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Until he pulled something out of a pocket that shone like a small moon.

It took me a second to recognize my parents’ orb, the one I’d taken from Tony, because I had no idea what it was doing here.Other than lighting up Pritkin’s face, which looked a little strange suddenly.Hesitant and hopeful and worried and happy…

“What is it?”I asked.“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” he said, and his voice had wonder in it.“Isn’t that strange?For one brief moment, absolutely everything is perfect.We don’t get many of those.”

No.

No, we didn’t.

“Why did you bring that?”I asked, taking the orb from him.As usual, it felt smooth and cool and slightly electric.It buzzed faintly, but if there was anything else going on in there, I couldn’t tell.Even Bodil had been stumped when I’d asked her a few days ago.

Maybe my parents were still recovering?

I bit my lip in worry, because what if they weren’t?What if that last major effort, transporting all those people all that way, had been too much?What if—

“Stop it,” Pritkin told me softly.

“Stop what?”I looked up at him, confused.

“That.You’re not Pythia tonight.Let that burden down for a little while.We’re safe here.”His lips twisted.“For the moment.”

Yeah, it was always for the moment.I wondered if we’d ever get to “forever,” and didn’t know.But moments were good, I decided, when he kissed me.

It was soft and strangely tentative, too.And Pritkin wasn’t tentative.Of course, I wasn’t sure I knew this Pritkin all that well.

I’d had almost a week with him now, but it had been filled with delegations coming and going from Earth--the Silver Circle, the Senate, and the Covens, surprisingly.Zara hadn’t wasted any time there, although they’d looked suspicious and hostile when they found the Circle already ensconced.But they hadn’t left immediately, so I supposed that was progress.

We’d been needed for meetings all day, every day, and often not the same ones, so we hadn’t seen each other as much as I’d have liked.Which was probably just as well, as I kept being weird.Like when Caleb showed up with the Circle’s delegation, looking so young and healthy that I’d creeped him out by staring at him for an entire meeting, but I hadn’t been able to stop.

Jonas had come too, striding around, trying to boss the fey and appearing confident and surprisingly sane.Then there’d been delegations from Caedmon and the Blue Fey, as well as our Dark Fey allies in Faerie, including the dragonkind, who had surprised everybody by flying in unannounced and transforming in the middle of court like it was no big thing.Even a handful of disaffected Svarestri had slipped away to plot with the rest.

Not to mention a never-ending number of balls and parties, endless wedding ceremonies, and fittings for the gowns needed for all of the above, the latter from harassed looking seamstresses sent by Enid, who didn’t leave any of her rag-tag group of allies out.It had been a whirlwind, exhausting, and not particularly fun, as all I’d wanted to do was vanish with Pritkin somewhere nobody could find us.Only who would I be traveling with if I did?

I looked up at him now, and wasn’t sure I knew.The green eyes were clear and laughing, the lips had a very strange, happy curve, and the hair… Okay, the hair remained tragic, poking up defiantly from the golden circlet as if saying, “You can’t tame me!”

And no, I thought wryly, I could not.

Sure about that?He asked mentally, and I noticed he was holding something.It wasn’t the orb; I still had that, which was why faint blue-white light was playing over the small box in his hand, which almost looked like—

I looked up at him, startled and disbelieving.And he laughed at whatever was on my face.Which was probably utter shock, because no.

It couldn’t be.

“I’m sorry I was absent all afternoon, but the jeweler didn’t have it ready when I went to pick it up,” he told me, opening the little wooden box.“I had to wait.”

“Oh,” I said brilliantly, because my brain had shut down.

“It’s traditional here, among the Alorestri, to use a green stone.The color is seen as a sign of a relationship growing together and becoming stronger.And you did speak about a partnership,” he reminded me, his eyes going sober as he dropped to one knee.“I thought… it was about time we made it official.”

I just stood there, silently.

“We can change the stone if you’d prefer,” he said, suddenly looking worried.As if the gorgeous cabochon emerald ring in the tiny bed of gold satin was anything but perfect.

It looks like his eyes, I thought, staring at it.

And then I burst into tears.