Page 16

WEDDING

N ight had fallen, the banquet to celebrate them was ready, Cas had put on his most formal clothing, and Emryn was nowhere to be found.

He was standing at his mother’s side, waiting for his princess. He’d been waiting for a while now and the nobility sitting in their ranked chairs were getting restless.

And then the doors opened, and Emryn was standing there on Asan’s arm.

Cas breathed a sigh of relief as she started moving down the aisle toward him.

Her gown was a confection, flowers and silk on sky blue velvet.

And he had to wonder what magic his mother’s seamstress had to create something to fit his princess in the space of an afternoon.

Emryn looked like she wanted to run, fear in her eyes as she stepped to his side and he took her arm from Asan. “It’s going to be alright,” he whispered to her as he turned them to face the priestess.

“The head healer yelled at me,” Emryn’s voice was choked and sad. “For abandoning the city.”

“I will speak to him.” Cas leashed his anger and smiled at her. “I know you would never abandon the people, Emryn.”

The priestess raised her hands, calling on the Mother to bless their union. And just for a moment, Cas thought he saw something at Emryn’s back. But it was just a trick of the light, because when he looked again it was gone.

Cas turned his attention back to the priestess, who was extolling the virtues and duties of marriage.

Especially the marriage that the two of them were entering into.

It had been a very long time since common blood had entered the royal line of Rodilla and to Cas’ mind this was going to be a good thing.

And the priestess must have been asked to keep the ceremony short in deference to Emryn’s weakness, because as she started to tremble, the priestess called for the rings.

Giving them their vows, listening to them repeat them back to her. Emryn tried to keep her voice steady, pitching it to be heard, and she was mostly successful.

In fact, it might be only him, his mother, and the priestess who could see how badly she was trying to be steady.

And then it was over. Emryn slid the band onto Cas’ finger and he did the same to her, lifting her from her shaking legs and bearing her down the aisle to the cheers of the courtiers.

He would ask to kiss her later.

He carried her to the anteroom as the Courtiers began to file out and down the hall to the reception.

“Are you ready to heal, Emryn?” Asan walked into the room followed by the queen. “It is time that we close the loop.”

“Will you tell me what I need to do?” Emryn asked when Cas set her on her feet.

“You need do nothing,” Asan said. “The reach back belongs to Cas.”

Emryn nodded and Cas walked her over to a chair in the room and helped her sit before kneeling in front of her, watching her face flame. “Now, just relax, this might feel a little funny.”

Asan had gone over how to close the loop with him a bit ago. So he leaned in and pressed his forehead to Emryn’s, letting the trapped flutter free.

He was not prepared for what happened.

Light.

A bright blast of it, scorching across his senses with the intensity of a thousand suns. But somehow it didn’t turn him into a cinder, no matter that it could have.

It was beyond powerful enough to burn him and everyone else in this room to ash, but Emryn didn’t want it to, so it didn’t. It answered to her call, spiraling down into her core until the room was dark again.

No, not dark, the fairy lights still burned. But the room was dark compared to that furious light.

Cas lifted his head, looking at Emryn, who finally had color. And then at Asan, who was looking at Emryn like he’d discovered something both terrifying and momentous.

“Now you know,” Emery lifted her head to look at Asan. “You are too intelligent not to have put it together.”

“And so I have,” Asan said calmly. “But that does not mean I wish to harm you by screaming the word from the rooftops.”

“Would someone like to clarify?” Cas rose to his feet, feeling odd and floaty, the same way he felt after being healed. “What are you talking about?”

“I am-” Emryn rose to her feet and looked at him. “I am no true healer, Highness.”

“Then what are you?”

“I don’t know,” Emryn shook her head and wiped away the single tear that had escaped.

“I am going to do some research,” Asan said, reaching out and laying a hand on Cas’ shoulder. “I will return when I have the answers to the puzzle.”

Asan left the room, and Cas knew he would take the closest mirror back to his tower in the mountains. To examine all of the things he’d gathered and make them make sense.

Which meant that Cas was free to focus on his princess. Emryn was fidgeting under his gaze, single tears rolling down her cheeks and her wiping them away as fast as she could.

He could feel her fear, and wanted nothing more than to hold her until it stopped. And she was his wife, his princess, so there was no reason that he shouldn’t.

He reached for her, folding her into his arms, and wasn’t the least bit surprised when she broke down. There were words in the tears, but they were buried under the sobs and he couldn’t understand her.

But he held on, letting her cry and rubbing her back until she could calm down. Until she could rest, though she was shaking in his grasp. She could eventually look up at him, but Cas wasn’t going to let her apologize. So when she opened her mouth, he put a finger on her lips.

“No need to apologize, Emryn,” he said, offering her a handkerchief from his pocket. “It has been a tumultuous few days for you.”

He let her calm down, let her wipe the tears and the remnants of sorrow from her face and then smiled at her. “Shall we go celebrate?”

“As you say.”

They would do this again in six months, and when the nobility celebrated them again, she would have cause to smile.