Page 36 of Moonstriker (The Summertide Chronicles #4)

Chapter 36

Aubrey

I don’t like it , Slate whined. Too far. What if you never come home? There are people in your house too. I don’t like them either .

The workers are supposed to be there , I promised him . They’re installing the new windows . It’s good, it’s supposed to stop me from whining so much about how cold it is all the time.

You do whine about the cold a lot, he admitted .

Excuse me, Mr. Volcano, I was born on the coast where it’s nice and warm. No snow, almost ever. I shuddered, thinking about the masses of snow we’d gotten over the winter, and that seemed to amuse him. Besides, this is fun. You’ve never been to a wedding before, have you?

No. What does it mean again?

It’s like bonding, but for two humans instead of a human and a stone. It means they’re promising to spend the rest of their lives together.

I sat up and stretched, luxuriating in the warm ocean breeze that flowed all through Sunrunner Palace. It wasn’t sealed. There were no air conditioners. The bedroom they’d given me and Kit opened right up onto a balcony over the ocean below, so all I had to do to see the ocean was sit up in the enormous king-sized bed.

Kit was sitting in a cushioned deck chair on the balcony, eating some kind of pastry and staring out at the water, so I pulled myself out of bed and joined him. “Miss the ocean?”

He looked up at me, smiling, dropping the pastry onto a plate so he could sign back. “Not really.” He motioned to the spread on the table. “Coffee? Tea?”

I scoffed and took the glass of orange juice he held out to me instead, as we’d both known I would. Then I grabbed the second half of his pastry and took a bite. Almond, of course. His favorite.

And becoming my favorite, because I’d come to associate the flavor with him. An almond pastry in the morning was almost like kissing Kit, even if it wasn’t quite as good.

He sipped at a cup of tea as I settled in next to him and leaned his head on my chest.

“It’s nice,” he finally admitted, his hands flashing almost faster than I could follow, since we were both still learning the language. “But it’s not better than the chalet. I know Slate isn’t comfortable with us going far away yet, and that’s fine. But I like being back home too.”

Home, he said. The chalet. So seamlessly, he thought of the place as our home, because we’d been living there together.

“Me too,” I agreed. “It’s good to see your siblings, and Aunt Titania, and your father, but I like being at home, just the two of us.” I set my empty juice glass aside and tipped his face up to look at me. “Are you sure you don’t miss this? Everyone here knows you. It’s obvious enough that you were...you’re a worldly guy. You went everywhere and knew everyone, and now you’ve been with me and a staff of three at the chalet for almost a year. Well, three and the security contingent Delta hired to keep people from invading our privacy, but it’s not like you hang out with them. If you want to?—”

He leaned in and kissed me, cutting off the flow of words. When he pulled back, there was just a tiny, peaceful smile on his face. “I miss home. I never missed this life.” He looked out at the ocean, cocking his head. “Though I think I’ll miss this view for a bit when we get back.”

“It is beautiful.”

After that, we just sat together in silence for a while, watching sailboats go by in the distance.

“So what’s it like, to have ended out the whole concept of dueling as the best duelist in the Summerlands?” the handsome, scarred man whose name I’d missed asked Kit.

I was wearing hearing aids for the purpose of the wedding, since it hadn’t been a reasonable ask to have three hundred guests all learn sign for my sake. It was uncomfortable, and I hated them, but I hated this guy even more.

His eyes fell on my Kit like a physical touch. Like he had the right to...

“We don’t really think much about it,” Kit told him, leaning against me. He spoke and signed at the same time, just because it was more comfortable for both of us, but also...it made it feel like his words were especially for me. “I don’t miss the threat of death every day I go to work.”

“So what are you doing now?” the guy asked, and I could tell that he was dubious. He thought Kit was lying and secretly missed that life.

I would admit to sometimes worrying the same. He’d gone from a flashy, exciting life with a shiny red sports car and tight sexy dueling costumes, to a quiet one with a four-wheel-drive SUV and a lot of flannel and fleece.

Not that he didn’t still wear the costumes sometimes, on warm days. Or in the bedroom. Just because.

Kit smiled at him, then looked up at me, pointedly. I couldn’t keep the flush from my cheeks, as the implication seemed clear. Then he shrugged. “Reading a lot. We planted flowers at the chalet in the spring, because Slate didn’t know that was a thing people did. We’re teaching him about humanity.”

The man blinked, staring at him, then up at me for a moment. “Like...like the volcano’s a kid? Like you’re raising a kid?”

And that really was what it was like. Slate had never been around people all that much, since the closest town to him was Yomi, miles away, and before me, he’d never bonded someone to show him these glimpses of humanity that lived far away from him. Kit and I were teaching him about everything beyond where he was planted in the center of our world.

“Pretty much,” Kit agreed. I’d once thought this dismissive asshole attitude was annoying, but now?

Well, it helped that it was no longer directed at me, but it also didn’t matter, because everything Kit did was sexy as heck. From the way he stretched, lithe and languorous, every morning, to the way he was quick to offer that sly smile of his whenever anything amused him.

“Well, that’s . . . I’m glad you’re happy, I guess,” the guy said, though he still seemed like he didn’t believe it was possible.

We should kill him , Slate said. He wants to steal our kitten .

Funny, because normally I was the first voice of reason to tell Slate that he was overreacting to something, but in this case, I thought he might be onto something. I didn’t know who he was, but that bastard definitely wanted to steal my kitten.

“Hey you guys,” Aunt Titania’s voice tinkled from behind us. “I was wondering where you’d gotten off to. Delta was whining you’d probably sneaked off to screw in a closet, but I told her that my nephew is a gentleman, so if you’d run off to bonetown, you’d have taken Kit back to your room for it.”

I cringed, sliding my hand down my face, even as Kit laughed aloud.

“Tempting, and now, tempting to talk him into a closet.”

“No.”

“Aww, spoilsport.” Kit leaned in and grabbed Titania’s hand, kissing the back of it like some kind of storybook character. Then he broke the fairy tale impression by opening his mouth again. “How’ve you been, Tits?”

She beamed at him.

It figured, really. Aunt Titania had finally found someone to refer to her by the horrifically inappropriate nickname that Dane Sunrunner had bestowed upon her as a teenager, and it was my boyfriend.

Pressing a hand to her very pregnant belly, she turned and looked behind us. “I think we’re doing well. Ember’s complaining a lot. You know, swollen feet, back pain. And it’s all that and more.” She leaned in. “But also? It’s kind of fun. Plus no one tries to offer me booze like this.”

It was a fair point. No one would offer a pregnant woman alcohol. Ember came up to join her, her gait distinctly more waddle-ish than Titania’s. I blinked in shock at the sight of her.

She glowered in return. “Don’t. Yes, it’s twins. Fucking Rain’s always been an overachiever.”

“Ah,” I agreed, and then couldn’t think of another thing to say. An apology didn’t seem appropriate, even if it was the closest thing to the truth.

Kit, on the other hand. “You...are going to kill him, aren’t you?”

She made a face at him. “Tempting. But then he gives me the little puppy look like I’m the most precious thing he’s ever seen, both because babies and because he’s a sucker who loves me, and I can’t even hit him.” She gave Kit a glare. “You’d better decide, though, because I’m not going to spend my life doing this. First Rain and Adair, then Frosty and Cas, and then you, if you want. But just one. I’m not gonna spend my whole damn life having babies.”

“I will, if you want,” Titania offered brightly. “It’s great. We could get you a semi-matched set without anyone resorting to weird incest-y gene mixes.”

Ember rolled her eyes, motioning to her girlfriend but looking at Kit. “Do you believe this? It’s like she’s on vacation, she’s so happy about this shit.”

Titania leaned toward Ember, grabbing her arm and wrapping herself around it, staring up at her with sheer adoration written on every line of her body and face. “We have a family. And we all love each other. It’s the most amazing thing.”

And that? Well, Ember melted, leaning down to kiss Titania.

The orchestra, over in a corner, played a few strains of something, and it seemed as though everyone took that as a cue and headed toward the chairs set out on the beach for the wedding.

It wasn’t like weddings in movies, with someone walking down an aisle and everyone wearing tuxedos. Caspian was dressed in loose, flowing white linen, and Frost—okay, Frost was dressed formally, in one of those Moonstriker style suits with the long embroidered coat. This one was white, with a great black dragon embroidered across the front, breathing fire up over his shoulder in a spray of red and orange gemstones that caught the light and glittered like actual flames. It was a very impressive piece of clothing, and I thought if I put it on, I would immediately spill ketchup on it. Even if I wasn’t eating ketchup.

Kit had gotten me black slacks and a black button-down shirt with a red tie, and told me that was fancy enough for this, and that seemed to be true. Most people weren’t dressed that fancy.

Kit, next to me, was wearing his red dueling costume, but his sword was still at home, hanging over the mantel back at the chalet.

It had been a means to an end, not his whole personality, and he’d been more than happy to set it aside for good, even if figuring out what came next had been a struggle. I’d been the one to insist on hanging it up. It was important, I said, that we remembered. Even if he didn’t want the world to know the sacrifices he’d made to save them all, I thought that we should remember.

It’d been hard to keep the story from getting out at all, though, so my part was public knowledge. It had even been made into a movie, Kit and I—played by two gorgeous movie industry A-listers—being trapped on our way back from the doctor’s office, forced to hike up the mountain with my broken ankle while I bonded Slate, having quite a few very dramatic seizures.

I didn’t remember it being quite such a big deal, or so sexy, but the world had drunk it down and begged for more. Apparently it was suddenly all the rage to learn to sign.

I figured that could only be a good thing, because while most of those people were never going to meet me, it might actually serve people already living in their communities.

For me? Well, Frost and Caspian were signing their vows, which was a bit of an overwhelming gesture, considering we only saw them in person a few times a year. Kit talked to Frost all the time—the two of them text messaging almost incessantly—but it wasn’t like Caspian could leave Verisa often, and at least to start, I’d needed to be at the chalet a lot to cement my bond with Slate.

“—never knew that finding family could be so effortless,” Frost signed to the man he was marrying. “I had never been so easily accepted by anyone in my life, but then there you were. You never hesitated. Never made me feel like I was on the outside looking in. Like I was less because I was different. You took me as I was, and told me that was more than enough.”

“Because it is,” Caspian said when it was apparent that Frost was finished. “You are more than enough. You always were. You always will be. You’re perfect exactly as you are, because of your imperfections. They make you unique and wonderful and the only man in the world I love. Who’s ever looked right through the veils I cover myself with and seen me. You’re everything. I love you.”

“I love you,” Frost said back, immediately, as though he couldn’t possibly breathe one more time without saying it back.

I leaned down, wrapping my arm around Kit’s shoulders and squeezing tight. With my free hand, I gave him the tiny shorthand sign for “I love you.”

He made the same sign with his own hand, then bumped his middle fingers against mine, as though making our hands kiss.

Ahead of us, Frost took Caspian into his arms and kissed him, rather more passionately than I’d ever seen at a wedding before. Not that I’d been to real weddings, only seen them on TV, so maybe that was the difference.

This is nice , Slate decided. I like weddings.

Me too , I agreed, pulling Kit in as tight as I could without dragging him into my lap. Weddings are pretty cool. Maybe we’ll have one at the chalet, one of these days.

And Caspian will bring the new puppies to visit, Slate added, like that was a required part of any wedding.

And heck, maybe it was.