Page 45 of A Queen Of Broken Realms
(Life exists)
Some love
(For only a short while)
Ashen’s hand leaves my back as I take a step toward the stage. Tears pool at the edges of my lashes.
Is meant to be
(While you live, shine)
There’s a long breath of a pause. A glassy sheen reflects the lantern light in Tessa’s eyes. The choir sings with her as she finishes the song.
So take my sword
Take my butter too
I’d give it all
Just to marry you
I’d give it all
Just to marry you
The guitar softens, continuing the gentle melody. I stare up at the stage as though the music has taken my soul. But it’s not the music that’s pulled my heart from me.
“Lu,” Ashen says.
I turn, so slowly, one hand still pressed to my lips, the other to the mark that hums with Ashen’s presence.
I catch just a glimpse of him down on one knee and my tears break the dam, coursing down my skin.
“Come here, Lu,” he says, reaching out a hand for me to take. “I have a question for you.”
“Is it about butter?”
“Maybe in part.”
I let out a laugh that’s as much as a cry and step closer, my legs already shaking. I place my trembling hand in his warm, steady one and grip it tight.
“My Lu,” Ashen says, his voice as warm and magical as a star-riddled summer night. I can just barely hear the steady thump of his heart past the thrumming of my own. “What I said was true, Lu. I have chosen you from the first moment I met you. I will choose you every day to come. I know I do not deserve to have you, not after the things I’ve done over this long immortal life. But I promise to try to be worthy of your love. I promise to take your hand when you wander in the night. To whisper to you so that you know you are not alone. I promise to stand with you in every moment, no matter if they are ones of vengeance or justice or mercy. I will make you fangria and let you have my butter to make bulletproof bloffee, even though I know you actually hate it and you only drink it to provoke me. I promise to try not to laugh at your jokes to see your face light up all the brighter when I do. I promise that I will love you until there is no sun or stars in the sky, until the end of time and beyond.” Ashen reaches into his jacket and pulls out a black box, letting go of my hand to open it. “Will you marry me, Lu?”
Tears carve hot trails down my skin as I nod.
“I didn’t quite catch that, vampire,” Ashen says, a wicked grin lighting his face. Crimson flame illuminates the shine that glasses the surface of his eyes.
I laugh, my throat painfully tight as I try not to sob when I finally manage to get the words out. “Yes, Ashen. I will marry you.”
He doesn’t even get a chance to pull the ring from the box when I’m crashing into him. He picks me up as he stands, my arms wrapped so tightly around his neck that I could choke him. My shoulders shake as I dissolve into everything I feel, and all the gratitude and happiness and joy that floods from Ashen, tingling as it ripples beneath my skin. When he sets me down, he slides the ring on my finger, a pear-shaped, salt-and-pepper diamond set in gold with the lightest touch of rose, white diamonds encircling the band. I look at it for just a moment before I kiss him with everything I’ve got, all the love I feel, all the relief of the loneliness that takes time to dissolve, its wounds still deep in my heart. I kiss him with the power of everything he heals in me and all I hope to heal in him, in time. He holds my face in his palms and the radiant joy in his touch warms my damp cheeks. But then I feel a sudden spike of nerves he can’t hide when he finally pulls away.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
“There’s one more thing, vampire,” he says, and I feel my brows tighten with worry and confusion. “I don’t want to wait when we face so many unknowns among the realms. I want to hear you call me your husband tomorrow, not weeks or months from now. I want to fall asleep this evening with my wife in my arms. I want you to marry me tonight.”
“Tonight? Where…here?” I ask, and Ashen nods with another sly smile. “How?”
“Well, I thoughthemight be able to help,” Ashen says, nodding toward the stage. I turn to see Mr. Hassan standing next to Tessa with a broad smile and Cole in a suit off to his right, looking every inch the Best Man.
