Page 75 of A Kiss of Embers
Why didn’t the answer pop out of his mouth immediately? Why didn’t he shout a resoundingyesand spin her around until they were both dizzy and drunk on love? He had everything he’d ever wanted at his fingertips. Love. Freedom. Someone to share his life with. But the realization only left him dazed.
“Pops?” he asked quietly, glancing to where his father was staring at a pile of drawings.Hisdrawings. Seraphina must have saved them from the fire. Just one more thing he was immensely grateful for. “Would you come with us?”
His father shook his head. “Everyone thinks I’m dead. I’mfree. I want to spread my wings. I am not going to find what I’m looking for in the Ember clans.”
Bastien ran his fingers through his hair as the weight of his decision crushed him. His father needed help, whether or not he would admit as much. The man couldn’t walk, for autumn’s sake! Bastien couldn’t just leave him to fend for himself.
“It’s all right,” his father urged. “Don’t let your worry over me affect your choice. I will be fine.”
Seraphina lowered the necklace until it rested in her lap. Her lip all but disappeared between her teeth. “If you need more time to see your father settled, I will give it to you. You deserve to be happy, whatever that looks like.”
“How fast can we marry?” he asked suddenly, startling her.
“How…fast?”
He nodded, new plans working through his mind. “My father will come with us to your home. He needs a new wheelchair, no? He’s not getting anywhere without one. We marry. And then we’ll take him to my sister’s home in Ebriel on a honeymoon trip. Surely, your people would let you go long enough for that.”
Her smile grew back slowly but surely, and she shifted until her knees rested against his. “You can’t rush these things, Bas.”
But he shook his head, hearing none of it. He pointed to the gem. “Yes to this.” He pointed to her. “Yes to this.” And then, he included all of them within a circle drawn by his finger. “And yes to this. As long as your people won’t roast me alive.”
“They won’t.” She laughed and shook her head as she draped the necklace over his head. A new connection to her sparked within his chest. Even without touching her, he felt like he could simply reach out and take her into his soul.
“Are you sure?”
I am, she replied in his mind, giving his hand a squeeze. Then out loud, she said, “No one kills my husband without my permission first.”
“I think brothers are the exception to the rule,” one of the Ember males said, each laughing and elbowing each other in the ribs.
Seraphina rolled her eyes. “I think not, Jude.” And then to him, she said, “Just ignore them. They’re typically harmless until they’re not. They won’t hurt you. Much.”
Bastien snorted.I’m not going to lie. I’m looking forward to having siblings again.
You’ll regret you said that by the end of the week.
Likely not. But only time will tell.
He untied the patrol guard cloak from his shoulders and held it up with one arm to block the others’ view as he threaded his fingers through Seraphina’s hair and drew her in for a kiss. Heat sparked between their lips, and he drank it in as if he were frozen over by an ice wraith all over again and needed her warmth.
He could hardly believe it, even as he held her against him and felt the solid, warm touch of her hands and her lips. For many years, he’d believed he’d never get the chance to have a wife, children, and a life away from Attleglade. But now he would get all three. With theEmber Queenof all people.
When they broke apart, he gazed back at the orange flames burning around the pupils of her eyes. His gorgeous Ember Fae.
“I wish we were alone,” she whispered as she used her finger to trace his eyebrows, his nose, and then his lips, the action still shielded by his cloak barely separating him from the others. Thankfully, the other three engaged in conversation to pull their attention away from them. “Thank you for saving my life when I fell. My brothers told me if you hadn’t done what you did, I wouldn’t have made it.”
He ran a flustered hand through his hair. “I suppose you owe me now.”
“Owe you?” She raised an eyebrow. “At the very least, we’re even. At the most? You owemetwice over.”
“No, no, no. You have this backward.” He began counting on his fingers. “The first time I saved your life was from myself in the cave. I could have stabbed you.”
“But you didn’t,” she pointed out. “And what about that incident makes you think you came out on top? You were one giant icicle. You never would have thawed out without my fire.”
“Are you so sure about that?”
His father sighed heavily. “Here we go again with the bickering.”
He and Seraphina stared back at each other before snorting with laughter. Bastien dropped his cloak only for a moment to frown at his father. “As the Ember Queen’s concubine, I declare that you must pretend you can’t hear us.”
