Page 54 of Of Curses and Beauty

“Are you proposing to me?” Daric asked, his teasing smile softening the burn of the blush that colored her cheeks. “Of course I will marry you, Alaine, but it is your choice. It will always be your choice.”

“Then, I’d like to wait.” She only noticed the flicker of disappointment because she knew him so well, but she hurried on before he could respond. “Today is not the day for a wedding, not with blood crusting my dress and the gloom of winter presiding over us. I want—” she paused considering. “I want the roses to be in bloom when we marry. I want the sun on my face and birdsong in the air. And at the end of it all, when you are my husband and I am your wife, the shadows of our past shall be outshined by the brightness of our future together.”

He smiled and pulled her close. “That sounds perfect,” he whispered and captured her lips in a kiss that made her eager for the coming thaw.

Spring could not arrive soon enough.

Chapter 48

Epilogue

Attheheightofspring, when the jasmine-scented breeze replaced the biting winter wind, Alaine and Daric married in an intimate ceremony with little fanfare. The sun shone brightly, illuminating her crown of roses as birds sang of their blessed union.

That evening, as the stars winked into existence, they bid farewell to Alaine’s childhood hometown and walked into the forest, following the witch that had brought them together. Hand in hand, they traveled through magic to a place that would once again become their home.

The cottage looked no different on the outside than it had when Daric first stepped foot there hundreds of years prior, though Eudora took pains to remind them multiple times that the magic imbuing it had been broken with their curse.

“It is how you left it,” she said as they stood before the door. “But so it shall remain. There will be no more instant breakfast or added rooms. That is, unless you do the labor yourselves.” She winked and gathered them both in an embrace. Her eyes held unshed tears when they separated.

“I think I might miss you, witch,” Daric said fondly.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be around.” With that final cryptic message, she turned and disappeared into the trees, her red hair the last to fade into the dark.

For the first time in what felt like months, Alaine and Daric were alone at last. He wasted no time scooping her into his arms and carrying her through the doorway as she succumbed to a fit of giggles.

The air inside was stagnant—musty—something it had never been when it was under magical influence. He stalked to the hearth and deposited her gently on the sofa where they had spent many late nights immersed in conversation. Alaine ran her fingers over the fabric reverently as though sensing the memories held between the fibers.

“Cottage, a fire, if you please.” Daric waited, but nothing happened, just as Eudora had said. Alaine gave him a wry look from the sofa. “What? It was worth a shot.”

He was grateful for the time he’d spent in Alaine’s village the past winter. Without it, he might have struggled in the sudden absence of magic. As it was, he was able to light a fire in a matter of moments, the heat quickly chasing off the lingering chill.

He rose and took a seat on the sofa next to Alaine. The seat groaned as it accepted his weight and Alaine tumbled into him, laying her head against his shoulder as he tucked her in close.

“Welcome home, my love,” she murmured.

In the more than three hundred years Daric had been cursed, he’d never once considered the cottage his home. Here, now, with Alaine by his side, as much his as she was her own, the word felt right. This was their home becauseshewas his home.

“You are sure you will be happy here so far from everyone you know?” Her relationship with her family had remained strained even following Baxter’s trial and sentencing, but he needed to know that this was what she wanted. That she chose this life.

“I could not be happier to spend the rest of my life here with you.” In her eyes, he saw the truth—the promise that this choice was the right choice.

“Welcome home, Alaine.”

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