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CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

N arissa woke to the gentle hum of Solarius’s voice floating over her and a spear of warmth spreading through her chest.

Her eyelids felt heavy, as though she’d slept for a thousand years, but the familiar bloom of affection, of love, pulsed along the bond in time to the beating of her heart.

His touch was gentle, his thumb tracing idle circles across the back of her hand as he patiently waited for her to wake from her slumber.

A soft, languishing sigh escaped her, and she gradually blinked her eyes open, the corner of her lips curving as Solarius finally came into view.

He was seated by the edge of the bed—his bed—and Narissa swore she’d never seen anyone more forlorn in her life.

Faint lines of sorrow lanced across his forehead, and there was a deep, ardent yearning in his eyes.

He continued to hum her favorite song, the words replaced by the reverberations in his chest echoing through her soul.

One by one, he laced her limp fingers through his own, and when she squeezed his hand, his gaze snapped to hers.

“Rissa love,” he breathed, relief filling the lines of exhaustion on his face.

He opened her palm and pressed a kiss to its center, trailing them down the length of her arm.

With his other hand, he cupped her face, his eyes searching for something she no longer possessed.

“Sol.” Narissa clutched their interlocked hands to her chest, drawing him close.

She needed to apologize, to make amends for failing to warn him.

For simply failing him.

For not telling him the truth.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“You have nothing to apologize for, Narissa.” He lurched from the chair and moved to the bed, seating himself beside her.

“You’re entirely without fault.”

She shook her head, tucking a few golden waves back from her face so she could see him clearly.

“You’re wrong. I have much to regret. You see, I had my suspicions of your mother, and I should have given you some kind of notice, or at the very least made you aware, but?—”

Solarius pressed one finger to her mouth, hushing her.

“You were right about the bracelets. About many things. I stopped trusting my mother long ago, and for good reason. But for what she did to my father, for what she did to you…the fact that she attempted to end your life.” He brushed his lips across her knuckles once more.

“For that, her name will be erased from the stars. Her memory forgotten. Her life nothing more than a void of time.”

He stroked the line of her cheekbone, tracing it to her mouth.

“Never apologize for that.”

Narissa worried her bottom lip and his gaze tracked the movement.

There was still so much she wanted to say, so much she had yet to admit.

Her heart ached for him, longed for him, and she’d kept the truth of her feelings hidden because she feared that if she dared to admit it, then Solarius would walk away from her again.

And she would be alone.

Abandoned.

But the way he was looking at her now, like he kept her soul and owned her heart, made all the words she struggled to find evaporate on the tip of her tongue.

His brow arched.

“Get out of my head.” She scowled and amusement painted his handsome face.

“I hate it when you do that, it makes it impossible to keep my feelings from you.”

The corner of Solarius’s mouth upturned into a cocky smirk.

“Oh, I am well aware. You’re terrible at keeping your thoughts hidden from me.”

Then his smile vanished.

“But what you don’t know is that love pales in comparison to how I feel about you.” He brushed a few strands of hair from her eyes, then slowly lowered his forehead to hers.

“You are an ocean made of fire, and my soul burns for you. I would gladly drown in your tumultuous sea of emotions if it meant you were only ever mine. Moonrise to moonfall, so long as the tides continue to kiss the shore, I will forever in this life, and every life thereafter, love only you.”

Something cavernous and empty inside of Narissa healed.

Solarius’s words, his vow to her, slowly stitched closed the wounds left behind on her heart.

From the death of her parents.

From her own loneliness.

From him.

“I never truly hated you,” she blurted out, and the burdensome weight she’d carried for so many years finally lifted.

“Mating bond or not, I have wanted you, pined for you, since I first laid eyes on you. And I hated myself for it because I thought you didn’t want me.”

Solarius kissed the corner of her mouth, then whispered, “Say the words, Rissa love.”

“I love you, Solarius Starstorm Celestine.”

His smile returned, broader and full of devastating charm.

“And I love you, Narissa Seaborne Celestine.” Solarius nuzzled his nose against the hollow of her throat.

“I suddenly have the strong desire to make good on our marriage vows again.”

A laugh bubbled out of Narissa, and she ran her fingers through his silky hair, enjoying the way his hand slipped beneath the velvet comforter to discover her bare thighs.

“That sounds like a wonderful idea, but first, there’s something else that requires my attention.”

The dungeon below Queen Elowyn’s castle was cold and bleak.

Serpentine corridors that looked more like caves snaked below the mountains of Terensel.

Orbs of amber faerie fire glowed from sconces lining the damp walls, illuminating mysterious puddles along the uneven stone ground.

In the distance, a steady plop, plop, plop clashed with the occasional groan, and Narissa hoped it was merely the sound of rainwater and not that of dripping blood.

Though if the rank smell was any indication, it was the latter, and that thought alone caused her stomach to turn.

It was a rare thing for any fae of Aeramere to be imprisoned, but if rules were broken, the queen did not hesitate to dole out retribution.

And since Lord Calfair Skyhelm had committed more than one atrocious offense, Narissa wanted to ensure his penance was paid for the length of his stay in the dungeon.

She did not bother to look at him when his raspy voice called her name through the steel bars, and she didn’t spare a glance toward the darkness engulfing him when she slipped a vial of terrifern into the hand of the guard who stood outside of his cell.

He offered her a stern, silent nod.

Nothing more.

Nothing less.

Though she winced slightly as the scrape of nails against rough stone grated her ears, she ignored Calfair’s desperate, choking pleas for forgiveness.

Her footfalls echoed over his broken sobs until the guard’s callous voice silenced his weeping, and Calfair’s shouts of regret morphed into a subdued sniveling.

Narissa carried her head high, chin lifted in satisfaction as she walked toward the silhouette of the male waiting for her.

He lounged against the dark stone, arms crossed over his chest, one foot propped against the slippery stone behind him.

“So,” he drawled as she approached, shoving off the wall and offering her his arm.

“Does the punishment suit the crime?”

She smiled up at her husband.

“Every midnight hour, Calfair will be administered a dose of terrifern and be forced to endure his worst fear.”

“Which is?”

“Drowning, of course. For how could a fae of House Galefell survive without air?”

Solarius chuckled, but it was dark and humorless.

“Mm, such a naughty midnight siren.”

Together, they left Queen Elowyn’s palace in comfortable silence, for which Narissa was grateful.

Though he said nothing, Solarius’s presence calmed her mind, soothing the hardly recognizable ache inside of her.

He was the peace she needed, and she supposed in some way, they saved one another.

Rescued each other from a loveless fate of loneliness and broken promises.

It wasn’t until they were seated in the carriage beside each other, with Solarius’s arm wrapped snugly around her waist to quell her fear of flying, that he spoke.

“I have something for you.” With his free hand, he reached into the pocket of his coat and pulled out a black velvet pouch.

“What’s this?” Narissa asked when he handed it to her.

She peeked inside and gasped, lifting a beautiful handcrafted pearl necklace, the one he wanted to have made from her tears.

Her heart twinged and her nose tingled.

Solarius cleared his throat.

“It’s a promise. To never make you cry again.”

Her bottom lip wobbled.

“But what if they’re happy tears?”

He caught one as it slid down her cheek, turning into a delicate pink pearl.

“Then I suppose those will be the only ones allowed,” he murmured, tucking it safely into the pocket of his pants.

“And I’ll have to make you a matching set.”

Narissa laughed then and their mouths met in a tortuously slow kiss, a glide of lips, a slip of tongue, as though they were tasting each other for the first time.

It was tender and delicate, an intimate meshing of souls.

Turquoise waves crashed into incandescent moonlight as their magic claimed one another again, the tides dancing on the swell of a lunarstorm.

Fate wove around their hearts in a decadent display of power, across burning oceans and moon dappled nights.

“I love you,” Solarius murmured against her cheek, his mouth moving to the shell of her ear.

Narissa leaned into his touch, into a lifetime of love.

“Do you promise?”

His words emblazoned themselves on her soul when he said, “I promise.”