Page 133 of Ruthless Scoundrel
He holds her tight in the waist-high water and our rower goes on, leaving them behind as they kiss and whisper to one another. My heart warms at the sight of their love. Will Jasper and I still be like this in twenty years?
The girl on the beach—I’m assuming Cora’s daughter—is smiling with tears in her eyes. It makes me wonder just how long Cora was away orchestrating all of this. We run ashore, and before I know what’s happening, Jasper scoops me into hisarms. I yelp and grab onto him as he jumps down. He sets me on the fine, warm sand and I kick off my shoes.
He reaches back up to help his mother, but she gives him a stern glare and jumps down on her own. I chuckle at her independence. Even after years of not seeing her son, she won’t indulge him in this way because she’s strong. She’s their leader.
The girl greets us in Illyan, and Jasper translates her welcome, in which she explains her name is Selyn and that her home is our home. Jasper asks her something quickly in Illyan and she points up to the house, replying “something something all there.”
Cora and her husband wade out of the water hand in hand, smiling and laughing. “Go up to the house, go!” Cora says, shooing us onward.
Jasper takes my hand with a smile and we follow Selyn up the winding dirt path. Bushes of vibrant pink and blue flowers line the way for a while, then comes snaking grapevines, tomato plants, summer squash, and more food than I think I’ve ever seen in a garden.
I look back at Cora. “This is incredible.”
She and her husband just smile.
Joyous voices grow louder as we ascend. The dirt path eventually turns to stone that’s been carefully laid in intricate patterns. Wooden archways woven with flowering plants create a tunnel up to the base of the house.
It’s stone at the bottom, likely the foundation of the home before it grew upward and outward into the tree. Shock after shock, delight after delight. The tunnel opens to massive ponds of cool, swirling water. The buckets, which are much larger than I imagined, scoop huge bales of the water from the left pool and carry it all the way up. In the pools on the right swim dozens of selkies.
Jasper rushes forward with a laugh, carrying me along with him. Two selkies, an older male and a younger female rush up to the edge with broad smiles.
“Ehan!” the girl exclaims with open arms.
Jasper slides through the grass and dirt on his knees, throwing his arms, and mine, around the girl. Jasper whispers to her in selkie, then pulls the older man close, too. Ahliyah comes up behind us, completing the embrace. Love tingles through every fabric of my being. A family reunited, complete.
And I’m part of it.
My eyes burn and my throat constricts as they whisper to one another in soft voices full of longing and heartache. I’m not sure how long we’re like that, but eventually we break apart. Jasper introduces me in selkie as his soulmate and I smile, feeling my ruddy cheeks bunching as I laugh.
“Emial,” says his father, dipping his head and touching his heart.
“Maarie,” his sister says with a bright smile. She grabs my hands and says more, but I shake my head with a shrug, and look at Jasper.
His eyes shimmer as he grins at me. “She’s glad to finally have a sister. Brothers are the worst.”
We all share a laugh, and suddenly, the last months seem worth it.
So worth it.
We spend the day healing the sick and helping Cora pick food from the gardens. I leave Jasper to catch the chickens—I don’t really have the heart to murder the poor beasts.
Selyn guides me up to the house’s first level, the one constructed of stone around the massive trunk. It’s all warm light, and green with life. The kitchen is on the second level, so she leads me up through a winding staircase against the trunk.
The walls are mostly wood, but some light stone too. Weaves of garlic are braided against the window where vines wrap their way in. Little flowers sprout along the vines and bring color to the beautiful, rustic kitchen.
A huge firepit sits at the center with two massive metal bowls sitting atop it. Little clay pots of pepper oil hang overhead, and other seasonings line the wall behind the cooking station. It’s just absolutely extraordinary…
Though we don’t speak a common language, Selyn teaches me how to prepare bread while she teaches me more Illyan. Maybe one day I’ll speak it fluently. Cora comes in with five plucked chickens and gets to work cutting them apart as if she’s done it a hundred times. She probably has.
They’re so comfortable here. I’m suddenly envious of their lives, so quiet and far from the horrors Jasper and I will have to face. So much sooner than I’d like.
As the sun draws closer to the horizon and the scents of roasted meat grow unbearably delectable, Cora calls us all to dinner.
She catches me on the way out the door and ushers me into the pantry. “You’re going to need this,” she says, holding a bottle of sparkling lilac liquid out to me.
I’ve seen fertility blocker circulating in court among the young men enough to know that’s exactly what this is. I take the potion from Cora with a little smirk. “I guess babies aren’t part of the prophecy?”
She shrugs. “I didn’t say that.”
