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“My petulant element does seem to prefer you to all others.”

“It does its best to keep us both alive.” His eyes glisten. “I’d have died too. If you had fallen into…”

I wipe my thumb across his cheek where a tear rolls down. The sight is enough to make my heart rattle. “Tomas…”

He lets out a shaky breath. “I thought I’d lost you.”

“You haven’t.”

“I could have, and you’d have died with the absurd belief that you aren’t everything I want in this entire world.”

My throat tightens.

“Bell, I thought you knew.” Everything that went unspoken the last time we made love comes rushing back to me. It wasn’t all in my imagination. That adoration I felt from him was real. It is real.

“I thought so, but there was so much uncertainty, all the back and forth.”

He transfers the reins to the hand near my thigh and uses his free one to brush hair away from my face. “The words don’t feel like enough, but I love you. I’ve been so hopelessly in love with you, I thought it might kill me. And I wouldn’t have minded death, for I’d lived a better life than anyone could dream of just to have held you, heard your laugh. I’ve felt your power, and it has nothing to do with magic. It’s you.”

My face crumples, and I pull his in to hide it. There, with the steady rocking and thumping of hoofbeats, my lips endeavor to express what words can hardly say. Then I pull away from our kiss to say them. “I love you, Tomas. I can’t imagine a life without you.”

“Then don’t. Marry me.”

A smile pulls my cheeks so hard, my eyes water—or perhaps they’re tears of joy. “Aren’t you meant to ask that?”

“If I form it as a question, it will likely take on the tone of begging, but if that is what you want from me…”

“No.” A breathy laugh spills out of me. “I don’t care how you say it. I’ve wanted to hear those words from you too long to worry about technicalities.”

“I should have said it that night at Etherlee. I knew it from the moment we kissed.”

The image of water rushing in over us flashes through my mind. “Well, that moment was rather ruined anyway.”

“That moment was perfect.”

There is so much more I need to know, but this is enough for now. To never again have to pretend I’m not in love with him, to know we will never let anything come between us… that’s all I need.

The rest of the ride is quiet. I’m wrung out in every way possible, and nothing feels terribly urgent anymore now that Tomas and I know where we stand.

Within the palace gates, stable hands put horses away. My siblings and the Coyles walk inside, but Jo’s neck is craned back to watch us return. She smiles at me before her mother pulls her along. We come to a stop, and my attention shifts as Father takes my hand to help me down. He wraps me in an embrace, mumbling worried whispers into my hair.

“I’m fine, truly.”

Another layer of pressure wraps around me from the side. “Arabella.” Mother sighs. “You gave us a terrible fright.”

They both release me, and I blush under their loving scrutiny. “There’s no harm done to me, but Kirnon—”

“We’ll discuss all that,” Mother says. “Let us freshen up, and we’ll all meet in the lounge.”

I look down at my disheveled, damp, blood-stained tunic and leggings. A bath would be heavenly.

Mother clears her throat. “To avoid speaking out of turn and making things uncomfortable, I’d like to confirm…” She glances at Tomas and back to me. “Do I have a betrothal to announce?”

Tomas steps forward and bows. “If it pleases Your Grace, your blessing of our marriage would mean the world to us.” Hearing him speak of us as a singular unit makes my stomach flutter. When he didn’t pose it as a question to me, I teased him. However, stating it as a matter of fact to my parents is so perfectly fortifying I could jump into his arms again now. We shall be one. Forever.

“Excellent.” Mother’s smile is as warm as I’ve ever seen it. “Alchos could not ask for a better king.”

My jaw drops. “What?”