Page 66 of Enchanted Shadows
She turned to Amos.
He told her, “It’s the best option we have given the time constraints, Z. Calix could arrive within a week.” To me he added, “I know we just sprung this on you, but this marriage shall have to be swift if this is really going to happen.”
“Efficient is my middle name,” I told him with a nod.
Princess Kessara looked at me with wide eyes, “I don’t even know your middle name.”
“It’s Gerald,” Jorah supplied.
“You know enough,” I added. “Anything else, you can ask. Considering once we are married and training ends, you will be staying with me. To keep up appearances. So you’ll have plenty of time to ask.”
She pinched the bridge of her nose. “This is not at all how I thought this would go.”
Keir cocked his head. “And how did you think it would go?”
She threw her hand in the air. “Quite honestly, I thought I would already be on a boat on my way back to Agria. I understand how hard all of you have fought for peace for Wylan. I don’t wish to ruin it; I merely wish to participate in it. Participate in my own life.”
I do hate it when you’re right,Jorah sent me.
I’m always right. You should be used to it by now.
Krew told his half-sister, “Fighting for peace is never over, Kessara. We will have to keep choosing it, keep finding it.”
Keir added, “Yeah. So what do you say, little sis?” As Jorah and Esta both gaped at him, he added, “Just trying it out.”
“You are overwhelming her,” Esta scolded.
“I’ve been overwhelmed the past five years,” Kessara told her. “Being calledsisis the least of my concerns.”
Amos chuckled.
“So back to the biggest and best concern. Dare I say mosthandsomeconcern.” As the princess glared at me in a way I was more than familiar with, I grinned. “What do you say? Are you going to marry me or not?”
She groaned. “I’m standing before some of the most powerful and intelligent people in the country, possibly the entire realm, and this is the best plan we can come up with?”
“Pretty much,” Krew admitted. “But it has the best chance of success in removing your brother Damek from the throne before he takes it. You cannot accomplish that on your own. You’ve tried. So, it’s time to let us help you. This is also the lowest risk because unlike your formerly betrothed, Owen here is a good man.”
“Some might even say great,” Keir added.
I pinned him with a look. I was used to his snarky comments, the hype felt too forced.
“It’s better than no plan,” Amos said to Kessara. “And it gets you an immediate level of protection against Calix. A marriage certificate the law will protect.”
She strode for me. As she did, I considered that in an effort to help her like I told her I would, while also trying to keep Wylan out of rough waters, I was playing with fire. It was going to be far harder not to be more attracted to her when our roles were not general and trainee, but husband and wife. It didn’t matter that the entire thing was mostly a farce, vows still mattered to me.
I had told myself on repeat that the women on the team wereyoung and off limits. Yet Zara wasn’t that much younger than me at all. And here I was proposing to her.
Instead of speaking to me, Kessara grabbed the whiskey out of my hand and tossed it back.
I waited. Let her get uncomfortable in the silence while we all waited for her answer.
She took a deep inhale that told me her throat was on fire. “Yeah,” she got out. “I’ll marry you.”
CHAPTER 22
It was late by the time Amos and I walked her back to the barracks. It was so late, in fact, that we didn’t have time this night to explain to the team all that transpired today. Amos headed straight to Nerede. He would retrieve the princess’s younger brother Artem and had approval to sneak him into the castle where we could better protect him.
“Goodnight, Princess,” I told her just before the freshly fixed deck of the barracks. She had the necklace back on. The one that altered her hair and eye color, also making her look a few years younger. She was planning to use the shadows to deposit her back in bed without the others noticing. Hopefully.
