“I do not believe in luck,” Wylfrael said.
Normally, I didn’t, either. But at this point, I figured we needed all the help we could get.
“Besides,” Wylfrael said, “I wanted to give you this.”
Before I could see what it was, he lowered himself to the ground. On one knee.
It was a ring. He held it up between us.
“You remembered,” I said, shocked to my core. I’d only said the thing about getting down on one knee with a ring once. I’d never mentioned it again.
“I’ve already told you, Torrance. I remember everything about you. Everything you’ve ever told me.”
I swallowed, my throat feeling thick and hot, and stared at the ring. He held it up carefully between his thumb and forefinger so I could see almost the entire circle of it, even though it was so tiny in his grip. It was crystal, crafted with what looked like dozens, no, hundreds of minuscule shards fitted together, creating a rainbow of cascading fire all along the loop. It wasn’t gold, it wasn’t diamond. And it was more beautiful than anything I ever could have imagined.
“I told myself I would not do this,” Wylf said. “I told myself that the deal was done. That I would give you this ring, but I would not ask. But now... now...” His voice grew deep and raw. “Now I find that I must hear your answer.”
“My answer?”
A nearly imperceptible tremor went through his hand, his finger and thumb twitching against the ring.
“Are you going to go through with it, Torrance? Will you marry me?”
“Would anything change if I didn’t?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
“No,” he said. “My life would end the same, whether you marry me or not. I will not find my true mate, and I will go into exile to keep the Sionnachans safe from my mate-madness.”
“I wish you’d tell me why,” I said softly, even though I knew by now he wouldn’t. “Well, if my marrying changes nothing in your life, it changes things in mine,” I reminded him. “It’s part of our deal, remember? Finding my people, and my freedom.”
“No,” Wylfrael bit out. His entire being seemed to thrum with tension, tail fluffed up, wings pulsing, the ring vibrating with the pressure of his shaking arm. “No.”
“No?” I echoed. “What do you mean, no?”
Was he taking it all back? Had he just been pretending this entire time, dangling the things I wanted most in front of me like a toy I couldn’t have?
“I mean that I offer those things freely to you now.” Finally, he stood, as if he couldn’t bear being down on his knee any longer. In a movement that should have been graceful for him but was rough, nearly clumsy, he found his feet and grabbed my hand. He dropped the ring into my palm, then closed my fingers over it.
“Put it on, or don’t. Marry me, or don’t.”
What? What?
My heart slammed as confusion spun inside me, whipped into a frenzy by Wylfrael’s next words.
“I’ll give you everything, Torrance. Everything. Blast the bargain, I’ll still give it all to you. Safety. Your friends. Freedom. Without the council’s help, I can’t guarantee I’ll find the human ship in your lifetime, but I promise you that I’ll search for as long as it takes.”
“But... but the Sionnachans already think...”
“I can figure out a way around that,” Wylfrael grunted. “No other stone sky gods know that I’ve apparently found my mate. They would have found out tomorrow, at the gathering.”
“But... Skalla. Even if you can find him on your own, don’t you need the council to deal with him if he’s still berserk or mate-mad or whatever’s going on with him?”
“Yes,” he confirmed. “But I’m no longer willing to trap you in order to save him or anyone else.”
He’ll set me free.
He would really do it. I could see it in the hard set of his jaw, his unyielding gaze. He still held my hand, and I held the ring, beautiful and hard, fisting it so tightly I knew it would leave a mark against my palm.
Any sane person would have taken his offer and run. No more being his little wife, no more confusion, no more fights, no more bargains or terms or kisses or loving him even though it didn’t matter, even though it meant nothing in the end...
“What do you want?” I asked, my voice falling to a choked murmur.
“I-” He clamped his teeth together, breathing out between them as if barely stopping himself from saying something he thought he might regret. “I just want you to choose.”
He let go of my hand, and I felt cold without his touch.
“Everything for the ceremony is prepared in the library,” he said, his voice smooth and calm, but firm, like he was making a most sacred promise. “I will go there now and I will wait for you, Torrance. I will wait there for you, at the end of the aisle, for as long as it may take. If you do not come, then I will have my answer.”
Now I was the one who shook, throat closing with tears so that I couldn’t even call his name as he turned away from me and left the room.
I watched the open doorway for a long, long time, then looked at myself in the mirror. As I took in my reflection – my pale face, glistening eyes, my human body wrapped in a dress from another world – I wondered who I was anymore.
And who I’d choose to be.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX Wylfrael
I waited so long for my bride in the library that I began to fear I’d made a terrible mistake. I stared at the library’s door so hard that the crystal sometimes shuddered with flickers of power I hadn’t meant to unleash upon it.
Maybe I should open the door myself, I reasoned, though I knew it was not reasonable. Maybe she’s already come and she’s on the other side, but the crystal’s too heavy and she can’t open it like this. Maybe, maybe...
But no. There was no maybe about it. If she had come, if she was on the other side of that door, I would have heard her. Plus, small as she was, she was perfectly capable of opening a door.
Even knowing all this, I did end up smashing open the door with my power from my place at the end of the aisle. If she chose to come here and marry me, I did not want a single barrier in the way that would make her pause, that would give her the chance to stop and think and turn back.
“My lord?” Aiko asked.
She was on my left. Shoshen and Ashken stood on the other side of the long, white fur carpet that had been placed here specially for the ceremony. We were in the centre of the library. I stood in front of the huge crystal-grated firestone, and all the chairs and pillows had been moved to the sides. Brekken was there, too, seated between Ashken and Shoshen, long tongue lolling out.
When I didn’t answer Aiko’s vague question, the hound added in his own.
“Where pretty pretty two leg Torrance? Where mate? Where mate?”
“Perhaps I should go help her,” fretted Aiko. “Perhaps she needs assistance with her dress. Maybe I made the skirt too heavy and long after all...”
“The dress is perfect and she is fine,” I snapped, silencing everyone, even Brekken, who only ever seemed to be quiet when sleeping or trying to sneak up on prey.