Page 24 of Acedia

Perhaps that would be me someday soon.

“Damen,” Allerick said in surprise as I walked in, finding him speaking to a couple of the most boring elders on the Council of Shades. I was doing him a favor by rescuing him from this conversation.

“May I have a word?”

“Of course.”

The two elders inclined their heads deeply to Allerick, then with less enthusiasm at me before excusing themselves.

“Where’s my favorite sister?” I asked, climbing the stairs up the dais and sitting on the top one. I leaned back on my forearms so I could peer up at Allerick while he spoke from his ugly throne. If I were king, I’d have redecorated.

“Napping,” he replied, almost bashfully for my cocky brother.

“Are you running your poor wife ragged again?”

He narrowed his eyes. “Watch it, Damen.”

Right, right. I felt a twinge of guilt at my thoughtless joke after what he’d confided in me the other night.

“You will be able to retaliate in kind shortly,” I assured him. “I’ve met my wife.”

“You’ve… what? Who?”

“The new ex-Hunter who just moved to the realm. The one Soren and Astrid collected. Her name is Iris. I think I’ll marry her someday. Ideally sooner rather than later.”

“You’re going to… Are you feeling okay?”

“Of course, I am.” I sighed, exasperated with Allerick’s limited emotional range. “What part of ‘I met her today and I’m going to marry her’ are you finding difficult to comprehend?”

“All of it. You’ve never expressed that kind of interest in anyone before. It’s unusual for you.”

“I was just waiting for the right one, clearly.”

“Yes,” he agreed slowly. “Clearly. Why don’t you tell me about her?”

“Well, she’s very kind. The kindest of all the ex-Hunters who have moved here, I’m sure of it—though I don’t mean that as a slight against your wife.” Allerick made a grumbling sound but didn’t say anything. “She is pleased by the simple things and talks to me like I’m the same as anyone else. Iris is also beautiful, which is a pleasant bonus. She’s sweet and curious. She has a very agreeable nature which is something that I would like in a wife as I don’t have much desire to be challenged on anything—”

“Words that every wife desires to hear from her spouse.”

“—and I believe that we could live a very content life together. She inspires a feeling of protectiveness in me. What else is there?”

He looked at me for a long moment. “Have you asked Iris what she wants?”

“That seems a little forward, Allerick. I just met her.”

He groaned, slumping down in his throne and resting his forehead on his palm. “And yet you are content to project whatever ideas you wish about her onto a future marriage you’ve made up in your mind?”

“It’s very romantic of me,” I agreed. “Planning out our future this way. Someday—once we’re engaged, ideally with my mating mark on her neck—I’ll tell her that I knew from the very moment I saw her that she was the one and I even informed my brother as such immediately after the fact. I assume you’ll be supportive and reaffirm how smitten I was when she asks.”

“Everything you’re saying isI, I, I.What will Iris say about the moment she first saw you?”

“She didn’t see me, I suppose,” I mused. “Perhaps she’ll reflect back on the first moment that she heard me? I should have touched her—just on the arm or something, relax—something to make the moment magical so it would exist as clearly in her mind as it does in mine.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Oh, right. Iris can’t see. Her eyes don’t… function. I don’t know how it works,” I admitted. Shades didn’t get injured like that—our power healed us. Though Evrin, a member of the Guard, had been born without horns entirely. Maybe it worked the same way? Perhaps Iris didn’t have eyeballs?

It didn’t make her any less desirable to me. Should I tell Allerick I was in love with her? He’d probably be as negative about that as he was being about everything else I was saying.

---