Page 104 of I Destroyed the Elf Prince's Harem

I snorted. “Because I don’t want to start a war. Plus, that’s a long drive. I wouldn’t be able to wait that long to kiss you again.”

“Not to mention, Misty Pass is near where we first met,” Nylian added.

“That reminds me, Nylian,” I said, putting emphasis on his very fake name. “Saida recognized the name when she heard me use it. I forgot to ask about that. Nylian wasn’t a name you just made up, was it?”

The elf turned his face into my chest as if he were embarrassed. “Gods, I forgot about that.”

“What? Now you have to tell me!”

He sat up a little and smirked, his cheeks tinged pink. “Nylian was a name I used when Orian and I were very young. When we had some free time between our studies, we would run off to the neighboring woods and play silly games of pretend. I used the name Nylian when I played at being a forest rogue who robbed caravans and went on treasure hunts.”

My body trembled with laughter, and I pulled him in for another hard kiss when he tried to roll away from me. “That’s adorable.”

He snorted and halfheartedly shoved away from me, but I refused to release him. “Orian must have told Saida about our games, because we were too old for such things when she was born. That day in the forest, you said your name was Adam, yet I knew you were Victor. I figured it was all a ruse, so I had to play along. The moment you asked for my name, my mind went blank. The first one I thought of was Nylian.”

“I love that name,” I purred, easing him close for another kiss. “But which would you prefer I use? Would you rather I call you Xeran all the time?”

My prince shook his head. “Together in private, I am your Nylian, and you are my Adam. We’ll save Xeran and Victor for the rest of the world.”

“Agreed.”

I was getting ready to suggest that we share a bath and then try to grab a few hours of sleep. But before I could speak, I watched the smile fade from Nylian’s lips and his brow furrow with a thought.

“What’s wrong? What did you just think of?”

“The coin,” he whispered, as if he were afraid of the monstrous thing hearing him.

My heart skipped a beat. I’d forgotten all about the damn thing. In all the chaos of saving Orian, getting Jasper settled with the wizards, and just going with the flow of hectic palace life, it had slipped my mind.

This was it. The happily ever after. All the problems were solved, and the story was over. If my job was to get Nylian to this point, that coin should have zapped me back to my old world and my old apartment. Or worse, my old dead body.

But I was here in bed with my fiancé.

Nylian swallowed hard and sat up. “Do you still have it? Did you ever give it to one of the royal wizards?”

I planted my hands on the mattress and pushed until I was sitting up as well, the blankets falling down to my lap. “I haven’t actually touched it since Ulmenor, but I felt it in the bottom of my bag when we were in Blackscar. After we got here, I just stuffed my bag in a drawer.”

We both looked over at the elegant white dresser with gold filigree on the far side of the room. In the very bottom drawer was that bag, along with some of the worn and ragged clothes I’d used during our long journey.

“May I see it?” Nylian inquired.

It seemed only fair, even if the thing made me nervous. The coin had brought us together. Maybe it wasn’t as evil as the Riverhold wizard claimed.

After sucking in a fortifying breath, I wrapped a blanket about myself and climbed out of bed, causing Nylian to snicker at my makeshift toga. Okay, so I was still a little shy, plus the air had grown colder with the steady approach of winter.

I kneeled and pulled open the drawer. It took some digging for me to locate the dirty bag, but I knew something was off as soon as I lifted it from the drawer. It was too light. My hand plunged into the bag, going directly for the hidden pocket, but it was empty.

“The coin’s gone!” I gasped.

Nylian was out of the bed in a flash and kneeling beside me. He grabbed the bag from my fingers and felt around in every pocket, turning the entire thing inside out.

“Someone stole it! How? Who knew about it?”

I shook my head, trying to replay all the millions of seconds that had passed since I’d last touched the sleek gold coin. “Just the four of us, I think. Well, and the wizard from Riverhold, but it couldn’t have been him. I don’t think we ever talked about it in front of Master Binx.” I lifted my gaze to Nylian’s puzzled expression. “It couldn’t have been Jasper or Adeline. I…I don’t think it was stolen.”

Nylian sat on the floor beside me, seeming oblivious to his nudity or the coldness of the tile floor on his bare bottom. “What do you mean? What happened to it?”

I shrugged. “Maybe it moved on to its next person to terrorize.” Nylian frowned and started to shake his head, but I grabbed his hand and squeezed. “Think about it. The damn thing just appeared in the gutter one day as I was walking by. My world doesn’t have wizards, so how the hell did it get in my path? I could have been meant to pick it up or it could have been luck. No idea. The point is that it’s gone, and I’m still here.” I leaned in and pressed my lips to his. “I will always be here with you.”

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