Chapter 31 Malachar #2
“I’m tired of the distance,” she whispered against my skin. “I don’t forgive you yet for what you did. But tonight I realized I can’t live without you. I love you so much and it terrifies me how much I need you. How it would completely break me if I lose you again, Mal.”
“I love you as well.” I kissed the top of her head and breathed in her scent. “More than anything in any realm. More than my kingdom or my throne or my own life.”
She tilted her face up and I kissed her properly. Soft and tender and full of everything I could not say with words. Pouring all my love and devotion into the press of my lips against hers.
“I am not going anywhere,” I promised when we broke apart. “Rest now. I have you and I am not letting go.”
She fell asleep on my chest within minutes. Exhausted from the day and the fear and the emotional upheaval.
I held her the entire night without moving. Did not sleep even for a second because I did not want to miss a single moment of having her back in my arms where she belonged.
I watched her breathe. Felt our child move occasionally. Let myself hope that maybe we could survive this. And when the sky started to lighten with the first hints of dawn, I carefully extracted myself from under her. Left a note on the pillow saying I would return soon.
There was a hardware store I had noticed a few blocks away. The kind of place that sold tools and supplies. The owner was just unlocking the door when I arrived.
“Morning,” he said. He was an older man with kind eyes and grease-stained hands. “You’re up early. What can I help you with?”
“I need someone who can repair a kitchen. Quickly. Today if possible.”
He studied me for a moment while sipping coffee from a travel mug. “That’s a mighty tall order. Most contractors are booked weeks out. What happened?”
“I accidentally set it on fire while attempting to cook dinner for my pregnant wife.”
His eyebrows rose but he did not laugh. Just nodded slowly and picked up his phone. “Let me call someone. I’m Doc, by the way.”
“Malachar.”
“That’s quite a name.”
“It is traditional where I am from.”
Five minutes of phone conversation later, an old, rough-looking man walked into the shop. He had calloused hands and wore work clothes covered in paint stains and sawdust. His face was weathered like old leather.
“Doc told me you need a new kitchen?” he said to me without preamble.
“Yes. I burned the previous one down yesterday evening. I want to surprise my wife with a new one. Something shiny and modern and significantly safer than what I destroyed.”
The man looked me up and down. Probably noting the bandages on my hands and the faint smell of smoke still clinging to my clothes. “That’s going to be expensive. Custom work on short notice always is.”
I pulled out a substantial chunk of hundred-dollar bills from my pocket. Aurion had told me where to exchange gold for human currency in this little town the last time we saw each other. “Is this enough or do I need to get more?”
The man’s eyes widened slightly. He counted the bills carefully. Took half the stack and handed the rest back. “This’ll do just fine. Name’s Luis.”
“When can you start?”
“I can start today if you give me the address. Have it done by tomorrow if I call in some favors.”
I gave him Wen’s address and my contact information. Shook his hand carefully given my burns.
“Your wife’s a lucky woman,” Luis said as he left. “Not many men would go to this much trouble.”
“She deserves far more than a new kitchen. But it is a start.”
I stopped at several stores on my way back. Bought prepared foods that looked safe and healthy. Then I found an elderly woman working in a small grocery and approached her.
“Excuse me. What food is appropriate for pregnant women? My mate is pregnant and I want to bring her breakfast but I do not want to make her ill.”
The woman’s face lit up. “Oh, how wonderful! When is she due?”
“Not for a few weeks.”
She laughed. “Well, warm soup is always good for expectant mothers. Easy on the stomach and nutritious. We have a wonderful chicken soup right here that my daughter swears by. She’s had three babies and lived on this stuff.”
I bought everything she recommended plus additional items that looked appealing.
Back at Aurion’s place, I prepared a small table with the food. Arranged it carefully. Carried it to the bedroom where Wen was still sleeping peacefully.
I woke her with gentle kisses. Forehead, cheeks, nose. The tip of her chin.
She blinked awake slowly and smiled at me. “Hi.”
“Hi, little mate. I brought you breakfast.”
She sat up carefully and looked at the spread I had arranged. Her eyes widened. “You didn’t have to do all this.”
“I wanted to. I cannot cook without causing fires but I can purchase food and present it nicely.”
She laughed and reached for the soup. Took a tentative sip, then another. Her whole face lit up. “Oh my god, this is amazing. I can actually eat it without wanting to throw up.”
I felt absurdly proud considering I had done nothing except buy soup from a store. “I am glad it pleases you.”
***
I convinced her to wait an entire day before returning to her apartment. I had sneaked out the previous night to check on Luis’s progress. The man was a miracle worker. The kitchen was almost completely finished when I arrived. Beautiful and modern and nothing like the disaster I had created.
I had tried to give him more money but he refused. Said the amount I had provided was more than fair and he did not take advantage of people.
Now it was noon and Wen was insisting we go check on the damage.
“The smoke has probably cleared out by now,” she said as we walked. “We should assess how bad the damage really is. Figure out what needs to be replaced.”
“Perhaps we should wait another day. Give it more time to air out.”
“Mal, it’s been over twenty-four hours. It’s fine.”
I unlocked the door with the key Luis had left under the mat as promised. Let her walk in first while my heart pounded…
She took three steps inside and screeched. Actually screeched loud enough that I worried about her vocal cords. “What the hell!”
She ran into the kitchen and spun around in a complete circle with her mouth hanging open.
Top-of-the-line stainless steel appliances gleaming under new lighting. Expensive machines I had paid extra for. Granite countertops. New cabinets in a warm wood tone. Fresh paint on the walls with absolutely zero smoke scent remaining. Luis had performed an actual miracle.
She turned to me with eyes so wide I could see white all around. “What did you do?”
“I bought you a new kitchen. I apologize for burning down the previous one.”
She laughed. The sound was slightly hysterical but genuine. “You bought me a new kitchen.”
“Yes.”
“Just like that. In less than two days.”
“Just like that. I paid a man named Luis a substantial amount of money to work very quickly.”
She started crying. Not sad tears this time but the happy overwhelmed kind that still made my chest tight. She crossed the space between us and hugged me as tightly as her pregnant belly would allow.
I pulled her close and held her carefully.
“I am in love with you, Gwendolyn Woods. Even though I make catastrophic mistakes and fuck things up thoroughly and spectacularly, my love for you has never wavered or dimmed even slightly. I still love you exactly as hard and as much as I did the first time I saw you bleeding in my arms in your bookstore. And I will love you the same way, even more intensely, when it is finally time for me to die centuries from now. You are my everything. My reason for existing. The best thing that has ever happened to me in my life. I would burn down a thousand kitchens if it meant I could hold you like this.”
She was crying harder now. “I love you too. So much it scares me. So much I don’t know what to do with it.”
I cupped her face in my bandaged hands and kissed her softly and carefully.
“Marry me.” I begged, “I cannot imagine my life without you. I want everyone in both our worlds to know you chose me. To bind us together in the way your people recognize as permanent and sacred. It will also help you be safer, little mate.”
She looked up at me with those beautiful eyes full of tears and love and cautious hope. “I’ll think about it.”
But she was smiling.
Through the bond I felt her love washing over me. Her happiness. Her cautious hope that maybe we could actually make this work.
It was enough. More than enough. More than I deserved. She would not forgive me easily or quickly but I would wait forever if that was what she needed, because she was worth waiting for.