Chapter 58 Harkin
Chapter fifty-eight
Harkin
Sweet honey and smoked steel followed me into sleep.
Soft hair fanned loose across my cheek, and supple skin taunted my caressing hands.
I opened my eyes to the gentle scratch of Seren’s fingers over my scalp.
I sighed happily into her touch, knowing this tremulous thing between us could not last but wishing, for all I was worth, that it would.
Seren lay across me, propped up on her elbow. The silky strands of her unbound hair danced across my cheekbone as she looked down at me with an expression so full of feeling, my breath caught.
She ran her pointer finger across my face, down my nose, over my lips. She kissed the lines of my scars.
I shivered, eyelids falling and rising as I blinked the world into focus.
“It comes so easy to you now,” I remarked, running my hand along Seren’s shoulder and down her back. I pressed her more firmly to me.
“Only with you,” Seren told me with a soft smile.
The edges of the tent blurred around me, colors swam before my eyes. The only image in clear focus was Seren.
“You’re doing so well with all of us,” I praised her. “But if you come to me every night, it will be a gift.”
“Only one dream left to walk,” Seren said. Her voice was quietly proud, only a little afraid.
The sentiment rippled through me in kind. I was so proud of all her accomplishments, so scared to see her hurt.
“You can do it,” I assured. I did not expect it to come easily, but I did know Seren. “You can do anything.”
“Thank you.”
Seren pressed a searing kiss to my lips, her hand trailing down my neck. I cupped her jaw, tugging her closer. I could feel her grin against my mouth as she pulled away. A noise of protest rose within me, and she dropped another kiss to the corner of my mouth.
“I have been thinking,” Seren began.
“We have thought plenty,” I countered. “Should we not make the most of our time now, while we have it?”
“Making the most of our time is exactly what I have in mind,” she continued. “I believe I have found a way to trap Lady Adiran and ensure this does not have to end.”
I raised my eyebrows in response, rubbing my hands down the firm planes of her back. She rested her hand over my heart.
“When I was small, my parents told me fairytales and love stories from Acsilla—you know this already—but the weddings were always so much more mágikal than those in Ordéles. There was mágik and wonder, as all Acsillan stories had, but the part that stuck with me was the uniting of two souls into one. I always hoped I would find a love worth holding onto forever…” She laughed, but there was no humor in it.
“You still work for the highest bidder, mercenary?” Seren was teasing, but I knew she was only trying to mask her nerves.
“No. Not anymore,” I said, ribbing her in turn. My smile softened. “But you know I’ll do anything for you.”
Seren’s eyes sparkled as she looked at me. She bit her lip and buried her face in my neck. “Lady Adiran will be biding her time, keeping her distance knowing her plan went awry. We could host an event to lure her in, as Théo suggested. What if… What if that event was a wedding?”
I stilled my hands. Though I should have seen it coming from her preamble, I could not help the surprise which washed over me. “A wedding?”
“A wedding,” Seren confirmed. Her lips brushed the pulse point of my neck. “Our wedding.”
When I did not respond, Seren pulled away. We sat up, facing each other with wary expressions.
“Ren… you know the council will not let that stand.” I ran a hand through my mussed hair, drawing it farther into disarray.
“We will tell them it is only for the distraction, the lure. The solstice is coming upon us so fast. There will be no time for an alternate plan, so they’ll let us.
And then… and then we actually do it. We will get married, and it will be done.
” Seren dropped her gaze, distress swimming in her mismatched eyes.
I placed my hand along her jaw, raising her eyes back to mine. “Ren, they will make us annul the marriage. They won’t ever support this match.”
“They cannot force me to let you go.” I looked at her with such profound sadness, she could hardly bear to return my gaze.
“Please, don’t you want to be with me?” Her voice wavered, on the brink of tears.
“You know that I do.”
“Then say yes,” Seren whispered, pressing her lips to my cheek. “Be with me.”
“What if you grow sick of me?” I asked. “What if you regret it? It’s so soon, Ren…”
“I won’t,” she assured me, “not ever. And I know it’s fast, but everything around us is moving so quickly. You are the only thing that I can’t bear to lose. You are the only one I will ever feel so deeply for.”
“Yes,” I breathed. Despite knowing how it would end—that she would be taken from me. I could only ever say yes to her.
Relief flooded Seren’s features like the rising tide. “Yes?”
“Yes,” I affirmed, pulling her down in the sea of blankets and kissing her hard. “Yes,” I said with every peppered press of my lips against her face, her neck, her stomach.
“Yes,” Seren repeated with a gasp as I touched her and everything went hazy.
We woke the next morning at dawn. Pale light trickled through the fabric of our tent, soft and diffused, and birds chirped away in the trees above.
I stretched my stiff muscles, careful not to jostle Seren from her place on my chest. I felt surprisingly rested considering Seren and I had talked long into the night within our shared dream.
She had proposed marriage to me, and the shock was still fresh.
It was a fool's plan.
It would certainly work to lure our enemy to the palace on the solstice, but as long as Seren would be queen, it could never be real. The council would make sure of it.
But Seren said she would not let the council tear us apart, and I wanted to believe her. I wanted to allow the selfish part of myself to hold on to her, no matter what. I would try to do exactly that.
I ghosted a kiss across her mouth.