Chapter 9 #3
The finality of it struck me like a slap to the cheek.
“No,” I gasped. I knelt over Kason and grabbed his face, ignoring the sooty handprints I was leaving on his gray-tinged skin.
“No, this isn’t fair. You did nothing wrong.
” I lifted my head to the sky, the indigo of it barely visible beyond the forest’s foliage.
“We tried! We succeeded, even if it took slightly longer than the deadline you gave us. Doesn’t that count for something? ”
My only answer was the crash of the cabin’s roof collapsing.
I lifted my wrist. The marriage mark was still there, but fading before my eyes.
Fuck me and my stubbornness. Why hadn’t I simply reaffirmed the bond?
Divorce was possible—if a somewhat intricate process, but the price to be paid wouldn’t have been as bad as this .
We would have had to go through couples counseling to prove our differences were irreconcilable, not to mention waiting the prescribed six months before starting proceedings, and then pay the levy the gods chose.
But still, I should have considered it. Tying myself to Kason for six months—up to a year at most—would have been preferable to watching the man take his last breath in front of me.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. I picked up Kason’s limp hand, the one with the marked wrist, and held the back of it to my forehead.
“I wish I’d said these words days ago. ‘Where you go, I go. I’ll always travel at your side, your companion on all life’s roads.
’” It was a quote from a wedding I’d witnessed as a child, and the whimsical promises had stuck with me.
Because, truthfully, that was what I’d wanted the most when I was younger.
As a man, as well. Someone to share life with.
Someone who would be at my side, always.
Kason gasped.
I jerked back, my eyes wide, as Kason sat up and sucked in air as though he’d been submerged underwater. His skin was no longer underscored with an unhealthy gray, his cheeks rosy under the streaks of soot I had left on them, and his lips were an enticing pink.
A rustle in the tree above us tore my gaze away from Kason, and I spotted the dragonet perched there. Its eyes flared a familiar purple for an instant, then it flew away. Fucking Rhianough. That explained so much.
“Did I dream that I died?” Kason asked softly.
Swallowing, I held up my wrist so we could both see the fully engaged dark marriage mark that matched the intensity and symbol of Kason’s. “No,” I whispered, my tone full of wonder this time instead of dismay. It shouldn’t have been possible—we weren’t in one of Rhianough’s streams.
Though I supposed if she were watching us through the dragonet…
“You married me.” Kason smiled, the expression joyful but tentative.
“I guess I did.”
“Did you mean it, or…?” Kason’s smile drifted away. “Did you do it because you thought it would save me?”
I could lie. Kason had given me the perfect out to hide my feelings, to retreat behind the wall that had protected my heart since my mother died. If you didn’t let people in, they couldn’t hurt you.
But I didn’t want to do that anymore. Not with Kason. “I meant it.”
“But you thought you were pledging yourself to a dead man, so?—”
My hand darted out to brush across Kason’s mark. “That doesn’t mean it was any less heartfelt. I should have done it days ago.”
“To save me.”
“Yes, but also…” I swallowed and shored up my emotional strength. “Because I would have meant it then too.”
Kason tentatively reached out a hand, and when I didn’t flinch from his touch or try to move away, he curled his palm around the back of my neck to pull me forward.
Our lips met in a gentle caress, the barest of skin-on-skin touches.
Then I let out a sigh—of contentment, of rightness—and melted into Kason’s embrace.
The kiss deepened, our lips fusing as our tongues danced.
Kason’s explored my pointed teeth, and I relaxed further as it didn’t change the kiss in any way.
If anything, Kason pressed deeper, seeming to want more, and I wanted to give it to him.
“There you are!” Imalfi’s shout yanked the two of us apart as effectively as a pair of hands.
“Thank the gods, you both got out.” She eyed me critically as she stopped next to the tree closest to us, the rest of the crew joining her.
I was utterly thankful to see that everyone was intact and standing. “You look like shit.”
I laughed. “Thanks.”
“But lighter,” she continued, a smile stretching across her face. “So we did it, yeah? Fulfilled your goddess-given quest?”
I shared a look with Kason, who tilted his head. Somehow, I knew it was a sign that telling my friends about our marriage—requited and all—was my decision to make. I held up my wrist with its unmistakable mark. “Yes and no. We were too late, but Rhianough accepted my vow anyway.”
“Oh, for the love of—” Imalfi tugged at one of her ears, a sign she was truly frustrated. Unlike me, she’d worked to eliminate all of her emotional tells, but that one sneaked out when she was at her wits’ end. “You married him?”
“He saved Kason’s life. I think it’s romantic,” Gemm said, his eyes sparkling.
I didn’t want them to think I’d only done it for that reason. In fact, that hadn’t occurred to me. “Actually, I?—”
“It’s stupid, is what it is,” Imalfi said over me. “Mokido, do you even know who he is?”
I frowned, my gaze flicking to Kason, only to find my new husband looking anywhere but at me. “He’s Kason Estosia? I mean, I know he’s a noble, but?—”
Imalfi turned to the crew. “How can he not know? No, I’m serious. He’s been hunted by this man for years, and he doesn’t know who exactly he is?”
My stomach sank. I remembered the lie I’d told the merchant who’d wanted to kill Kason as he slept. “He’s…” I turned to Kason. “You’re not actually the queen’s cousin, right?”
Before Kason could gather himself to respond, Imalfi scoffed. “The queen’s cousin? He’s the motherfucking queen’s youngest son .”
My mouth dropped open.
Above us, a dragonet’s cry rang through the lightening sky, sounding very much like a woman’s laughter.