Page 68

M orning light crept softly through the steady rush of the waterfall, the dawn a lazy, gentle thing thanks to the depth of the cave and the curtain of water.

This certainly wasn’t the first night Seidon had spent at his secret headquarters—but any other occasion that brought him here required spending the night in the water, monitoring whatever threat had sent him from the palace.

This was the first he’d woken inside the cave, a soft mattress beneath him.

And Arden tucked into his side. The utilitarian base of operations had been transformed into an enchanting honeymoon suite—presumably by the friars, which was a strange thought.

Two of the bunks from the back room had been put together out here in the main living area, mattresses layered to make one large one.

Twinkling string lights gleamed, music had been playing softly from a crystal somewhere or another when they entered, and food enough for all their meals had been waiting in the little kitchen area.

They’d eventually gotten around to investigating it all and feasting on the fresh bread and cheese and fruit last night…

though well past their usual evening mealtime.

Seidon’s stomach felt a bit hollow again, but he wasn’t about to disturb his bride.

Not when watching her sleep was proving to be such a captivating sight.

His fingers were in her hair though, so he let them softly stroke the pale locks. His other hand already rested on her back, so moving into a slow caress surely wouldn’t disturb her.

On second thought, maybe she wasn’t actually sleeping, given the slow grin that spread over her lips. “Are you finally awake?” she said, voice scratchy from sleep yet not sounding sleep-heavy.

“Finally?” Since waking her wasn’t a concern after all, he slid his arms more fully around her and pulled her closer. “It’s barely daylight out there.”

“It’s a solid twenty minutes after sunrise.” She nestled her nose into his neck, making his breath catch. “Such laziness.”

“Mm. My apologies, Your Majesty. Punish me if you must.”

As he’d hoped, her punishment started with a long kiss and didn’t end until they were both breathless.

Once capable of thinking of things beyond each other—at least for long enough to find breakfast—they lounged on the couch to eat, Arden nestled into his side.

Given that the pain from the wall hounded him again as they filled their plates, he appreciated that she sat close enough to touch him.

Two hundred seventy-five years of life, and this was the happiest he’d ever felt. Even given the wall, given the war, given the uncertainty of everything else. Never had he known that he could feel both powerless and hopeful.

Never before had he known that the dichotomy could make new faith strum in his soul.

But how good was the Triada, to provide someone so remarkable in what would otherwise be his darkest hour?

How amazing was the Triada’s timing, that Arden would show up in his life now, and that he would love her so much even before he knew she was the answer to his every prayer?

How humbling it was, to be the one she’d chosen.

She frowned up at him, those amber eyes intent on his as she lowered the grape she’d been about to pop into her mouth. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

His own food forgotten, he slid the plate onto an end table so he could reach to bury a hand in her hair without sending his breakfast to the floor. “I’ve been so selfish.”

Her frown deepened. “Si, you don’t have a selfish bone in your body.”

“I do when it comes to you.” He leaned over, kissed her softly.

Even if it made him sigh. “I didn’t give any thought to whether I was the best thing for you, I was just so happy to realize you really are the best thing for me, in every possible way.

I have lived so many lifetimes—I didn’t pause to think that perhaps you’d like to live more of yours before you bind yourself to me for hundreds of years. I certainly didn’t consider that—”

“Stop.” She lifted a hand, and the wind caressed his lips like a finger. Which made him frown. How could she have such precise control when she’d had no training, when the power in her blood had only been Awakened for two days?

She was amazing. Miraculous. Out of his league—and that was something he’d never once thought, not in this way.

Arden set her plate down too and moved closer to him, settling her hand over his heart.

“Seidon, I love you. I still can’t quite believe that I’m the one you need, but if so, then praise the Triada for it—because I didn’t even know what to dream of until I met you.

I had no goals, no real desires. Now…I still don’t know what the future’s going to look like.

But walking into it with you?” That slow, beautiful smile blossomed on her lips.

“I can’t believe I’m so blessed that I get to do that. ”

He leaned in to rest his forehead against hers. “I’m the one who’s blessed. But I don’t…I don’t want you to feel burdened by this. By me. By all the expectations. Another something I didn’t pause to consider before I all but dragged you down the aisle.”

Her laugh soothed his soul while her breeze eased back the strand of hair that had fallen into their faces.

“No dragging was required. You know that very well. And I’m not saying you won’t have to be patient with me as all those expectations and responsibilities hit—I’m going to have some moments of panic as I learn what being your queen means, I have no doubt.

But this is what I want. To be your wife. ”

Even knowing she meant it, it didn’t erase the worries.

She was young. Lifetimes younger than he.

She hadn’t yet had the chance to learn as he had how to make quick judgments.

He was desperate for a child and happy to believe that’s what her mother had meant when she promised him the Triada would grant his heart’s desire with Arden, but he shouldn’t assume it was what she wanted. At least not yet.

Another something they hadn’t taken the time to talk about before. He let out a slow breath. “We haven’t talked about…the possibility of children. We should have before last night, but…”

Arden breathed a laugh. “Seidon. Everyone knew the need for children is what would govern your next choice of bride. Of course, Mama did remind me that for whatever reason, such things seem to…take time. With the Awakened.” She lifted her brows, clearly inviting more information.

He could only sigh. “No one is sure why, though the doctors have been studying it for centuries. Even in families like the Saels, who have multiple children, there are often decades between the births. More likely is a single child, eventually. So…yes, to Sapphire’s point.

It will most likely be a decade before we conceive. Even so, I ought to have asked you—”

She interrupted him with a soft kiss. “It will happen in the Triada’s timing, whether that is now or…

” Her lips quirked up, her eyes alight with bemused humor.

“…in a century. Whenever it does, I will be overjoyed. And terrified. So if I can vote on such things, during Mama’s lifetime would be great. I’ll need all the advice I can get.”

He chuckled and let his fingers rest on the back of her neck. He felt the shift, the tension that entered her muscles before she voiced whatever she was thinking.

“Wasn’t…wasn’t your first wife pregnant, though? When she was killed in the attack of the Sun People? And you’d only been married two years, correct?”

He winced, even after all this time. “Yes. And no.” He pulled away enough to hold her gaze, expecting the questions in it at that cryptic response.

Still, he had to drag in a long breath. Even after all this time.

“Zella was pregnant, yes. But it wasn’t that band of roving Sun People that killed her.

The opposite, actually.” He paused, let his eyes go distant, called up the image of that first girl he’d loved, when he’d been little more than a boy.

Arden’s age, actually, when he’d first met and fallen in love with Zella.

He’d been twenty-one when they married. Twenty-two when she told him in an excited whisper that she was pregnant.

Twenty-three as he watched the life drain out of her.

“We were hopeful, when she got pregnant so quickly. Hopeful that, despite all the experts’ wisdom, the Triada would bless us with a large—and magical—family.

But it killed her. The pregnancy, not the invaders.

We went to the Southern Palace, where the desert meets the sea, in hopes that the climate would help her as her health flagged.

But it didn’t. Nothing could. It was her death that distracted us and left us vulnerable to the marauders, not the marauders who killed her. ”

“But…”

“I know. That’s not what the history books teach.

” He sighed and raked his hair away from his face.

“My parents insisted on the revised version. It was better, they said, to let the people be enraged by an attack from a band of extremist desert dwellers so radical that their own people had exiled them, while we were supposedly on holiday and hence unprepared, than to realize that their prince’s child had literally torn its mother apart from the inside out. ”

She winced too. “Oh, Si. I’m so sorry. That must have destroyed you.”

For years. He’d been terrified to remarry and had waited decades to do so.

When he agreed it was necessary, he’d had no trouble agreeing to wed another Awakened.

Someone with magic in her blood would surely be strong enough to survive him.

But no pregnancy had happened. Not with Tora, whose weak, recessive magic had flagged with time instead of strengthening.

Not with Emilia, who had come from the royal family of the Sun.

His magic was too strong, the physicians had decided. Too strong to bond with anyone else.