her over those months, and in the end, I was the one who said it first.
They were the very last words she spoke to me.
“Relax, Your Highness,” Lucidia says, laughing under her breath. “You will have your wife by your side soon enough. Adaia cannot thwart the entire alliance.”
Maren says nothing.
That only makes me feel more uncomfortable.
The Hallow starts to pulse with light. Bells ring as the servants who rope off the Hallow cry the bells in order to alert anyone within the vicinity—the portals can be dangerous magic. Fae who have been caught within the stones when someone ignites the portals have disappeared in the past.
“Here they come,” Finn says, clapping a hand on my shoulder.
Light blazes and a shadowy party appears in the center of the Hallow. The bannerman comes first, the red pennant of Asturia snapping straight in the wind, revealing those mocking roses and the crown of thorns. Servants pour through the stones. And then the lords and ladies of Asturia, and finally, finally, the queen and her royal family.
Edain stalks out first, one hand resting on the hilt of his sword as the Asturian guards spread out. There’s something in his eyes as our stares meet—I don’t know what to name it. Pity, perhaps. Or maybe disdain. He’s hard to read.
The crown princess alights at his side, but I barely bother to give her a glance.
Because Vi is there.
One hand tucked in her mother’s arm as if she’s old and infirm…. Or no, it looks almost like Adaia has one
