Page 152 of Enchanted Crown
What I had done in this life to deserve her, I wasn’t certain, but I would use every day to remind her how much I adored her. How much I believed in her. I didn’t complete her, nor did she complete me. Rather, I covered her weaknesses like an armor while fortifying her strengths. Just as she did to me.
The simple truth was the dragon queen didn’t need me at all to lead Dra Skor. She was a damn fine queen all on her own and had been, without me. So I would stand behind her, beside her, in front of her, wherever she needed me to be.
My moon,she sent me.
My wife,I responded.
Spring in Dra Skor had arrived, as well as a hope and promise of an amazing year to come. One quite unlike the last. Large bouquets were bursting around every corner of the cathedral and all around the backdrop where we stood. And as we repeated the vows we’d already said in private, this time in front of a large mass of people, as we went out on the highest balcony of the castle to wave to and meet the people who had come from all over Dra Skor to celebrate our wedding, I found my soul to be more content that I ever imagined it could be.
I fought against every urge to whisk her away from all the people wishing us their best, knowing that our first wedding, the one with only John officiating, had been for us. But this large and ostentatious one? It was for the people of Dra Skor.
Ourpeople.
So we danced and laughed and met more people.
And finally, well into the early hours of the morning, when sheasked me if I was ready to go, we flew out the ballroom roof, together.
As we landed on my balcony, she reminded me as she shifted,We have to send off your family and men back to Wylan tomorrow, then our week-long honeymoon begins.
“I’m not sure a week is going to be enough, Es,” I said out loud as I ran my hands along her bare back.
“I—” she stopped and dazzled me with her grin. “Me neither. The amount of lust and love I have felt down the bond in recent days has me questioning the same.”
I caught her laugh with a quick kiss to her dimple.
She pulled back, a hand on each lapel of my jacket. “But you get a week with me all to yourself. Nana is taking over, Morana is gone, we are working on finishing healing Dra Skor and starting to heal Agria.”
I wasn’t fool enough to believe all the evil was gone from the realm. It still lurked. The difference was now it knew better than to attack. And when it did, Dra Skor and her army would be ready. We were now more than strong enough to handle it.
“There is something else that we need to do for Dra Skor though,” I told Esta, doing my best to sound serious.
“What now?” she groaned. “Don’t tell me. Not until after our week away.”
We were going to a cabin outside of Arava, though we had only told a few guards who had needed to know.
I brushed a kiss to her temple. “Dra Skor needs more heirs. That was the entire reason your father was going to give the throne to Jagen in the first place.”
“I—” she closed her mouth. Opened it again. “We don’t have to get to that right away. When Charlotte and Jagen wed next month, if not before, word of her pregnancy will spread. It will help ease the pressure on us.”
“Esta,” I scolded. “We both know we want children. We bothknow there will never be a time either of us is fully ready. There will always be a never-ending to-do list. Things will never be perfect. So let’s practice,often, and whenever it happens, it happens.”
“Knowing you, that will be in a month or less.”
I grinned. “Then it’s in a month. I don’t care. I knew there would be pressure to produce heirs when we married the first time. And I still chose you. Fiercely. Wholly. Without inhibition.” She moved to kiss me, so I finished down the bond,You are the sun and stars which I keep circling. I love you. And I want to start a family with you. Our family.
I love you, insufferable prince,she responded back. She added at a whisper, “Whenever it happens, it happens?”
“No pressure.” Thinking of Krew and Jorah, I added, “And no guilt when it does happen. They will be loved no matter which of our Enchantments they take on. Or none at all.”
As Esta made all space between us vanish, I couldn’t help but think of years from now telling the story around a bonfire to our children of how Esta and I found one another. How it all began.
It was a story of great adventure. Of war. Of unlikely alliances. Of love. Ample pain and fear were to be found within the pages of that story, but so was a love so fierce it couldn’t be stopped.
It was our story.
And the ending? It was just the beginning.
THE END
