Page 173 of The Dawn of the Cursed Queen

“Yes, but this,” he held out his hand, his silver armor matching mine as I put my palm in his, “this is what I wanted you to see.”

He led me toward the edge of the cliff and stepped behind me. His massive arm took up my vision as he pointed to the left.

There, carved into half the mountain, sat the largest castle I had ever seen.

“What?” I tipped my head back, gazing up at him in shock.

“This was the first place I went after our fight. I needed a place to keep the one person who I love the most safe. Nowhere we have been has been good enough, and when I remembered this realm, I needed to see if it still stood. It does, and it is also abandoned. I checked the entire place. They even left the furniture.”

“You left me to go house hunting and wedding planning after we’d just had a major fight?”

He shrugged. “Well, when you say it like that, I suppose it does sound a bit strange.”

There he was, once again proving that he was nothing like I’d ever expected. I had been miserable those days after we fought. Miserable and crying and depressed that I had ruined the best thing that had ever happened to me, yet he was quite literally building our future.

“I would burn the world for you,” I whispered, meaning every godsdamn word. “Take your helmet off.”

It disappeared in a flash, and he reached for my hand, flicking my ring so mine dropped next. His smile broadened, spreading across his face before he leaned forward to kiss me. Every worry I’d had over the last few days melted as his lips touched mine, neither of us caring about the gore that still covered us. I hadn’t realized how utterly scared I was that I’d come so close to losing him.

“Can we just get inside before you start all that, please?” Everrine said from behind us.

Samkiel and I broke apart and turned. We’d forgotten she was even here.

She held herself stiffly, the wind whipping at her garments as she shivered.

“I do not have well-insulated armor, and I am freezing since we are so high up. Let me perform the ceremony, and you can kiss each other until you turn blue.”

I FOLLOWED SAMKIEL INTO THE MASSIVE HALL, TAKING IN EVERY INCH of the estate, and estate was putting it lightly. Not only had he left me to fashion a wedding ring built to protect me, but he’d also found us a new home built for a queen.

My throat dried as he smiled and pushed open the twin double doors. The hinges creaked, stiff with disuse. He stepped aside, and I paused on the threshold, looking out at the room sprawled before me. I took a hesitant step inside and spun, taking in the towering ceiling and massive interior.

“This bedroom is bigger than the one we had on Rashearim.”

He nodded, watching me with pleasure. “It is.”

“They just left it all?” I asked, glancing around. A bed with four twisted wooden posts sat to my left, covered in an array of furs, but it was the mantle on the other side of the room that caught my attention. It stood sentinel above a fireplace that nearly took up half the wall.

“Yes, Nismera’s reign is not one to be taken lightly. I am sure that with the realms locked down and Unir dying, they must have felt abandoned and left to her mercy. The problem is, she doesn’t have any. The knowledge must have instilled the utmost fear and panic in them.”

I could hear the soul-deep guilt in his voice, his crown weighing heavily today when he had to confront the realities these beings had faced without him to protect them.

“I wonder what happened to them.”

“Probably captured or enslaved, or worse,” he said before clearing his throat. “I already removed the relics from the castle so you won’t see any pictures of them. There is still a lot of work I want to do in this place, but I thought we could do it together. I was only able to get a few of the most essential pieces from Rashearim.”

I swallowed the growing lump in my throat and reached for the frame resting on the split wooden mantle. The image went blurry, but I lovingly traced my fingers over Gabby’s smiling face. “The most essential,” I managed to say, my voice clogged with tears.

“Yes,” he said from behind me. “I want you to make this your new home . . . I want you to make this our new home. Fill it with laughter and joy like only you can. I want to fight with you here, love with you here, and fill it with our family. Only you can give me this, Dianna. I can give you the house, but only you can make it our home.”

I spun, tossing my arms around his shoulders as I kissed him once, twice, three times. My hands curled in his hair as I moved away just a fraction, my nose running across his ever so slightly.

“You shouldn’t have traveled back to Old Rashearim without me.”

“I was safe,” he whispered.

I sniffled, the overwhelming emotions threatening to take me. “I can’t believe you did all this in three days.”

He shrugged like it was nothing. “I didn’t sleep.”

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