Page 147 of The Heir's Bargain

The blood rushed from my face as I turned to stone.

No mission was more important than her safety.

"Dani," I sighed, my fingers curling into her hair.

"You weren't there, Fynn." Then, Dani relayed every moment of that night.

At first, her words were cold and detached, as if she were trying to remove the emotion from the events. As though she could isolate them from everything else. But as she continued, the muscles in the side of my neck strained as her voice twisted. I didn't need to reach into her mind to know her inner thoughts because they seeped into every word: the disappointment, the anger, the pain.

Dani feared not being strong enough, not being good enough, and not being able to uphold her family's name.

But she was more than enough.

"I should've noticed," she said. "I should've heard them coming."

My hands fell from her hair as I washed away the rest of the suds.

Enough, I thought, pushing myself up and slipping off my shoes.

I stepped into the tub, socks and pants still on.

Dani screeched. "Fynn! What are you?—"

I sunk to my knees in front of her, the warm water splashing up from the tub and onto the floor.

I placed my hands on each side of her face and forced her to look at me. "Listen to me, Danisinia."

She blinked, eyes wide, but she didn't interrupt.

"I said it before, and I will say it again: you are more important to me than any mission. I thought I lost you, Dani. I thought that you were gone, that I was too late."

"Too late?" Dani asked, brows twisting together. "Too late for what?"

I took a deep breath. We had wasted too much time already, and who knew how much time we had left. Life was too fleeting to be hesitant.

"I should have said this to you before. You, Danisinia Ember Ferrios, are my best friend. I never wanted you to choose between your career and me. I would never ask you to put your dreams to the wayside. And I should have told you that the night of the dinner." My touch softened, caressing her cheek. "I should have said a lot of things before you left, but I was foolish and stupid and stuck in my head. But I'm saying them now."

Her fingers wrapped around my wrist, tugging my hand away from her face. "Fynn, I'm not—your life, your future, it doesn't?—"

I shook my head, unwilling to hear the excuses. Because that's what they were—excuses. But we both had been too afraid of the future for too long.

"I do not know what our future will look like, Dani. All I know is I want you in it. I want you beside me for the rest of my life, for as long as that may be."

"Fynn, I—" she swallowed.

"Tell me right now you don't feel what I feel, Dani. Tell me right now that there's something inside of you that you've been trying to make sense of. Something fighting you. A feeling you can't explain," I said, pleading. My fingers curled into her hair, and I inched closer, causing more water to spill over the tub’s edge. "Your walls are a mile high. You've never let me in, not completely, not entirely. So please, Dani. I'm begging you. Tell me the truth." I grabbed her hand and held it to my chest, where my heart ricocheted against my ribcage. When her skin met mine, my whole body heated. "Tell me you hear it too."

Her eyes bounced across my face, but in her gaze, I knew I was right. She felt it, too—the song that buzzed between us, where our skin touched. That invisible thread that connected us, that weaved our souls together.

At that moment, it was undeniable.

"If you'll have me, I want you at my side. I want to be the first to say good morning to you and the last one to say goodnight. I want to be the last one to wish you safe travels and the first one to welcome you home."

A tear rolled down her face. With my thumb, I wiped it away. But she shook her head. She was still fighting it. I could see that in the pain that twisted her brows together, that creased her forehead.

"But there's never been a queen who?—"

I squeezed her hand. "It doesn't matter what has come before us, Dani. I want you and only you. I will only want you for the rest of my life. If you wanted me to abdicate from the throne, I would."

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