Page 68 of Blackwarden
Heavy words pooled in my throat. Ones I should have said to her before I took her to the Unseelie Court. Ones I had given up on ever being able to tell her.
“I didn’t think anyone could love me, the real me beneath this face.”
I tried to keep myself firm as she stared at the center of my chest. I could feel her emotions, but love meant different things to different people. Humans lived such short lives that I wasn’t sure if they were capable of love in the same capacity.
“The moment you stepped into my Gatehouse, I felt something different about you, but I didn’t understand what it was.”
She looked up, green eyes rimmed in tears.
“You could see me,all of me, and you didn’t run and hide.” I took a deep breath. “No, you asked your infuriating questions until I craved them.”
She smiled at this, a tear slipping down her cheek. Her emotions had melted into something so dreadfully soft and caring; it caught my breath fast in my throat. Perhaps it was Fae who struggled to love, because she was clearly very capable of it.
I turned to the portal. There would be a way to fix it if needed. It had been created once; it could be created again. I clutched the highest point I was able to reach and pulled.
It tipped precariously, and at first, I thought it might wobble back into place. After it seemed to float, suspended on one corner, it swayed forward, falling in slow motion until it shattered into millions of tiny pieces that spilled across the floor like brilliant crystals. The sound had been so loud, echoing through the Gatehouse and snuffing out the braziers in the room.
After what seemed like an eternity in thick silence, a single brazier on the far side timidly illuminated. I turned to find Rosalin, eyes wide with fear.
I couldn’t go back now. I’d made my choice. The weight of that decision pressed the breath from my lungs, and I swayed in place. The magic that had been a part of me—my very essence—was stripped away in an instant, leaving me raw and exposed. The last fragments of my shadows melted into the air, and I was left with the unfiltered reality that I could never reclaim them. The fragile remnants of my being had been cracked open and spread out at Rosalin’s feet.
With deliberate slowness I walked to her, the stone beneath me far more solid than it had ever been before. For the first time, I couldn’t feel her emotions swirling around in my mind, tugging at my own. That constant connection that had tethered me to her was gone, and in its place was a terrifying silence. It left an empty space that was immediately filled with fear, and excitement, and anxiety that I’d never felt before. I cradled her face in my hands, trembling as the reality of what I’d given up settled over me. Wishing I could put all my own emotions into words, but so many of them felt too fresh and precious. I had given up immortality for this life.
For her. My Rosalin.
I stood straight, my hands falling to my sides as I stepped toward her. “Can I grow old with you, Rosalin Greene?”
She closed her eyes, another tear slipping over her cheek as she smiled. She leaned up to kiss me.
Every kiss we’d shared I’d had both our emotions clawing their way into my heart. This time it was only my own, a heat so strong I needed to pull her closer. She gasped as I deepened the kiss, wrapping my arms around her, fully intent on keeping her with me forever if she so chose.
When she finally stepped back my cheeks were wet with tears I’d held back but couldn’t any longer.
“Are you crying, Keres Blackwarden?”
“Are you answering my question with a question, Ms. Greene?”
“Yes,” she said with a smirk. She wrapped her arms around my neck to lean closer, her breath tickling my ear as she whispered, “And yes.”
Epilogue~My Love
Rosalin
––––––––
I found him in the hall, his long hair a mess around his horns where he’d pulled it back from his face, his wings tight against his back, a paintbrush in one hand and a palette in the other. When I woke to find him gone, I’d panicked, worried something had happened. He’d never risen earlier than I had. He usually watched me sleep until I woke before he’d take me into his arms.
He was a gentle lover, and I suspected it was from the years of abuse at the hands of the Hag Queen. It was hard for me to imagine everything she’d put him through and how he could ever want to be touched again. It made me cherish every caress, every kiss, every moment together even more. The way my pale hand looked as it smoothed over his gorgeous dark, silver skin.
It had been a few months since he’d destroyed the portal, and I’d noticed small changes in him, things I wondered if I might have imagined. The color of his hair had darkened. His tarnished silver complexion had taken on a purple tint on his cheeks. The biggest change had been around his eyes from always smiling. Maybe it was just happiness? His existence as Bevgyah’s consort for hundreds of years had destroyed his hope. I needed him tonever lose it again because his laugh was quickly becoming one of my most favorite sounds in the world.
“Here you are.” I came to stand beside him. “Did you sleep?”
He hadn’t anticipated the amount of rest he’d need as a mortal, and I felt like I was constantly reminding him.
He’d covered a large section of the wall with sprawling hills of grass that flowed into fields of wheat, interrupted by the occasional tiny farmhouse. It reminded me of Fennigsville, and I couldn’t help but wonder how my family was doing, a sudden ache to see them writhing through me.
He stood back to admire his work before he glanced over at me. “I’ve seen this place in my dreams.”
