Episode 109 A Perfect Day
A Perfect Day
It’s been a slow day. A quiet day. Hours spent sitting and talking both in Rominy’s grandmother’s cottage and on his pebbled beach.
Elowyn leans back against him now as they snuggle against the headboard on their bed, gazing out at the brilliant sunset.
“Thank you for today,” she says softly.
“You aren’t going crazy with the waiting?”
She sighs. “Perhaps a little. But I believe I’m getting better at just existing. As long as you’re here to help me.”
He tightens his arm where it wraps around her waist and kisses her temple. “Today has been my perfect day. Spending it quietly with you.”
She turns to gaze at him. They’re so different, the two of them.
Yet somehow perfect together.
“We’ll have more days like this, my love. If you enjoy them so much.”
“In between our adventures chasing your dragons, of course. And building treehouses with crooked floors.”
That makes her smile. It isn’t that crooked.
She gazes back toward the sunset as he draws her hair aside and presses his lips to her neck.
“How are you feeling?” he murmurs. His voice is husky and full of desire, and she melts at the heat barely contained within his question.
“I’m a little tired,” she reluctantly says. “But I don’t want you to stop.”
“I’ve barely started,” he says with a smile in his voice.
“It was enough to make me long for more.”
“Just relax, then, El. Let me love you in the quiet moments tonight.”
When a gentle, misty rain starts to fall, she lets go of her magic again. It’s not as eager as it was last night. As demanding. It just exists around them, playing with the raindrops as they fall. She grows warm, but Rominy doesn’t complain.
He kisses her softly. His touch is gentle and soothing, turning her into a drowsy puddle rather than igniting her fire.
Was that his goal?
“You’re just making me sleepy,” she murmurs. “I thought we were—”
He presses his finger to her lips. “You need rest. Just sleep, love.”
She’d argue, but her will to do anything beyond sleep melts away with his touch. How can he set her on fire one night and lull her to sleep so easily the next? It’s like magic.
And she stops fighting it as she gives in to her need to rest.
For a while, Rominy watches Elowyn slumber. That was easier than he thought it would be.
He could tell she needed sleep more than she needed to be set on fire. Convincing her of that would have been far more difficult than what he did, though.
Not that he was trying to trick her. If she’d responded differently, he would have happily given her everything.
But his hunch that she was more tired than even she realized seems to have proven true.
Hopefully, it means nothing. She worked hard yesterday, both in the real world and in the heartlanding. His heat flares at the memory.
As stars appear in the sky, his own drowsiness grows. The rain stopped when she fell asleep, but dampness still covers them. It seems he’ll need to get used to being damp, at least if he wants to share more intimate moments with her like the one they experienced last night. Which obviously he does.
He’s about to drift off when that familiar pull tugs at him. The pull of reality dragging him out of the heartlanding.
Not again.
He groans and reaches for Elowyn’s hand, but she slumbers on.
“I’ll see you again as soon as I can, love. Don’t stop fighting,” he whispers.
The pebbled beach and starry sky fade, along with the crash of ocean waves, and he closes his eyes against the dizziness that’s sure to follow.
Will Arisanna be there again? Tharios? His parents?
He waits for someone to speak, but no one does.
Eventually, he opens his eyes to the familiar hotel room in Feressa, but no one hovers over him.
It’s dim, though light shines around the curtains, signaling that it’s daytime in the real world.
He struggles to focus as he searches for some sign of life.
Someone dozes in a chair near Elowyn’s side of the bed, but otherwise, the room seems empty.
It’s Elowyn’s father.
Where did everyone else go? And what dragged Rominy from the heartlanding?
“King Lorial?” he says quietly, though he probably doesn’t need to whisper.
“Rominy?” Elowyn’s father straightens in the chair, his face coming into focus as he yawns. “Call me Lorial. Or Pera. Or anything you wish that doesn’t leave a gulf of formality between us.”
Rominy nods. “Did you wake me?”
“I believe you woke on your own, young one.” He rises to check on Elowyn, and Rominy almost falls off the bed when her fingers tighten around his.
“Pera?” she whispers. “Rominy?”
She sounds more lucid than she did yesterday or whatever day it was she last woke.
“I’m here, my elfling,” Lorial says as he takes her other hand. “But I need to fetch Tharios. I’ll return in a moment. You just rest here with Rominy.”
She nods, and Rominy struggles against the wetness filling his eyes as he clings to her hand.
She must have awakened them from the heartlanding on her own.
“I’m here, love,” he whispers as Lorial slips out of the room.
“Water. My throat...”
“In a few minutes, all right? After Tharios gets here.”
She nods again, and the door swings back open. That was fast. Tharios must have been in the hallway. Cerian and Arisanna stream in behind him.
“Welcome back.” Tharios probes Elowyn, and she doesn’t fight him this time.
“She asked for water,” Rominy says, and Tharios nods.
“Soon. Can you see if the kitchen has ice, Cer?”
Cerian gulps and clutches Arisanna’s hand, but he drags her to the door and out into the corridor.
“How do you feel?” Tharios asks Elowyn.
“Tired. But not sleepy like I was. And my whole body aches. But I can’t move my arm. Please tell me you did that.” Her voice cracks on that last pleading sentence.
“I did. It’s temporary. I promise.”
Relief sweeps over her, and Rominy squeezes her hand.
“Closer, my love,” she whispers, and he leans near.
“What is it?”
“You tricked me. You were supposed to set me on fire. Not put me to sleep.”
It takes him a moment to process her meaning, and a smile slips across his face. “I’ll make it up to you. Any way you want.”
“Hmm. I like the sound of that.”
He doesn’t even try to stem the tears filling his eyes. He’s too busy resisting the urge to clutch her to his chest.
The door opens again as Queen Nestraya rushes into the room with Lorial.
When Elowyn’s father meets Rominy’s eyes, Rominy can’t hold back his smile as he wipes at his tears and nods. Lorial looks as emotional as Rominy feels. He paces the room, a seeming bundle of joyous energy, and Rominy almost laughs at the echoes of Elowyn he sees in her father.
“Mera,” Elowyn whispers as Queen Nestraya kneels at her side. “Is that really you? You’re so strong.”
“We need to get you strong again, my darling.”
“I’m trying. I promise.”
“I know you are. You’re doing beautifully.”
“I’m sorry. I forgot to watch my fire magic. I—”
“Shh. You just worry about getting better now, all right?”
“Did you forget, or did you ignore me?” Tharios looks at her pointedly, and a smile twitches the corners of her mouth.
“I’m not sure I should answer that.”
“That’s what I thought.” Tharios bops her nose, and she laughs. It sounds rusty and unused, but it’s beautiful, and Rominy wants to wrap himself around her and shoo everyone else away.
Cerian and Arisanna eventually return, and Grandmera arrives with Rominy’s parents, but through it all, Rominy never leaves Elowyn’s side.
Tharios hands him the cup of ice chips Cerian and Arisanna procured. “Slowly, a tiny bit at a time, so she doesn’t grow nauseated.”
Rominy nods and takes the cup with the spoon.
Elowyn’s eyes twinkle as he offers her an ice chip. They don’t exchange words. They don’t have to. He feels the adoration in her gaze, the amusement as he drops ice chip after ice chip past her lips.
He’d follow each one with a kiss if the room weren’t full to bursting with so many people who love them both.
Mother would probably faint if he did.
But Father would laugh.
He won’t kiss her, though. Her fire magic needs to stay quiet.
And he doesn’t whisper what he’s thinking in her ear. That as soon as they return to the heartlanding, she’s his. He won’t be holding back.
As the day wears on, Elowyn’s eyelids grow heavy again. She tries to fight it, but she’s fooling no one.
Eventually, Rominy lies close to her so no one else will hear. “It’s all right to sleep, love.”
“I’m scared.” Her words are quiet, her voice heavy with exhaustion.
“What scares you?”
“I don’t want to get stuck in the heartlanding again.”
“You won’t. Just a normal sleep this time.”
Hopefully, that’s the truth.
“And no matter where you wake,” he continues, “I’ll be there.”
“Anything I want?”
He tries not to smile too widely at that. “Anything you want.”
“Hold me?”
He only glances at their families briefly before wrapping his arms around her as she curls against his chest, and sleep steals her away as soon as her eyelids dust her cheeks.