Chapter 15
I lay on my back, trying to look anywhere but at the canopy over the bed. It’s a dizzyingly intricate tapestry design of a large geometric flower that makes me feel like I’m falling into spinning circles if I stare at it too long. Humans have such garish taste in décor.
I knew this night was going to be long, no matter how it went. No matter how ugly the canopy was.
I didn’t think it would be this long.
Stella’s head rests on my chest, one hand curled beneath her chin while the other rests on my ribcage. My arm is wrapped around her, her long hair falling over it like a sleeve. Her lashes fan her cheek, her pink lips parted as tiny snores fill my senses.
Part of me never wants dawn to come. Maybe we can stay like this, stay forever lost in the hope of something new and sweet.
It’s impossible. As sure as dawn comes, Lulythinar approaches. I need Isabelle—Stella—to survive until then more than anything, or else every plan and plot I’ve devised will be for naught.
But I cannot stay here, or anywhere else. I must take her back to Valehaven at first light. It would be easier to keep her alive until Lulythinar if I didn’t. Doing so, however, would ensure that I win the battle and lose the war.
I don’t play games I intend to lose, and I have much to do in Faerieland before Lulythinar.
After tonight, I am even more determined to win both the battle and the war. I must, for the sake of the butterfly asleep on my chest.
The first stains of dawn leak through the window. Stella shows no sign of stirring, and the last thing I want to do is wake her up. She needs sleep, especially after yesterday. I tell myself that is why I don’t get up when I ought, why I stay here holding her.
It’s definitely not because everything will change between us today. Because once the sun rises, I am no longer a bridegroom with his new wife.
I am the future High King of the Fae with a throne to win.
I slowly stir awake, stretching my arms and legs, arching my back. Something tightens around me, and I realize the warmth surrounding me isn’t from the covers. My eyes blink open, and I find myself staring into those gold-flecked eyes.
“Ash,” I say stupidly as heat licks up my neck into my cheeks.
“Stella.”
His use of my new name only serves to deepen my flush as awareness spreads of how I’m pressed against his side and half lying on his chest.
“You’re awake,” he says.
I shake my head.
One eyebrow rises. “You’re not awake?”
“Nope.”
A pleased smirk stretches across his face. And then he rolls toward me, his free arm coming around me as he pulls me into an embrace. His lips press against the skin near my ear. A gasp catches in my throat.
“Then you won’t hear me say that you have the sweetest little snores,” he murmurs.
I go stiff in his arms. “Snores? I s-s-snore?”
He chuckles, his hand sliding up to tangle in my hair again. He pulls back enough to look down at me, and I think I might drown in his smile. Then, just for a swift instant, his eyes drop to my lips. He immediately looks away, clears his throat, and unwraps his arms from me, sitting up and throwing his legs over the side of the bed.
Cold washes over me. I draw the blankets up to my shoulders and try not to shiver.
“A tray was brought in while you were asleep,” Ash says as he pulls on his boots, buckles on his knives, and swings his overcoat onto his shoulder. He nods toward the table where there is, indeed, a tray of food and a freshly brewed pot of tea. “Your maid is waiting outside to aid you in dressing, I assume.” He doesn’t look at me, drawing that briskness around himself like a cloak. “I will be back shortly.”
He’s leaving me? Why does my gut sink like I am disappointed? I sit up, holding the blankets to my chest and tucking my hair behind my ear to keep it out of my face. “Where are you g-going?”
“To see that my people are ready to leave. We must not waste time in returning to Faerieland.”
“Will I see my f-family?”
“Do you wish to?”
I nod.
“Very well. Then you shall bid them farewell before we leave.”
Leave. Leave—the human world. My people. Aursailles. My family. Amelia. This is when the rest of my life begins, in a strange place and among strange people I do not understand.
After last night and this morning, I’m less afraid of it all. Which is perhaps not a good thing. But Ash is someone I can trust, someone who will be good and kind to me.
Perhaps we’ve been wrong about the fae.
Whatever the case, if this marriage, this life ahead of me, will save my people, I will face it.
Ash bids me good morning and leaves me to eat my breakfast, while a different maid than the one who attended me last night comes to brush out the tangles he left in my hair.