Chapter 43
Lore
“Will you marry me?” My glorious wildfire whispered the words against my damp skin.
“As you, with me knowing, treasuring, loving every part of what makes up Lore?” Lifting her head off my chest, she studied my face.
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to.
I mean, we already had a ceremony on the ship. We’re as married as we can be.”
The vulnerability in her voice undid me completely, and then built me back up stronger.
“Yes. I will marry you. As us. Lore and Reyla. Tomorrow. The day after that. Each day we have left and the ones beyond if you want.”
“How about now?”
She still looked so serious. Didn’t she know there wasn’t anything she could ask, anything she could say, that would drive me away?
“Yes, now,” I said gravely.
We slipped from bed and went to the closet to dress.
Inside, I selected my clothing and went to the bathing area to change.
I tugged my best black tunic from the hanger, the one with threads of lightning woven into the fabric.
The few times I’d worn it, for formal occasions, I’d felt as if I wore clothing my wildfire had crafted with the magic only she could create.
I tugged it over my head and slid my arms through the sleeves, smoothing it over my chest and waist, leaving the top fastenings undone. Dark pants and boots followed.
This was happening. We were really doing this. The thought sent both excitement and terror through me in equal measure. Reyla deserved a proper ceremony, one that honored what we'd built together.
Peering at myself in the mirror, I smoothed my hair with my fingers and stared at my image. She loved me. I still couldn’t get over that fact.
And she wanted to show me again with her vows.
I quickly flitted to the elder’s home, knocking on the front door, pacing impatiently until she opened the panel and poked her nose out. Justifar’s eyes widened, and she opened the door all the way and bowed, her blue hair gleaming in the moonlight.
“My king,” she said in a wispy voice. “To what do I owe this honor?”
“It’s short notice.” I kept pacing, a Reyla thing I adored as much as her. She did it to think; I did it when I felt uncomfortable. I could ask anything for others, even demand it.
But I’d never found it easy to ask for myself.
“Yes?” she prompted, smoothing her hands down her dark robe.
“Will you marry me?”
She blinked.
I laughed uneasily. “Pardon. Would you please marry Reyla and I?”
Her frown only deepened. “Didn’t you and our queen marry on the ship during your journey from Lydel to Evergorne?”
“Yes, Captain Christoff married us.”
“So…?”
“We didn’t know each other then. Our marriage was arranged, a formal thing to create an alliance between her people and ours. Now, we love each other, and we want to marry with our hearts.”
Her face cleared. “Ah. I see.” A smile rose on her wrinkled cheeks. “I’d be honored to perform this ceremony for you and our beloved queen. When would you like to do it?”
“Now.”
She blinked again. “Now?”
“If it’s not too much of an imposition.”
“I’m here for you always, King Lorick. You know that.” She glanced down at her robe. “May I have a few moments to change?”
“Of course. I’ll wait.”
Her lips twitched before smoothing. “Very well. Would you like to wait here or in the parlor?”
“Here is fine.” And now I was nervous, though not because this was something I didn’t want to do. I didn’t want my wife to wait, to wonder where I’d gone.
Fortunately, it wasn’t long before our elder stepped outside in a red robe shot through with silver. Evergorne colors.
She shut the door and peered around. “Where’s your carriage?”
“Reyla taught me… Well, I’ll take you there with magic. If that’s alright.”
She took my arm. “I’ve always wished there was a way to travel with magic. You’ll share this special spell with me.”
It was a statement, not a question. “I will.”
One flit, and I took her to the tower. Where else would I marry the woman I’d love forever but here?
As she looked around, Justifar’s eyebrows lifted, but she pinched her lips together and said nothing.
“Reyla and I will be right back,” I said.
Justifar nodded, her eyes bright with understanding. “Love marriages are the most sacred,” she said softly. “I'll prepare the words while you bring your bride.”
I flitted back to the bathing area.
Clearing my throat, I strode into the bedroom. The air shifted when Reyla turned, her bare feet whispering on the floor.
She wore the gown I’d spun for her with moonlight the night we wed.
My breath caught. It always did when it came to this woman. But now—fates, now—I wanted to fall to my knees.
The dress clung to her like a secret, all opalescent shimmer and luminous shadow. It moved with her, reflecting the faint starlight leaking through the high windows. Her hair was a wild halo around her face, curling down her back like sunlit silk.
And still, somehow, she looked unfinished. Not in any way that diminished her beauty, but in the way that whispered mine to complete.
She didn’t speak. She didn’t have to. Her eyes held too much. Fear. Hope. Fierce, unshakable love.
I stepped toward her and lifted my hands.
Let me?
She nodded once, a smile teasing across her lips before she smoothed them.
I turned to the window and threw it wide with a flick of my finger. A rush of cool mountain air burst inside.
Outside, the true world, my world of magic, was waking slowly. Mist pooling in the forest hollows. Stars still lingering above the peaks. The castle gardens stories below sparkled with dew.
I pulled from them all.
A low wind stirred in answer to my call, sweeping upward toward us. It carried petals and leaves and slender threads of sikeen. I caught them with my magic, suspending them in the space between us like a thousand tiny stars.
Shifting my hands through the air, I guided the elements into place, twisting vines no thicker than embroidery thread into filigree chains, shaping them around beads created from the dew. A necklace took form, white and iridescent, clasped with a hook made of a bit of bleached fessalile wood.
I settled it gently around her throat.
“Still mine,” I whispered, stepping toward her. “Every breath you take.”
“Just as you're mine.” Her voice caught. “Body, heart, and soul.”
“Forever,” I breathed against her skin.
That sparkle in her deep brown eyes… I would die a happy man as long as that was the last thing I saw.
I eased around behind her.
The air obeyed my command, lifting her curls. I wove them into the braid I'd once crowned her with. Regal and wild all at once.
I laced the braid with frost-silvered thisala, starblight jewels that could only be found in one particular river high in the mountains, plus threads I wove from morning mist, holding it all in place with the barest hum of power.
I spun a veil from moon-thread and sikeen, letting it drift to her shoulders. It shimmered in the moonlight.
“Still the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen,” I said roughly, leaning forward to kiss where her neck met her shoulder.
Her skin quivered, and she turned to face me, her eyes full of the world.
“If I never get another day with you,” she said softly. “This one will be enough.”
It wouldn’t. Not for me. Not for her. Never for us.
Two days until the curse closed its jaws, and I crumbled under the weight of fates’ inevitability.
Unless we broke the curse.
But I didn’t speak of that. Didn’t need to. I could see the same worry in her eyes.
I reached for her hand and kissed it, then dropped to one knee.
Her breath hitched. Her fingers trembled in mine.
“Marry me again,” I said, my voice shaking with everything I couldn’t name. “Not because you have to. Not because of fate. But because you choose me, again and again, even when the fates are cruel and the stars try to tear us apart.”
She cupped my cheek, her eyes brimming with tears. “You’re my home, Lore. I choose you. Always.”
For a moment, we simply remained there, breathing each other in.
Rising, I slid my arms around her, and pressed my forehead against hers.
“You saw all the parts of me, from those I kept hidden to the ones masked by fate. You healed me, and one day soon, we’ll walk in the sunshine.
Laugh with the joy of knowing this part of our lives is over, that we only have the wonder of endless days ahead. ”
“I saw you right from the start.” Her smile was wobbly, beautiful. “You were being an ass, but that was nothing new. Still, I thought, he’s clever and gorgeous and more insufferable than I can bear.”
I barked out a laugh. “Yet you married me.”
“I’d do it a thousand times over.”
I kissed her, one hand cradling the back of her neck, the other teasing across her throat.
When we pulled apart, her cheeks were flushed, and she was breathing hard, her lips kiss-bruised and her veil askew.
Utterly perfect.
“Are you ready?” she asked, her voice strong and certain.
“Evermore, Wildfire. Evermore.”
I offered my arm, and when she took it, I flitted us to the tower room where Justifar was waiting.
The elder's face lit up when she saw us, her eyes taking in Reyla's ethereal beauty and the magic I'd woven around her.
“Now this,” Justifar said with deep satisfaction, “is how a love marriage should begin.”