Chapter 28
LILIA
The queen was gone and her curse on Hadrien was broken. Still, I held on to him for a long time, somewhat in disbelief that we’d survived.
Genevieve and Victor had whooped and hollered near the entrance of Valgarde, then slipped inside to give us privacy.
“You saved me, Little Sage,” he muttered and kissed the top of my head. “What was it you pressed against my wing?”
I pulled back enough to look up at him. “A leaf from the silver tree.”
He was quiet for a moment. “My parents’ tree.”
“Yes.” I reached into my satchel. It was still there where I’d put it, slightly warm from my hands and his wings now.
Its surface appeared as smooth as still water.
I held it up between us. “The book called it l’arbre miroir.
The mirror tree. Its leaves don’t absorb what falls on them—they return it.
” I turned it in my fingers. “I didn’t fully understand why that mattered.
Until tonight, while we were being attacked. Defensive magic.”
He stared at the leaf for a long moment. Then his gaze moved to Valgarde. Something passed over his face that I wasn’t quite sure of, something between wonder and grief and gratitude. Perhaps all.
“My father’s love for my mother. To protect his mate.” He looked back at me. “And it protected my mate.”
My mouth fell open at his unexpected words. I didn’t know what to say.
“The queen came for this land and its magic, and the land and her magic worked against her.”
I blinked as I considered it. I hadn’t thought of it that way, but yes. Exactly that.
I gestured at his beautiful gray wings, still in awe of his power. He’d shielded us both with his body and those wings, as if they were indeed made of stone. “You protected me.” I sighed. “Your wings. They’re magnificent. You’re far more powerful than you let on.”
He smiled down at me and pushed my hair behind my ears. “Gargoyle protection is strong,” he agreed. “Especially when it comes to protecting the ones we love.”
I blinked up at him. “Love?”
“Yes, love,” he repeated, his gray eyes warming.
I gazed up at him again and cocked my head. “What were you saying about love?” I teased with a smile.
He grinned. “I love you, Lilia. My brave, beautiful, powerful little witch.”
Happy tears clouded my eyes, obscuring my vision of him until I blinked them back. I choked back a lump rising in my throat. Something I hadn’t known I’d wanted until I heard him speak the words I longed for.
“I love you too, Hadrien,” I admitted. When and how it had started I wasn’t sure, but I now felt it with all my being.
His wings twitched behind him, and he shook his head with a playful, stern expression. “I can’t believe you threw yourself in front of me, putting yourself in danger.”
I pursed my lips, picturing the queen’s wrath. “I couldn’t let her hurt you.” I forced the image away.
“But please…” A smile tugged at his lips, and he placed his hand over his heart. “Please, don’t ever do that again.”
I gave him a skeptical look in response. “Can’t make any promises there.” I shrugged and arched a brow. “No evil queen is going to attack my gargoyle.”
Hadrien chuckled. He reached up and brushed hair off my cheek. “No need to worry about that.” He traced his thumb along my cheekbone. “She’s gone.”
I stared into his eyes as I tried to form my jumbled thoughts into words. “You let me go back to my family,” I said softly. “When you knew what was happening to you. How you had such little time left…”
He stared at me for a long time and let out a low exhale. “It would have been selfish to keep you here. I wanted you to be happy. Yet you returned to me.”
“Because I am happy.” I nodded. “Here. With you.”
He framed my face in both hands, then bent his forehead down to rest against mine. I closed my eyes and breathed him in, the particular masculine scent of him that was now as familiar and comforting as the herbs I favored in my garden.
For several seconds, we remained that way, neither saying a word.
He pulled back, just enough to lock his eyes on mine.
“Then stay.” He breathed out slowly. “Not because of any deal or obligation.” His voice sounded steady and earnest. “Stay because you want to. Of your own free will.” He shook his head.
“I’m still not doing this properly. Let me start again.
Lilia, would you like to stay here at Valgarde with me? ”
I’d never seen him so vulnerable, so uncertain, as if awaiting my answer was the most difficult thing he’d ever done.
I thought about my time back home at the cottage with my family, how somewhere I’d longed to return to no longer felt the same.
I thought of the time working with plants and manuscripts, my every thought focused on returning here.
Returning to Hadrien.
I thought of every wonderful moment we’d shared together in such a short time and all the troubles we’d already encountered.
There was no one else I wanted to face life’s challenges with.
There was nowhere else I wanted to be.
“Yes, Hadrien,” I replied with a widening grin. “I’d like nothing more than to stay here with you.”
Joy and relief and an entire realm of emotions spread across his face as his eyes lit with happiness. He bent down and kissed me, still cupping my cheeks in both hands, then as he deepened the kiss, he lowered one hand to my back and pulled me closer to him.
We lost time out there in the moonlight as we kissed slow and unhurried, as if we now had all the time in the world and intended to make the best of it.
When we finally broke apart, I was breathless and gulped for air.
“Come inside,” Hadrien murmured in a velvety whisper against my lips.
“Yesss,” I said between pants.
He pulled back with a mischievous gleam in his eyes. “I know a quicker way. So we don’t run into Genevieve and Victor.”
I raised a brow, remembering the last time he’d proposed such a thing. “Oh, do you?”
“It’s the quickest way to my bedroom.” He cleared his throat and raised his index finger. “Correction. Our bedroom.” He moved close and bent to nuzzle my neck. “I can’t wait to get you alone to show you how much I missed you.”
Neither could I. The touch of his warm lips on my skin stirred a moan from me.
When Hadrien stepped back, I let out a sound of protest, which was silenced as he slowly unfurled his massive wings in front of Valgarde. I admired him as he did so. They were beyond magnificent. Beyond beautiful. They’d shielded us from harm.
Extraordinary.
I glanced up at the dark sky, now clear and twinkling with stars, then met his gaze.
“You won’t drop me, right?” Not that I doubted him. I never would.
“Never.”
He wrapped one muscular arm around my waist and pulled me close. The powerful shift of his wings through the air was followed by movement, and during the next beat, we were rising from the ground. Valgarde and its courtyard and the surrounding forest fell away beneath us.
I tipped my face up to meet the cool rush of air.
“Are you okay, Lilia?” he asked.
The last time he’d carried me, I’d been terrified.
Unsure. Worried. Now I looked at everything through new eyes, capturing its beauty to memory.
The dark forest stretching out beyond the walls, the silver thread of the river in the distance, the stars and moon so close and clear, as if we’d soared up to greet them.
“Home,” I murmured.
“What was that?” he asked.
“I said home.”
“Ah, yes. Home.” He repeated it in the same warm reverence. “We made it, Little Sage.”
A laugh rolled out of me, the sound soon swallowed by the wind. “We made it,” I agreed. “Together.”
He tightened his arm around me, and I felt the laugh rumble within his chest before I heard it.
We soared for several minutes through the dark velvet night before he brought us down to land on the balcony outside his room.
He held on to me as he managed to open the glass doors.
His wings curled inward as he carried me inside, his eyes gleaming silver in the way I now recognized as when he felt deep emotions.
And this one mirrored my own—desire.
I reached up and traced fingers along his hard jawline, and he turned toward my hand to kiss my palm.
Hadrien carried me with giant strides toward the bed and placed me on it gently. He climbed in and braced his weight over me, searching my eyes. “Welcome home, Lilia.”
I leaned up to kiss him. Home indeed.