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I headed for the door, Sashimi close behind me. As soon as we were in the empty hall, I whirled around and knocked him sideways, into the granite. I had him in a shoulder lock, pressing him against the stone while I tried to keep my teeth from chattering. She’d really wanted to kill everyone, even those who were doing their best to make a difference, like her daughter.

“What are you doing?” he asked for the millionth time today.

I pulled his shoulder until he grunted from pain. “What will it take to be your bride?” I demanded in his ear. I was messing up his hair. Good.

He sighed. “My bride must have the Goblin King’s child. You don’t want to have my child. You’ve mentioned it multiple times. I could seduce you into forgetting your abhorrence to children, but after you poured your magic into me, after you sacrificed yourself for your city, I owe you more than that.”

What? I relaxed my grip enough that he slipped out of my hold, sweeping my feet and knocking me down to the floor with his heavy body over my limbs, pressing me down while he pinned my wrists above my head.

I stared up at him, stomach twisting, heart aching. “That’s stupid,” I finally said.

His eyes narrowed. “Stupid to attack me in my bank? I wasn’t going to mention anything, but yes, it was. Particularly when I have an army of assassins in shouting distance.”

I rolled my eyes and struggled to poke him or something, but he held me completely immobile. “I’ve always wanted a family. I want children.”

His jaw clenched. “Just not mine.”

I gurgled a laugh. “Are you serious right now? I love you. Of course I want to have your children. I just don’t want to be with someone who doesn’t love me back. But you chose me to be your bride, so maybe that’s better than love. I mean, you liked me, or you wouldn’t have spent all those years teaching me proper pronunciation of your secret language. So, if you haven’t found another human bride yet, I want you to pick me.”

He stared at me, his face weird. “Are you insane? I’m a goblin. You were just talking about setting up a sting to take me down.”

I wrinkled my nose. “Look, I get that people think I’m not corruptible, but that only means that you can’t bribe me. If you have to do illegal stuff, just make sure I don’t find out about it. That should be easy for you. They say the Goblin Authority is very clever. Sashimi, I really want you to be my partner. Brannigan was watching me that whole time to see if I needed to be silenced. That’s the kind of partner I’ve had since I made detective. It creeps me out thinking about it. Did he survive the demon? I don’t want to know, because if he did, I’ll have to prosecute him, along with Joss. So much corruption. Is there any point in making people pay when it’s that widespread?” The thought of how far the corruption went made my stomach clench.

He stared at me for a long time before he slowly brushed his nose over mine, sending a shock of something delicious down my spine. “Making people pay sounds like an excellent way to raise funding for the department. Your friend Gabby can help you prosecute. She has a lot of connections that are supposed to be corruption free. You want me to work with you in the police department? Would you give me a badge?” He raised a dark brow and looked so very seductive.

My heart beat faster as his scent wrapped around me and my teeth ached. “I’ll give you whatever you want. I’m the lieutenant, so I have all the power. I’d even give you a parking permit.” Not like he didn’t own the parking garage across the street.

He smiled, showing his sharp teeth. “A parking permit? How could I possibly resist that? Throw in a taser, and you’ve got me.”

“I’ve got you…” I said slowly as I stared into those golden eyes. “Until retirement?”

He sighed heavily. “Think, Rynne. Think of all the things you know about goblins. Is that what you really want? Yes. Until retirement. Because then I’ll be dead. Until death do us part. I tried, Rynne. I really, really tried to let you live your own life and be free of me, but…” He was staring at me so intently, and his heart was beating so fast, so beautiful. “Rynne, we are bound very tightly together. It wouldn’t take much to make it permanent. You would be the Goblin King’s bride forever.” His frown was so serious. He slowly raised a hand, and I got to see it trembling like a leaf in the wind. “This is the energy I’m exerting to stay away from you, Rynne Sato. All of my effort is going towards that one thing, the pull towards you. You don’t want to be my bride. It’s not civilized, but more. It’s not part of your career plan. You have so many beautiful plans.”

I stared at him while my mouth went dry, and that hand continued its trembling. He wanted me to be his bride that much? Suddenly the world was a beautiful place, and the floor wasn’t all that uncomfortable, and assassins were probably really pleasant people when you got to know them. I snorted a laugh, then winced. What was that sound? Embarrassing, that’s what it was. “Sorry,” I said once I got it together. “It’s just funny that the thing you were using to protect you from the thing you were avoiding became the thing you were avoiding.”

He sighed heavily. “The first letter amused me. It was at a time when I was not easily amused. Ever amused. I was neck deep in a war I didn’t want to end because I didn’t know what else to do with my life. I was raised for war. I was amused by the child who would risk herself for her sibling. Like the story about the sisters from the goblin market. Humans are not usually so brave and selfless, but there you were. So brave. So selfless. The human the goblin king takes always asks to be saved from her life. They are not brave or selfless, but they are bound to the Goblin King. With that letter, I had choices. I wasn’t going to kill you. That would be boring. I wasn’t going to enslave you. I don’t enslave people. That has been the major bone of contention between the Magga and myself. Goblins have been enslaved countless times, and I don’t like it. I could establish a binding between myself and a mostly human witch that would provide amusement and a possible bride later in life.”

He took a deep breath and frowned as he stared at my mouth. “Rynne, I was plotting you to be my future bride with that first letter. I’ve been plotting to have a bride my whole life. I wasn’t afraid of it. I was looking forward to something other than war, but I never found a human remotely interesting, certainly never felt a binding, and I have been approached by countless humans who wanted me to deliver them from their miserable lives.”

I frowned at the idea of countless women throwing themselves at him. “What did you do with them? Kill them since you don’t believe in slavery?”

He gave me a slight smile. “I let other goblins woo them. If that doesn’t take, then back to their lives they go with a little money to ease their way.”

My head was spinning as I stared up at him. “You lied to me?”

“Of course. Never trust a goblin. But you did. You trusted me with the details of your life, your feelings, your interests, your heart. It would have been too easy to manipulate you into affection towards me, so I didn’t.”

“Are you sure? I had the biggest crush on you.”

“I’m sure. I don’t seduce children. It was an interesting development that I wanted to watch play out. Would you eventually ask me to rescue you from your life? Would I feel the binding engage? But you didn’t need me. You could make your own way in life. Until you met the Magga. I’ve been attached to you for a very long time. My fascination has grown along with your beauty. You are the only thing I see. The urge to protect you is incomprehensibly strong. Not because your life is mine, but because your life is everything.”

I stared at him, just staring while those words I’d been craving fed something deep in my soul. “It was me all along?”

He smiled slightly. “Of course, Rynne. I changed my world to fit into yours. I changed the entire goblin society, took over a city, ended a war, and learned to be civilized. But you’ll never need me. You’ll never ask me to steal you away, and I don’t want you to. I don’t want you to be tangled irrevocably with a goblin who understands your humanity only theoretically. I don’t want to use you to slake the grip of the curse.”

“Ah. So you’d rather I start dating demons?”

His jaw clenched before he slowly relaxed it. “You should find a nice human who can feed you and give you a normal family. Not an infernal creature. If you choose one of us, it would have to be me. I know you too well to not be able to seduce you.”

“Why do you think that I don’t want you?”

“Every time someone mentions you being married to the goblin king and giving him his son you tell them you’re never going to have my child.”

“Of course, because you told me that you’d never love me, and that you were using me to keep you from loving anyone else. I want love. I want you to love me. I don’t want a normal family. I don’t think I’m capable of that. I could live without you, but I don’t want to. Sashimi, stop being an idiot before I steal you away. I’ll keep you in my vault and get Clary to give you pretty things to wear. I’ll rescue you from the wars you don’t want and give you something better to do. Like own banks and stop people from blowing each other up. You can give me babies and make me deliriously happy.” Was I blushing at that last part? Yes. I also felt like an idiot.

He frowned, suspicion written all over his face. “You couldn’t steal me away. I’m far too heavy. My head would hit every step on the way down.”

“But you have a very hard head, and your spider bots will help me like last time. Technology is the great equalizer.” I slung my legs over his and rolled us so I was on top, his hands on the floor above his head. I smiled down at the beautiful goblin I didn’t want to live without.

“Sashimi, Corcarn, Goblin King, save me from my miserable life and make me your bride.”

A glowing nimbus burst out of him, swallowing me and wrapping me in a warm glow that gave me goosebumps and made me start trembling.

He looked down at our freakishly glowing hands, then at me. “You have just made yourself the Goblin Bride. Are you mad? We’re married. It can’t be undone. Our lives are inextricably entangled. I can’t resist you anymore.”

“That was basically the point,” I said, and flopped over onto him, snuggling my face against his neck. The glow was starting to fade, but I could feel the binding between my heart and his. We would die without each other. A stupid curse, but it was better than sleeping alone in his vault.

He hesitated and then with an exhale, he gathered me up into his arms and started sprinkling delicate kisses all over my face.

“You married me,” he said, pulling away long enough to stare into my eyes. “I must not have been sufficiently honest. I really tried, though.”

I cupped his cheek and smiled up at him. “Tell me you love me.”

“I love you.”

“You’re not just saying that?” I asked, skeptical.

He caressed me carefully while he looked at me like I was the only thing in the world. “We’re still glowing from the binding of our hearts. I love you. And you love me. We are married, and you are my bride.”

“That’s it? No wedding? No dress, flowers, cake, or sushi?”

He gave me a suspicious look. “Weddings have sushi?”

“Of course. What do you think, that humans are uncivilized? My mother will insist on a proper witch wedding in the grove with the coven and home brew, and Mr. Raccoon puking all over everything while we exchange hippy dippy vows. But honestly, this is less expensive.”

“Less expensive?”

“Yes. If you’re going to help me fund a new police department, we’re going to have to watch the budget.”

He pursed his lips as he caressed my arm. “Or we could steal from the enemies of justice and truth.”

“Stealing is wrong.”

“Then why did you steal my heart?”

I beamed at him. “That was so cheesy. I loved it. I want lots of cheesy declarations of love. You’re my husband. We have to stay together as a team, because you aren’t an idiot like your father, fighting the curse, and I really do need you to be my partner in crime. I mean, justice. Are you coming home with me to the vault, or are we going to spend the wedding night up right here in the bank’s bowels where all the assassins could hear us?”

He picked me up in his arms, and then carried me towards the elevator. “What would they hear?”

I was definitely blushing, but who cared? I wanted to yell my happiness from the rooftop. “You telling me that you love me in all the languages you know.”

He raised a brow. “I know a lot of languages.”

“Then I imagine you’ll know a lot of ways to love me. Do you mind?”

He grinned the sharpest grin and brushed my nose with his. “Never. Except when my bride tells me to love her. Then always. My love. My heart. My home. My perfect partner.”

The End…