Page 44 of A Queen Of Broken Realms
I press my lips together and try to let out that breath that’s been trapped in my chest. I can’t seem to take my hand away from my mark. I’m afraid my heart will burst apart if I don’t hold it together. I fight so hard to keep those tears from cresting my lashes, but one manages to slip out. Ashen says nothing as I wipe it away, even though I know he sees.
The band starts playing as we walk down the terraced seating to the spot set up with purple blankets and pillows in jewelled tones. There are glass lanterns surrounding the seating area, their flames sheltered from the gentle breeze. Tessa’s voice flows toward us as she sings. My eyes lock with hers and she smiles.
Ashen offers his hand for balance as I lower myself onto the blanket. My thoughts are scattering like a handful of stones tossed into the ocean. I’m trying to take it all in, everything from the purple shade of the blankets that I now recognize as original Tyrian, the dye made from murex and reserved for royalty, to the glass orbs on the stage that look hand blown, their flecks of gold and rich colors much like the ones in my broken statue. Ashen sits beside me and stays silent as I try to contain myself and this sea of everything I feel that could drown me, if I let it.
When the song ends, the band moves on to the next one without a break, and Ashen pours a glass of fangria from a pitcher for me and one of wine for himself. He barely drinks from it, which for some reason causes the flock of butterflies currently residing in my stomach to flee up my chest and flutter around in the backs of my arms too. I down my drink in the hopes they’ll all drown.
“How did you do all this?” I ask quietly as Ashen refills my glass. I promise myself I’ll nurse this one, even if the first sip is more like a gulp.
“I’m a demon. We are nothing if not efficient.”
“And sneaky.”
“Maybe a little.”
I look at Ashen for a long moment and he looks back at me, his hand drifting through my hair, his fingertips skimming my bare skin. I see a little worry in his eyes and I tilt my head, trying to work him out past the barriers he’s somehow put between us. I don’t feel as much from him as I normally do. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised that those walls would be so easy to erect if he’s afraid I won’t like all of this. “It’s amazing, Ashen. Everything you’ve done,” I say, looking down at my hand as it passes over the blanket. “I see it all, and it’s wonderful. I love it so much. Thank you.”
Ashen’s only reply is to pull me closer, placing a lingering kiss to my temple before draping his arm across my shoulders, his hand tracing patterns onto my arm as we listen to the band and sip our drinks. The sun is sinking lower, dipping behind thescaenae fronsto paint the clouds in color. The band starts a new song,Benedictionby Luke Sital-Singh, the cover soaring in Tessa’s clear, resonant voice.
“Dance with me, vampire,” Ashen whispers into my skin. He sets his glass down, then pulls mine from my fingers that suddenly feel cold as gooseflesh pebbles my arms. He takes my hand and pulls me up, leading us to the orchestra space a few steps down.
Ashen must be able to hear my heart rioting in my chest as it presses to his when we take our place below the stage. He must be able to feel the way my skin tingles with his touch as he slides his palm across my hip to rest low on my back. I close my eyes for just a moment, taking in the scent of vanilla that warms the smell of ink and unlit cigars drifting around me. And then we start moving with the music, dancing through the space as though we’re part of the breeze that surrounds us.
Benedictionends and we don’t part as the guitar starts up for the next song. It’s the melody forCan’t Help Falling In Love, by Elvis. Ashen leads us through the slow, languorous pace of the opening, keeping me close, his breath fanning over my neck and shoulder. The lyrics begin pouring from Tessa as though coming right out of her heart, and when I look up at her she smiles with so much light and color in her eyes that she puts the sunset to shame.
Sunsets glow
Silver paints the moon
Their light can’t match
The shine of my love for you
I meet Ashen’s eyes with a grin as the revised lyrics reverberate through the air. We’re drifting through the space, turning slowly to the beat that laps at the amphitheater like gentle waves in a calm ocean. Ashen gives me only a fleeting, faint smile in return as his hand draws me in close and I rest my face against his shoulder, bathed in his warmth.
I might not be
Worthy to call you mine
But I’ll love you
Until the end of time
My back is to the stage. I don’t see them enter as Tessa starts the next lines of the song. And then, as she sings the lyrics, a choir weaves in lines of the Song of Seikilos.
Surely as your voice
(Time demands its toll)
I go still, turning to look at the stage. A choir of twenty singers stand behind the band.
Guides my ship to shore
(Have no grief at all)
I let go of Ashen’s hand to bring it to my mouth, my other resting over my pounding heart as the beauty of the choir steals every beat.
Vampire, so it goes
