Page 78 of A Kiss of Embers
“Oh ho ho!” He pulled back. “No one said anything about dancing. I know exactly zero Ember Fae dances.”
However, she simply squeezed his hand reassuringly. “This is not a set dance. It is a joining with nature, with the elements around us.” Her mouth twitched as she traced his jaw. “It would have helped if you had a drink or two.”
“Never. Especially not tonight.”
She laughed as if expecting his answer, and when she pulled him onto the dance floor, he didn’t resist her this time. She spun him in a circle, and he followed her lead until they reached the middle of the dance floor. Cheers erupted around them. He grinned sheepishly, still not having a clue what to do.
Especially when Seraphina placed a spear in his hand. The obsidian end was blunted, useless as a weapon. But the shaft felt familiar in his hands, as he’d trained with a spear day in and day out until his fingers bled.
She swung her own spear at his side. He reflexively blocked.
What in the…
She attacked his other side. He blocked.
And then her actions became quicker as she swung and thrust and spun until her body swayed like a leaf floating down a river with each movement. Taking her cue, he relaxed and mimicked her, their sparring becoming a dance rather than a skirmish.
The beat of the drums invigorated him. The chanting filled his soul with an energetic balm. And with his new bride at his side, they joined in a dance of oneness and love. He knew that despite how many hardships and storms they might have to weather together, he was right where he was meant to be.
The drums ceased beating, and he and Seraphina faced each other, each holding both spears in two hands as they breathed heavily, inches away from the other. Shouts and cheering were drowned by his pulse beating wildly through his ears as he closed the distance and kissed his wife.
“Had enough yet?” Bastien murmured as he leaned away just enough to look her in the eye.
“Hardly.” She dropped both spears, and they clattered to the ground as she pulled him in for another kiss. Deafening whoops and hollers filled his ears, the ground seeming to shake with energy around them. Normally, he might care enough about people’s stares and opinions to kiss her in private. But on their wedding day? Who could resist such a fiery, beautiful woman?
When they broke apart, Bastien grinned from ear to ear and gave a thumbs-up to his father and Ashryn. She rolled her eyes, but his father gazed back from his new wheelchair with a warm, happy smile, his eyes glistening with unshed tears.
All his father had ever wanted for him was to find happiness. And although he found it in the most unlikely places, he was the happiest he’d ever been, and he wouldn’t trade it for anything.
“How long until we can smudge our paint?” Bastien asked Seraphina, waggling his eyebrows.
She playfully smacked his arm and pulled him back toward the rugs, where they settled to watch more fire dancers. “Sit for a few more performances, at least.”
He opened his mouth to continue jesting with her, but the words halted on his tongue as she rested her head against his shoulder. Warmth spread through his chest, and he swallowed thick emotion as he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her closer.
After the performance finished and another one started with people enacting a play in another language with large, painted masks, he glanced sideways at her.
“Ser?”
“Hmm?”
The quiet rumble of her voice sent a pleasant shiver down his spine. “Thanks for kidnapping me all those weeks ago.”
Her voice rumbled again as she laughed. “Let’s make it a tradition, shall we?”
“A tradition, eh?” He turned his head and raised an eyebrow. “Can we leave out the part where you stab me?”
“What’s a new tradition without a few surprises?”
He laughed along with her and pulled her even closer until his arms rested around her waist, his mouth against her soft hair. “This time, I’ll be ready with a few surprises of my own.”
She nuzzled into his chest. “I look forward to it.”
Stepping outside of the forest entirely unnerved Bastien in many different ways. First, he feared he might drop dead at any moment. But as he wheeled Father down a frozen dirt path lined with apple orchards on either side of them, he didn’t lose consciousness. The blood oath was good and broken.
But he still felt a bit jumpy.
“Are you nervous to visit your sister or nervous to drop over dead?” Seraphina asked several steps behind him.
