Page 111 of Enchanted Crown
“You were never our enemy, instead you were a fire. The fire we all needed in order to rise from the ashes. You took a lit match to us all, but particularly to my soul. I love you, Keiran James Kairos Valanova. I vow to love you and protect you in this form and my other, all the days of my life.”
There was a sniffle, which shockingly did not come from either Esta or me.
My eyes darted to John.
“Gods,” he stated, moving his glasses aside to wipe at an eye. “My apologies.”
That was all it took to get my own emotions under control. “Keep it together, man. How else am I supposed to?”
“Right, right,” he muttered. “Go ahead with your vows, Keiran.”
“Here,” Esta provided, quickly removing her engagement ring for me to put right back on her finger in a matter of moments.
It wasn’t going to be word for word, but she was springing a damn wedding on me, so Esta was going to have to deal with it. “You have carved out my heart and reformed it. With your smile, your wit, your strength—in both forms. My heart is no longer fullymy own, but yours to wield. Take it and whatever you need of me. There is no end of me and beginning of you, for you are always with me. We are two strong beats of the same heart.” I slid the ring onto her finger taking my time, wanting to remember this very moment for the rest of my days. “The same rhythm.”
A tear fell from Esta’s eye, which I was quick to brush away with my thumb. “I fell in love with you long before I saw your human form. I experienced your grit. Your courage. And your intelligence in protecting your people. No matter your form, you have the most gorgeous of souls I have ever had the pleasure to know. I am honored to get to serve alongside you. I have found my soul mate, and I couldn’t be more honored to call you mine. I will stand steady beside you, behind you, in front of you, wherever you should need me to stand.” I had to stop to swallow hard. “May our love be the armor that protects us both. I love you, Estalena Rhea Mallick. As both my queen and my wife. I vow to keep loving you. I vow to love you and protect you, all the days of my life.”
John finished up saying whatever words he had to in order to declare us married, but my eyes were too lost in Esta’s, my concentration too intently focused on our bond for me to listen to it.
There was a time I had wondered if this would ever be possible. If the tensions between our countries were too great. If my last name was too great. But here I stood, bonded and married to Esta. We were of two entirely different countries, two entirely different Enchantments, two entirely different souls. Yet our hearts reached across that divide and began connecting all of it until we were not two any longer, but one.
As Esta moved to kiss me, John said with a chortle, “I do believe I will just let myself out, eh?”
“Eh,” I responded before grabbing Esta. She was only a breath’s distance away and that was entirely too far.
I love you,Esta sent me.
I love you, my wife.
As our lips sealed what words had promised, I couldn’t ever remember a time I felt this level of rightness. I had once given up a crown because I felt unworthy. Because I knew my brother was the better man. Now I found another such crown thrust upon my head. Yet the weight of it felt entirely different this time. Felt entirely different next to her.
As whispered words and even breathing itself became difficult, I was a man consumed. I chose her with a ferocity that I knew would carry me until my last breaths. Life itself would never dare to tear her from me. If only because I willed it.
“Please,” Esta begged.
There was not an inch of her, body or soul, that I did not know. She did not have to tell me what it was she needed; I just knew. “Always.”
CHAPTER 38
“What are you doing?”
I stilled. I had been in the process of sliding my wedding band off to place it safely away in the drawer of my nightstand.
“Leave it on,” my wife growled from the bed like she was about to go full blown dragon on me.
“I thought only we were to know until the wedding in front of all of Dra Skor?”
“No.”
I wasn’t certain she was entirely awake yet. Did she even know what she was saying? “No?”
“I told you, it’s not a secret,” she snapped. “You arenotmy secret lover. You are my husband. You are my soul mate.”
So that made me want to get right back into bed.
“Wear it,” she finished.
“And when your advisors take notice?”
