Chapter 24
We ended up sharing a dinner of freshly grilled fish and roasted vegetables in one of the cafés closest to the water, joined by Delano, who had shifted into his mortal form at some point.
I had asked if the other wolven wished to join us, but they had chosen to remain in their wolven forms, watching over any and all that ventured near us, including the Crown Guard.
It wasn’t until after the sun had begun its steady descent into the horizon that we made it to the beaches.
The first thing I did was unstrap my sandals.
The very moment my feet sank into the gritty sand, a smile tugged at my lips as a barrage of memories rose within me—memories of my parents and Ian, walking along another beach.
As my sandals dangled from my fingers, and Casteel wrapped his hand firmly around mine, I looked out at the sea, watching the clear waters turn a shade of silver as the moon rose.
Those afternoons on the beaches of the Stroud Sea felt like a different lifetime, eons ago, and that saddened me.
How long before they became memories that felt as if they belonged to someone else?
Delano, who walked ahead, turned to face us. “If you’re not tired, there’s something ahead you might enjoy, Penellaphe.”
“I’m not tired.” I looked up at Casteel. “Are you?”
A faint smile appeared as he shook his head.
Delano’s gaze flicked from Casteel to Kieran before returning to me as he walked backwards. “There is a celebration of a wedding,” he explained. “Just around the bend.”
“Are we able to join? I mean, they don’t know me—”
“They will welcome you,” Delano cut in. “Both of you.”
“You want to?” Casteel asked. Of course, I did. I nodded. He looked over his shoulder to where I knew the members of the Crown Guard followed several paces back. “Thank you for your watchful eyes. That will be all for tonight.”
I turned just as I saw several guards bow and then pivot. “They’re actually leaving?”
“They know they don’t belong at a celebration like this,” Kieran explained. “It’s not personal. It just is.”
Just is?
My feet sank into damp sand as we made our way around a dune, the sounds of laughter and music growing louder.
There was so much to soak in—the shouts of happiness, the canopies rippling in the salty breeze, the thick blankets and cushions scattered about the sand, and the groups of people huddled about, dancing and talking.
There was so much life, so much warmth and joy, that it flooded my senses, leaving me exposed like a live wire but in a way that was pleasant for the first time.
In a way that I wanted . My gaze bounced everywhere, stopping on those moving around the flames.
“During these kinds of celebrations, only the wolven can dance around the fire,” Casteel explained, following my gaze. “Though I bet they’d allow you. You’re their Liessa .”
“It’s strange to be the wolven’s Queen and not be a wolven,” I said, watching people envelop Delano as the wolven who’d been trailing us all day rushed forward, disappearing into the crowd.
“Tonight is about celebration,” Kieran told us. “You don’t have to worry about anyone bowing or beating their fists off the sand tonight.”
A tiny grin appeared. “Was my awkwardness the last time really that noticeable?”
“Yes,” both Casteel and Kieran answered.
“Wow,” I said, ducking my chin against Casteel’s arm as I smiled.
But Kieran was right. As he broke away from us, joining several others who stood near a few of the canopied tents, only waves and smiles greeted us.
Taking my sandals from me, Casteel dropped them onto the sand and then unstrapped his swords, lying them on a blanket—a sign that he felt it was safe to do so here.
Sitting, he pulled me down so I was nestled between his legs, facing the bonfire.
I’d completely lost sight of Delano as I relaxed in Casteel’s embrace, but I found Kieran a few moments later, talking with a tall, dark-haired female. That was about all I could see of her from a distance. “Who is Kieran speaking to?” I asked.
Casteel looked over the top of my head. “I think her name is Lyra. If that’s who I think it is. She’s a bit younger than Kieran and me, but her family is close to his.”
“Oh,” I whispered, watching them and thinking of what Kieran had once said about loving and losing someone.
He’d never expounded on that, but what I’d felt from him when he spoke was the kind of anguish one felt when the person they loved was no longer in the realm of the living.
It made me happy to see him with someone, even if they were just talking and laughing.
Not that I would share that with him. He’d probably consider it a question.
“You know how you said it was weird to be a Queen to the wolven but not be a wolven?” Cas said after a few moments.
“It made me think of how when I met you, I was looking for the Maiden, but I found a Princess, a Queen—my wife.” He laughed, and it sounded as if it were one of awe.
“I don’t know. It just made me think about how you find things you never knew you needed when you’re looking for something completely opposite. ”
“Or not looking at all,” I said, my nose scrunching. “Or maybe I was looking. I went to the Red Pearl that night because I wanted to live. And I found you.”
He curled his arms around me, tightening his embrace. A couple of additional moments passed as we watched the wolven around the fire. “What would you want to be doing right now if you could be doing anything? Barring seeing your brother or anything that has to do with what we need to do.”
My brows rose at the unexpected question. Letting my senses stretch out to him, I felt a boyish sense of curiosity, one that brought a grin to my face. I didn’t even have to think about it. “This. You?”
“I’m being serious,” he said.
“I am, too. I would want to be doing this—all that we’ve done today,” I said. “You?”
“The same,” he said quietly, and I knew he spoke the truth. “But with you naked and more sex.”
I laughed loudly at that because I also sensed that to be true. “I’m glad that I chose to spend right now this way.”
“Me, too.” He pressed his lips to my cheek.
I really didn’t know when we would have another day like this one, or at what point there would even be time.
But I didn’t want to think of the reasons why it would probably be a while.
That wasn’t how I wanted to spend right now, so I watched those dancing around the fire with avid interest, entranced by the joyous frenzy of the dark outlines of their bodies, how they moved from one partner to the next, both male and female, with the kind of reckless abandon I’d shared with Casteel in the garden.
What I felt from them could only be described as a release, as if they danced to toss away the chains of what preyed on their minds and souls, and in so doing, found freedom.
A body peeled away from the fire and moved toward us. Sweat glistened off Delano’s bare shoulders as he bowed at the waist. Pale hair tumbled across his forehead as he extended an arm. “Would you like to dance?”
I started to take his hand, but uncertainty filled me. Was it appropriate for me to do so?
Casteel dipped his cheek to mine. “You can dance with him.” His arm loosened around my waist. “You can do whatever you want.”
Do whatever you want.
Four words I hadn’t heard for most of my life. “I…I don’t really know how to dance.”
“No one does,” Delano said, grinning. “Until they do.” He wiggled his fingers. “What do you say, Penellaphe?”
Excitement bubbled up in me as my gaze darted over his shoulder to the figures moving around the bonfire. Do whatever you want . The breath that left me was heady. Twisting, I curled my fingers around Casteel’s chin and pulled his mouth to mine. I kissed him quickly. “I love you, Cas.”
His arm tightened briefly around me. “Have fun.”
Turning back to Delano, I placed my hand in his. “Poppy,” I told him. “Call me Poppy.”
Smiling, Delano pulled me to my feet. “Then let’s dance, Poppy.”
Stomach skipping, I followed him toward the rippling flames. Delano turned to me as the warmth of the fire pressed against my skin.
“I really don’t know how to dance,” I told him apologetically.
“Look around us.” Keeping his fingers wrapped around mine, he picked up my hand and placed it on his hip before resting his on my waist. “Do they look like they know how to dance? Or do they look like they’re having fun?”
Glancing around, I saw nothing like what I saw when I’d snuck through the back halls to spy on the balls held in the Great Hall of Castle Teerman.
There were no rigid movements, nor was everyone paired with someone.
A girl with long, blonde hair danced alone, her arms stretched above her head as her hips moved with the tempo.
A brown-skinned man also danced alone, his body moving with fluid grace.
Couples spun around each other, and others danced so close to one another it was difficult to tell where one body ended and the other began.
I spied Kieran with the dark-haired female.
With her golden-brown arms twined around his neck, they were one of the couples who danced so close that tongues would’ve been wagging in Masadonia.
Kieran lifted the female, spinning her as she threw her head back and laughed.
“What do you see?” Delano prodded.
Dragging my gaze from them, I looked up at him. “They’re having fun.”
He smiled. “You can do that, right?”
I peeked over to where Casteel sat on the plush blanket, one arm resting on a bent knee as he watched us.
A tiny part of me wasn’t sure I knew how to have fun, but I…
I’d had fun today. I’d had fun when Tawny and I had snuck out together to visit the lake.
I hadn’t been thinking about having fun those times.
I was just… living . And that was the key, wasn’t it? To not overthink and to just live.
I looked up at Delano. “I can.”