Chapter 61
CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
The Golden Palace is filled with people.
Excitement bounces between the shimmering walls as everyone who can manage squeezes themselves into the throne room.
An elegant throne has been carved, and it now waits atop the short dais that runs along the back of the room.
Light from the massive golden chandeliers in the ceiling cast glittering sparkles over it.
“How nervous do you think she is?” Lyra asks, a grin on her mouth.
“I told her to remember to smile, and she threw an ice spear at me,” Alistair replies.
A burst of laughter rips from my lungs. Then I give Alistair a sidelong look. “To be fair, that was probably not the best thing to tell her.”
He raises his eyebrows in surprise. “Why not?”
“Because Isera doesn’t need to smile more,” Orion replies before I can so much as open my mouth. There is an intense look in his eyes as he keeps his gaze fixed on the door that Isera will be walking out of any moment now. “She is perfect the way she is.”
Turning my head slightly, I hide a smile.
Draven, on the other hand, is not so merciful. He flashes the Unseelie King a smirk from where he is standing on my other side. “Are you about to compose another poem?”
“You’re just jealous because you can’t even spell poem,” Orion replies, a sly smile on his lips.
“I thought my superior manners would begin to rub off on you after all the time you have spent in my marvelous presence. But alas, I guess refinement and style cannot be taught. After all, in order for something to rub off, there needs to be something there that can receive it. And you, my dear Shadow of Death, clearly have no class at all.”
“That was a very longwinded way of saying, fuck off,” Alistair comments with a chuckle.
“My point exactly.” Orion bestows a kingly smirk on us all while motioning towards himself with a flourish. “As I said, style and class.”
Both Draven and Alistair roll their eyes, but amusement tugs at their lips. However, before Draven can retort, the door a little behind the throne is opened.
A hush spreads through the massive throne room as everyone quiets down and turns towards the dais.
Isera strides out, wearing a beautifully tailored dress, and walks up to the edge of the platform.
Her glossy black hair ripples down her back, and her silver and blue eyes sparkle in the glow from the faelight gems. She looks the way she always does.
Calm and in control. As if nothing in this world can faze her.
Next to me, Orion draws in a sharp breath.
We all pretend not to hear it.
“This is the beginning of a new era,” Isera calls across the throne room, her voice pulsing with steady authority.
“Normally, a member of the royal family or a high priestess would crown the next Seelie Queen. But we have no priestesses and no royal family. All we have is a blank page. A beginning. So by necessity, I will take this first step alone. But after that, I will need you all to help me take the next step. Only together can we rebuild the Seelie Court to its former glory.”
A massive cheer rises from the crowd in response.
Isera holds up an elegant golden crown.
Pride swells inside me as I watch her move the crown towards her and then place it on her own head.
“Long live the Seelie Queen!” I call.
“Long live the Seelie Queen!” the entire room echoes.
Cheers and whoops pulse through the crowd as everyone celebrates the restoration of our royal line.
I watch with a wide smile on my face as Isera stands there before the throne, looking like a true queen as she ushers in a new age for the Seelie Court.
Lavendera truly couldn’t have picked a better person for the job.
“Tomorrow, our work begins,” Isera calls across the sea of cheering fae. “But today, we celebrate.” Spreading her arms, she motions towards the tables full of drinks and food that line the walls. “Enjoy!”
Another cheer echoes between the shimmering walls. Then excited chatter and laughter break out again as the crowd moves towards the refreshments or towards the ballroom farther down the hall.
Isera remains standing on the dais until everyone has turned their attention elsewhere. Then she quickly strides down from it and approaches us instead.
“Nice speech,” Galen says as she reaches us.
Now that there is no longer an entire throne room watching her, she lets her royal mask slip and graces us all with an eye roll. “I felt ridiculous.”
“You were magnificent,” Orion immediately replies.
A jolt goes through her body, and her gaze darts to him. She opens her mouth, but no words make it out.
“You have always been a queen.” His intense eyes are fixed on her as if she is the only person in the room. “I’m glad everyone else finally sees that too.”
She looks back at him, a mess of emotions flitting across her beautiful face. Then she swallows and shakes her head. “Don’t…”
“Why not?” A flicker of pain appears briefly in his eyes before he manages to hide it behind a teasing smile instead. “Now that I finally have my eye back, there should no longer be any reason for you to feel embarrassed to be seen next to me. So why not let me show you—”
“What?” She jerks back, staring at him in shock. “What are you talking about? Your eye? What does your eye have to do with this?”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about. Everyone knows.” Shame flashes across his face, and he swallows. “I could barely look at myself in the mirror when that gaping hole was staring back at me. So I can only imagine the disgust you must have felt when—”
“You,” she growls.
Grabbing him by the arm, she pulls him with her as she starts stalking away.
But then she comes to an abrupt halt after only a few steps when she seems to remember that we’re inside a crowded throne room.
All around us, people are chatting and laughing while they eat the food they grabbed from the side tables.
Isera casts an alarmed glance at them all before looking back at us. Apparently deciding that she would rather have us overhear this conversation than the strangers in here, she just swings Orion around so that he is facing her instead while remaining there a few steps away from our group.
We all discreetly turn a little so that it’s not so obvious that we’re all still looking at them. And when Isera speaks again, we can still hear every word.
“If you think that I, or anyone else for that matter, thought you were any less attractive when you were missing an eye, you are the most delusional person I’ve ever met.
” Releasing his arm, she instead raises her hand and points it at his face in frustration.
“Have you ever even looked at yourself in a mirror? That,” she stabs her hand in the direction of his face again, “should not even be biologically possible. A face that is this breathtakingly beautiful defies all natural laws. Eye or no eye.”
Orion blinks at her, looking completely stunned.
“And it’s not just your face.” Shaking her head as if in disbelief, she blows out a frustrated breath.
“It’s everything about you. Your body, your voice, the way you speak, how you carry yourself, the way you move through the world, the effortless power you exude.
Everything about you is so damn… distracting that I can barely concentrate when you’re in the room. ”
“But then… why?” He stares at her, his eyes wide.
She swallows and glances away for a second, and when she answers, her voice is much softer and almost filled with dread. “Why what?”
“You must know how I feel about you by now.”
“I…” Trailing off, she glances down and to the side again.
Orion grips her chin, tilting her head back up so that she meets his gaze again. And when she does, his eyes are so intense that she draws in a small breath.
“I love you, Isera.”
Panic flits across her face, and she pulls her chin out of his grip before shaking her head desperately.
“You can’t. You can’t possibly love me.” Throwing out an arm, she stabs a hand towards me.
“I’m not kind and thoughtful like Selena.
” She flicks her wrist in Lyra’s direction.
“I don’t brighten up a room like Lyra.” She shakes her head again, her eyes desolate as she looks at Orion. “I’m cold and unfeeling and difficult.”
“Cold? Yes. Unfeeling? No. Difficult? Most definitely.” He chuckles. Then his expression turns serious again as he holds her gaze with eyes full of sincerity. “I love you because you are cold and ruthless.”
“Because you want to see what is hiding underneath the cold facade?”
“No. I love you because that is who you are. There is no soft little flower hiding underneath the ice. You are the ice. You are lethal sharpness and ruthless confidence. And that is exactly why I love you.”
She draws in an unsteady breath, staring back at him with big eyes that are swirling with an entire mess of emotions.
“I know how I feel.” His eyes remain locked on hers, his gaze steady. “And I know that you don’t love me back. Yet. But if you give me the chance, I will—”
“No,” she blurts out.
“Why not?”
“Because I have nothing to give!” Panic flashes across her entire face as she stares back at him.
“I have nothing to give you, Orion. You deserve the world. After everything you have been through, everything you have sacrificed, you deserve the world. And I can’t give it to you. I can’t give you anything.”
“You—”
“I have nothing to give you!” Her voice almost breaks.
“My entire life, all I had was the anger I felt towards my mother for abandoning me. Then when I found out what really happened to her, all I had was revenge. And now that I have gotten revenge, there is nothing left.” She stabs her hand against her own chest. “I have nothing left. There is nothing inside. I am empty. I want you to have everything, Orion. But I have nothing to give.”
“You don’t have to give me anything.” Emotions shine in his eyes as he looks at her while shaking his head gently. “Isera, you don’t have to give me anything. You, exactly as you are, is all I want.”
She chokes back a sob.
“In case it wasn’t abundantly clear, I have loved you for weeks.
” A soft smile blows across his lips. “I loved you while you were consumed by revenge. I loved you when you felt lost and empty afterwards. And if I had known you while you were only filled with rage against your mother, I would have loved you then as well. You never have to be anything other than exactly who you are. Because I love all versions of you. I love you, Isera.”
Her eyes are brimming with tears, and one slides down her cheek as she draws in another unsteady breath.
“I know that you don’t feel the same way,” he says. “But if you give me a chance, if you give us a chance, I—”
“There’s no need.”
He swallows, looking like he wants to argue, but then just drops his gaze and nods in defeat.
Isera draws in a deep breath, as if bracing herself. “Because I already do.”
Orion snaps his gaze up to her face again. Shock and hope flit across his beautiful features. “What?”
“I love you, Orion.” She lets out a soft laugh and shakes her head, as if she can’t believe that she is saying this out loud.
“You make me feel safe and protected. I have never, never in my entire life, felt safe and protected the way I do when I’m with you.
And at the same time, you somehow also manage to make me feel powerful and lethal.
You challenge me. You make me laugh, even when I don’t want to.
And you make me… feel things. I never used to feel anything except cold fury.
But every time I’m with you, I forget how empty I am inside. ”
His lips part slightly, and he stares at her like he’s afraid that if he takes his eyes off her for even one second, this is just going to turn out to be a dream that vanishes like smoke in the wind.
“I have been fighting against it for weeks, because I didn’t want to drag you down into the numb emptiness inside me when you have already endured so much. But I love you, Orion. I love you so much that I—”
She gasps. Jerking back, she blinks hard a couple of times. Then her mouth drops open. With shock crackling across her face, she looks down at her own chest before dragging her gaze back up to Orion.
“We’re fated mates?” she blurts out, her eyes wide.
A heartbreakingly beautiful smile spreads across his lips. “The mate bond has appeared for you too?”
“You knew?”
“Of course.”
“How long have you known?”
“Since that morning when we woke up in the cave after you cuddled me.”
Her cheeks flush, and she tries to draw her eyebrows down in a scowl as she huffs, “I was not cuddling you.”
“Yes, you were, little viper.” He smiles. “Yes, you were.”
She grabs the back of his neck and yanks his mouth down to hers.
I let out a whoop as she kisses him fiercely.
He slides one hand along her waist while resting the other on her jaw and the side of her neck. Holding her possessively, he kisses her back like he has been starving for her.
Draven wraps an arm around me and pulls me closer to him before kissing my temple. His golden eyes glitter and there is a warm smile on his face as we watch Isera and Orion finally admit what we have all known for weeks. That the two of them share a soul.
“Look!” someone calls from across the throne room. “The Seelie Queen and the Unseelie King!”
“They’re kissing!” someone else blurts out.
“What does this mean?”
“Are they together?”
“Will our courts become one?”
“Didn’t we used to be a united fae realm before? Are they going to bring that back?”
“Are they married?”
“Will they rule both courts together?”
Voices, one after the other, echo across the glittering throne room as the fae of the Seelie Court stare at Isera and Orion, who are still kissing each other as if they are the only people in the room.
Then Isera at last breaks the kiss. But she doesn’t pull back. Still keeping her hand around the back of Orion’s neck, she rests her forehead against his and lets out a short laugh.
“Oh, this is going to be trouble, isn’t it?” she says, amusement still in her voice.
“Yes, it is.” Orion grips her chin and tilts her mouth up to his, stealing one more kiss from her. “But you have always been trouble, little viper.”
She laughs against his lips. “Likewise, pretty boy.”
Smiling, he releases her chin and pulls back enough that he can meet her gaze. His black and silver eyes glitter like the most beautiful of night skies. “So what do you say? Should we face this the way our courts always should have been?”
Utter certainty pulses across her face as she nods. “Together.”
“Together.”