Page 55 of Dreams and Dragon Wings (Clean Fairytales for Adults #2)
“Not everything has been resolved without you, na’velar ,” Aurelia whispers, her face falling as she delicately plucks at the soaked fabric of my shirt. “Friedemar has declared war on us, as you may recall.”
Brisa adds, “There is also the business of this royal wedding.”
Glorana interjects, “And the giants are refusing to go home now that Malice has them riled up. They refuse to do anything at all until they have spoken with the Theryn’kai .”
I raise my eyebrows, my gaze returning to Aurelia. “But you said you were able to disperse Malice’s forces?”
“I did say most of them,” she corrects with an apologetic smile.
Across the bond, I sense a hint of uncertainty suddenly bloom within Na’therya ’s heart. There is something she wishes to ask me, but she fears I may say no.
“I was also hoping we could fly back to the human realm and find my parents?” she whispers.
“We could bring my father here, to the Living Waters.” Hope burns within her sky-blue gaze when she adds, “I know my mother has often been unfair to you. But perhaps the Great Weaver will look kindly on my father and heal him from his strange sickness just as He has healed us?”
“Of course,” I answer without a moment’s hesitation, soaking in the renewed radiance of my queen’s smile.
I brush the backs of my fingers against her cheek.
“Anything you want, darling. It is yours. Your parents must come to Drakara, of course. They should be here for the wedding, and they are welcome to stay after and live with us at the Aerie.”
I glance upward, trying to judge the time of day by the angle of the sunlight washing over us. “We can leave right now and be there by morning.”
“Oh, no you don’t,” Brisa huffs again, taking to the air. When she swivels to face me, her little hands perch on her hips. “You’re going to stay right here until you feel completely well. Glorana and I can go and fetch the Therya’kai ’s parents.”
Glorana raises her eyebrows. “We can?”
“Yes,” my blue-clad auntie insists, staring at her sister. “Right now.”
I trail a glance between my two godmothers, fighting to hide my smile.
Glorana is silent for a time, as if trying to puzzle out a difficult equation. Finally, with a flit of her wings, she concludes, “I do believe Brisa is suggesting you two need some privacy.”
“That does seem to be the case,” I solemnly agree. “And it would be greatly appreciated.”
I look back at Aurelia to find her watching me with a faint flush on her cheeks again.
This time, I smile freely as I duck my head and press a gentle kiss to her brow. “My queen and I have many things to discuss,” I whisper against Na’therya ’s luminous skin.
Her glow thrums all the brighter in response to my words.
“You can count on us!” Brisa promises, already fluttering away in a flash of sapphire sparkles.
“Brisa!” Glorana calls, hurrying to catch up. “We don’t even know where we’re going!”
“Cindralune!” Aurelia and I shout in unison in the moment before Brisa’s Water weave beneath the giant leaf bearing us fails, sending us splashing down into the warm embrace of the Living Waters.
Threads of Water and Air are already springing to my fingers as I laugh and wrap my arms around my queen’s waist, holding her secure. She’s never in any danger of falling beneath the surface of the water.
But still, she shrieks and clings to me, her legs frantically kicking beneath the lake. In her panic, she has clearly forgotten that she is perfectly capable of weaving to keep herself afloat as well.
“This is not funny, Bene!” she scolds me, scowling like Brisa.
When I chuckle again, she splashes me in the face.
“I have you!” I promise, doing my best not to laugh further at her expense.
Instead, I pepper the top of her head with more kisses while gently encasing her body in my weave so that she continues to bob within the water through no effort of her own.
“And I will be happy to teach you to swim later, if you’d like. But for now…”
I meet her eyes and implore, “Tell me all that’s happened while I was asleep?”
Without my aunties around to take offense at our mental communication, it’s much easier for Aurelia to relay everything to me as a drakira —through our bond.
Visions flash through my mind, revealing her frantic flight across Drakara.
Her worry when my heart seemed to stop during the course of our journey.
Her relief when we finally reached the Living Waters and she knew we were safe.
Shock fills me when I learn that we have been here a week already. But my wounds were extensive. And Glorana was right.
We all needed the rest.
She reveals to me some other little things—all the people who have come to visit while I have been healing.
My councilors from the Aerie—Lord Justice, Lady Prudence, and Lord Mercy.
Her father, though he has apparently been spending most of his time either at the Aerie serving as her ambassador or at the encampment of the goblin-fae making the long pilgrimage here to the Waters.
I toy with the ends of her hair where they float atop the surface of the lake while she shows me all these things.
But I stop immediately when she prompts me with a soft, “Bene?”
My eyes lift back to hers and hook there, seeking to drown in their depths. “Yes, Na’therya ?”
“Do you truly love me?”
The question catches me off guard; I freeze in place to keep from flinching and potentially offending my queen. I feel her uncertainty across the bond. Her fear of offending me.
But both are outweighed by her need to know.
“With all my heart,” I whisper, speaking it like the vow it is.
“Even now?” she presses, unable to meet my gaze. She looks elsewhere—at the glittering surface of the Living Waters rather than at me. Within my hold, she trembles.
A new sort of fear bubbles to life inside my drakira . A fear of rejection.
A fear that she is truly as undesirable as she has always thought herself to be.
“Aurelia…” My finger gently hooks beneath her chin and presses upward, luring her eyes back to mine. “What is wrong?”
Those lips that I so long to kiss again tremble before a tumble of words suddenly spills forth.
Breathless, my queen explains, “I know you said it used to be a desirable thing to take a Jewel for a wife because they might share their gift with their spouse and both enjoy a longer life, but I no longer have any gift to give you. I already gave it to the Vale. I…”
She trails off, panic fluttering through her as I wield threads of Air to lift us from the warm embrace of the Living Waters and bear us toward the island at the very center—the island that houses my father’s crystallized form.
Old hurts stir within me the closer we draw to the small, sandy isle. Wounds that I fear will never fully heal, not even now that I know what I know:
That my father never blamed me for what happened.
That he loves me.
That he’s proud of me.
In my silence, Aurelia whispers across our bond, hoarse and afraid, “Bene?”
I tighten my hold on her as we skim across the surface of the Waters, drawing closer to the island with each passing moment. Through the link binding us together, I do my best to radiate nothing but love and adoration. How proud I am of her. How happy she makes me.
Aloud, I make a point to state, “I am not upset with you, darling, for giving your gift to the Vale and to your people. Nor am I about to tell you that I do not love you anymore.”
My face tilts toward hers, the tip of my nose nuzzling her own. “If anything,” I breathe against the warm curve of her mouth, “I love you even more now, seeing the courageous and selfless woman you have become. You are…”
My gaze dips back toward her lips as I recall the way it felt to kiss her for the very first time back in the tower, with death threatening just beyond the warmth of our embrace. “… so very, very precious to me.”
Na’therya knows my desire before I can even act on it.
Just as I know hers.
We are one mind as my mouth crushes to hers. As her fingers tangle in my hair. As my arms tighten around her waist.
“Mine.” That word rumbles from my soul to hers. “My queen. My wife. My Aurelia.”
At last, she is mine.
And I am hers.
“You are the only gift I need, na’velar .
I love you for you and for no other reason.
I need nothing from you other than yourself.
And I intend to remind you of these facts every day for the rest of our lives.
I will kiss away every doubt you may have.
I will show you again and again how much I love you until there can be no question. ”
Panting, Aurelia breaks her lips from mine, and I lean forward, resting my brow against hers just as we descend toward the island and our bare toes sink into the warm sand.
Almost shyly, she peeks up at me, her confusion palpable. “Then… what are we doing?” She flicks a curious glance at my father’s crystallized form that now looms over us. “Why did you bring me here?”
A chuckle rumbles deep in my chest. Finally, I release my hold on her waist simply so that I can claim her hand instead—her left hand. “I just wanted you on solid ground, my drakira , not worrying about the fact that you cannot swim, while I explain to you how you , Aurelia Weaver val’Anasi…”
I bend over her hand and press a kiss against her third finger, using the motion to distract her from my Earth weave. It seems to work, given her gasp of wonder when I lift my head to reveal the diamond ring now glittering there, flashes of rainbow fire sparking in its many facets.
“… just saved the world.”