CHAPTER TEN
“You look different,” David observed as we strolled hand in hand beneath the cherry trees lining the palace’s gardens. The blooms had long faded, trading their bright pink splendor for lush green canopies. Finches and sparrows chirped from their nests above our heads, their songs filling the air.
I eyed him carefully. “Do I?”
“In a good way,” he clarified. When the silence stretched between us, he cleared his throat. “Did you change your hair?”
I gave a close-lipped smile. “Yes.”
My hair was the same it was every day. So was the rest of my appearance, from my worn leather shoes to the linen kerchief that covered my dark hair.
But I knew immediately what he referred to, the dreams I’d begun to harbor. The fact that he noticed the energy humming beneath my skin unsettled me.
I hadn’t planned on telling David about my father’s journal. I wasn’t sure why: whether because his reaction might shatter my fragile resolve, or because it might confirm fears I already had about our relationship.
But I felt peace about the decision to keep him in the dark, especially considering there was so little I had solidified in my own mind. I hoped to try the spell this evening after my shift, but what then? Another? And another? What would happen when I reached the end of Papa’s book?
“Well it looks lovely,” David said, drawing me closer for a kiss.
His lips grazed my cheek before I pulled away. Taking his hand, I tugged him back toward the palace. He chuckled before letting his long stride push ahead of me once more.
Why did he always insist on leading?
“I wanted to tell you something.”
I smothered my annoyance. “Oh?”
We were rounding the pond, where dragonflies darted over the still water. I passed the rocks I’d knelt on when Prince Thomas saved Asha’s life.
We slowed as toads croaked. A lily pad floated close by, a dark pink water lily resting nearby. It was as if here, in this quiet hideaway, the world had fallen still, and the bustle of the palace’s servants’ hall was a thousand miles away.
“Lyra.”
My head whipped right, my reverie broken. David stood next to me, a thin purple ribbon in his hands. His shaky fingers fidgeted over its length, wrinkling and twisting it as his gaze met mine with earnest, almost breathless anticipation.
I inhaled sharply.
A corner of his mouth tilted upward. “I-I know it’s been a long time coming…”
“You didn’t.”
“You’ve waited a long time for me to do this, but I wanted to be completely certain.”
A bead of sweat rolled down the back of my neck.
“But of this, I’m sure: there is no other woman, not in this town, not in this kingdom, not on this earth, Lyra, who I would rather spend the rest of my days with. You are who I want to share my bed with, who I want to bear my children, and who I want by my side when death comes for us both.”
I stepped back.
He held the ribbon out in one hand, outstretched between his fingers. A gentle summer breeze sent both strands tossing in the wind.
“I… I don’t know what to say.”
“Say yes, Lyra,” he said, stepping closer, his affectionate gaze boring into mine. “I know your heart is telling you yes. Follow it gladly. I’ve made you wait long enough.”
I tried to breathe, but my lungs refused to expand. “I…”
His other hand rose to cup my cheek. I leaned into his familiar touch.
“We’ve made so many memories,” he whispered. “I can’t wait to make a thousand more.”
I looked up into the green eyes that had comforted me on my worst days. The strong brows that helped shape my decisions with their skepticism. The soft lips that felt like a second home.
We had made so many memories. And David had been the only one who’d brought me back to life after Papa’s death.
My answer caught in my throat.
“What was that?”
“Yes,” I whispered, so light that my words could’ve been carried off by the wind.
“Yes?”
I nodded, a shy smile coming over my expression.
David grinned. He wrapped the dark purple ribbon around my wrist, tying it in a firm knot. I fingered it as the sunlight glinted off the satin, then looked up at him with crinkled eyes.
He pulled me tight, wrapping me in his embrace, and I burrowed within, breathing in the scent of smoke and leather that followed him everywhere he went.
“I love you,” he murmured into my hair, the first time I’d heard the declaration from his lips.
“I love you too,” I replied.
It seemed like the right thing to say.