Chapter Forty-Four #2
“You have had to make so many difficult decisions, Kai. You’ve put everyone before yourself, time and time again.
Of course you’re relieved, to have your sacrifices pay off.
To have all those people safe and happy.
Of course you’re relieved to have the burden of choice distributed a little.
You’re one person. One wonderful, selfless person, who will forever look out for those who need him—but who needs a little help, as we all do. ”
Kai’s chest felt heavy; a comforting weight. A warmth, the same warmth she always inspired. This wasn’t the way he’d meant for this to go, but the detour only served to prove how much he wanted this. How much he wanted her.
“And maybe it was a criticism, when he said it,” she went on. “When the future was uncertain, and we were all angry and scared. But I can’t imagine he’d look at where we are now and have any complaints. Can you?”
“This is Os,” said Kai, with a wry smile. “He’d have found something to complain about.”
But the observation was a light one, borne of nothing but gratitude.
Os had protected him all his life; for as little as they may have seen eye to eye, they’d wanted the same thing.
Kai might never shake the guilt he felt, but neither did he want to.
He owed Os his happiness, but a part of him knew he owed him his regret too.
Os had been right, and Kai knew him well enough to know that such a victory would have delighted him to no end.
Adeline was right too, of course.
His cousin had loved him in the stern and stoic way that only Oswalt could; he wouldn’t have seen him shackled to a throne for the sake of it, not if he’d know there was a better option for them all.
So Kai smiled, and turned his face to kiss Adeline’s palm.
“Thank you,” he said, and meant it.
Adeline stroked her hand through his hair, letting the waves fan through her fingers.
“You deserve to be happy, you know. You’ve been through enough stress for several lifetimes. It’s turning you grey, look.”
She tugged a dark lock into his eyeline so he could see the fine streak of white.
“I suppose I’m finally turning into the old man you’ve accused me of being all along.”
“Fortunately, I’m rather partial to it.”
Adeline winked as she pushed his hair back from his forehead, but before she could sink back into his side he gave her wrist a gentle tug. She granted his wordless request without thought, climbing into his lap so their eyes were level when he brushed his nose over hers.
“I’d like to see you go grey,” he said.
Adeline’s nose wrinkled beneath his.
“That’s a bit mean.”
Kai breathed out a half-laugh, a stuttering sound underlined by his floundering heart.
Adhlas, the nerves were unlike anything he’d ever felt.
More potent by far than the call of the waters in his veins, more terrifying than facing a hundred Sealgair.
But he was more certain than he’d ever been, and for the first time in a very long time, Kai trusted his own judgement.
Adeline was the best choice he’d ever made. The one belief he’d always hold to.
“I’d like to see you grow old, Adeline. I’d like to grow old with you.”
Her breath caught, the absence of it cool on his skin for a moment. And when she gasped in her next breath, the rush of life all around them sprang bluebells and buttercups, bright in his peripheral vision.
Kai felt his lips tug, a reflex set apart from the roaring hum of his every nerve.
“That’s still happening then,” he said faintly. “The emotional Wielding.”
It was an awful attempt at levity, but Adeline barely acknowledged it.
“Shush. Keep talking.”
“Which is it, shush or—”
She grabbed his face in both hands and pulled back, eyes bright and blazing as they fixed on his.
“Kai.”
Such a fierce command in the single syllable of his name; she was a queen already.
Kai laughed again, tension rushing from his chest in one breath though it did nothing to steady the hammering in his ribcage.
Nothing would, he now knew, because it was no longer nerves driving his pulse.
It was simply his heart adamantly making itself known, his very body striving to participate in the moment, every fibre fighting to declare itself for her.
Because it was hers. Heart, breath, and everything else.
He could feel the anticipation humming off her skin, but she sat stock still, fighting to be patient for him, to let him find his way to the right words.
“The world wrote me into a tale I had no say in,” he said finally. “I’ve been the Drowned Prince and the Merrow King, but with you, I’m someone else entirely. With you, I’ve finally found a way to pick up the pen.”
Her eyes gleamed and her swallow was thick, but at her urgent nod he smiled and pressed on against the ache in his own hoarse throat.
“Despite all we’ve suffered and lost, I’d still call it a fairytale. I’d have to. Magic, and love at first sight, a beautiful princess, and a lovesick king and—” He sighed, shook his head in disbelief at his own outstanding luck. “And every moment I’ve spent with you has been a happily ever after.”
She nodded again, more fervently this time.
“I love you Adeline. I always will. Will you marry me?”
Adeline gasped out one thick burst of watery laughter.
“I knew it.”
And before Kai could speak another word, the weight of her kiss knocked him entirely off balance. She fell astride him and did not pull back, kissing him until he could not breathe.
“Is that as a yes?” he finally managed, when she broke from his lips to shower his cheeks and forehead with kisses.
Adeline laughed again, the sound half drowned in tears. She brushed her nose over his, her lashes tickling his cheeks.
“Obviously,” she whispered.
For a long while afterward, neither of them felt either capable or much interested in moving.
They lay side by side and watched the pink and purple dusk washed away by moonlight, and when the stars above them began to shimmer, Kai remembered the glittering ring that had been weighing down his pocket all day.
“It’s my mother’s,” said Adeline at once, voice soft with awe and hoarse with long dried tears.
“I thought you might like her with you on the day,” said Kai. “But if you’d prefer a ring of your own—”
She propped up on her elbow and silenced him with a firm and decisive kiss. Then, lying down at his side, she held her hand against the sky and admired the shine of the enchanted ice diamonds in the winking starlight.
“It’s perfect. It’s all perfect.” She dropped her hand to take his, voice falling to a hush. “If it’s a fairytale, The First Frost and the Last—would that make this the happily ever after?”
She turned her head, smiling when she found him already facing her. The night had grown cool as the sparse springtime heat faded, but Kai had always found more warmth in Adeline’s smile than in the sun itself.
The sunrise on the darkest night of my life, he’d once told her.
And if Adeline was the sun, he’d happily be the moon forever following in her wake, shining only for the grace of her golden light. Kai stroked a thumb over her knuckles, then lifted her hand to press a kiss to the smooth, cool stone that represented their every hope for a shared future.
“Happily ever after,” he said, “is everything that happens from this moment on.”