Page 56 of The Arrow and the Alder

I t took two days to gather the dead. It wasn’t because there were so many bodies, but because foliage kept sprouting up everywhere, making it difficult to find…anything, really. Some of the kith complained about missing weapons or meals because a fully grown tree or hedge would spontaneously erupt in the place they’d last been, but Alder couldn’t help himself.

He didn’t seem concerned, either. Quite the opposite, really. Alder was lighter than Seph had ever known him to be. The corruption was gone, and without it, Alder was buoyant. Watching him work, watching him tend so generously to his people as well as the refugees of Light, and all of the prisoners that had been working the moonstone mines…well, it made the future even more difficult to think about.

Soon after waking in the tower, Seph had shared with Alder everything that’d transpired, her unraveling of the riddle, her defeat of Sound, and her conversation with the other two Fates.

“You asked them to do what …?” he’d said—a little scandalized—when she told him she’d tried trading her life for his.

“Calm down,” she’d said, grabbing his hands and squeezing them tight. “Clearly, I’m still here.”

Alder had glowered and grumbled beneath his breath, something about her intractability and unreasonable sense of altruism, but Seph had kissed him until he’d forgotten to be angry about it. Since then, they hadn’t had much opportunity to speak privately, with everything there was to do.

All of Canna had been healed—including the Rift, which had been transformed from a deadly chasm into a wide and beautiful bridge between kith and mortal worlds. Seph had appointed herself overseer of those who’d recently woken from the nightmare of being depraved. Little Rasia helped her in this task, but Seph knew well that healing would take more than a few days.

Probably a lifetime.

What they’d endured and what they had seen kept them awake most every night.

Sometimes she caught Alder’s gaze from across the field, and they’d exchange a smile, but there wasn’t time for more, and, oh, how Seph could not wait for that time. Because in those rare moments where she sat down to rest, the unknown future attacked her relentlessly.

The fact of the matter was that the Court of Light was no more, that much had become evident within the first day. There was no longer any power in this kingdom. Not to say there wasn’t any connection to eloit —there was, clearly. Alder’s shameless (and growing) garden was proof of that, but what power Light had been given had gone back to the heavens, where it belonged.

Which set the other three courts back in balance.

Seph should have been relieved. There was no need for a queen if the kingdom no longer existed, so by all accounts, she should be able to return safely home, to her family, without any guilt that she’d abandoned people who were depending upon her for guidance.

However.

She was kith now. She didn’t know what that looked like; she hadn’t been able to do much with her eloit , other than create her own little enchanted, floating lights. Rian informed her that her understanding would grow with time, but Seph wasn’t really concerned about using enchantments; she’d lived all her life without them.

No, her largest concern was Alder.

One day, my little lion, you will meet someone you cannot live without, and then you’ll discover that you will sacrifice everything.

Oddly, sacrificing her life had been the easy part. It was the living without bit Seph did not know if she could handle. At least Alder was alive. She’d thought that would be enough, but now she wasn’t so certain.

It was with these thoughts she wrestled as she sat upon the steps. The night was full and covered in stars, and something like a toad croaked nearby. One could never be sure; the creatures in Canna were very different from those in Harran, and each day, a few more crossed their paths. It still took some getting used to, all the sounds of life in this world. Where it had been silent before, now there was always a song.

A hand touched her back, and she looked up to see Alder standing there. She couldn’t see his face; it was too dark, and he was illuminated softly by the golden glow of the lights floating in the archway behind him.

He sat down beside her, close enough that their sides touched, and he leaned back upon his hands and tipped his face to the stars. He wasn’t wearing Rys’s ring anymore; he’d lost it when he’d changed form. They’d tried looking for it, but it was impossible to find anything so small by a gate now buried in foliage.

“Fates, they’re so beautiful,” Alder said, eyes glinting in the dark. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to seeing them again.”

“Do you think she’s up there, with them?” Seph asked after a moment.

“I’m certain of it.”

Then, “I wonder which one she is.”

“I think…” Alder pointed, his shoulder pressed in to hers. “Do you see the bright one there flickering, right above the cluster?”

Seph leaned into him, following the trajectory of his finger with her gaze. “I do.”

“I imagine she would be one like that. Bold. Brighter than all the rest, just like her great-granddaughter.”

Seph smiled at this. “Do you think she knows we’ve won?”

“I think she’s looking down on us now, very pleased with the story the Fates wove for her.” She felt him turn his face toward her, though she didn’t look. “But you don’t sound very much like someone who is enjoying their victory.” Then, “War is a sobering affair.”

“It is,” Seph replied. “Though it seems to have mended something between you and Serinbor.”

Serinbor had been a steady presence around them, and Seph had often caught him with Alder, sharing a camaraderie that Alder did not share with anyone else.

Alder’s expression turned thoughtful, and a small smile touched his lips. “It has.” Then, “What did you say to him?”

“Nothing he didn’t already know.” Seph tossed a pebble at the foliage. “Essentially, I told him that he was an unforgiving hypocrite, that he had no idea how you’d suffered for a past you couldn’t change, and that he should give you a chance.”

Alder sat quiet. “Thank you, Josephine.” His voice cracked a little.

“Maybe one day, you can tell me what happened between the two of you…?”

He glanced sideways at her. “Maybe one day I will.” Sadness touched his features, and he looked to the stars again.

But Seph suspected where his mind had gone. “I’m so sorry about Evora.”

A muscle worked in Alder’s jaw, and he clenched and unclenched his hands. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it. That I wouldn’t have…” He shut his eyes and shook his head.

“But how could you have known?” Seph still didn’t understand the reason behind Evora’s betrayal.

“Because…I knew how much she’d cared for Massie when he worked for my mother.”

Seph’s lips parted as understanding dawned.

Alder continued. “Evora was furious when the queen sent him away, but she stayed and I believed— wrongly —that she’d gotten over it. I thought her fidelity to my family would eventually be enough to shed light on the sort of man that he was, but…I underestimated how singularly focused love can make a person. I understand that now.” His eyes opened and he looked at Seph.

Seph’s cheeks warmed, and her pulse took flight. Now was the perfect time to bring it up, but she glanced away instead, overcome with nervousness.

“Alder, I?—”

“I wanted to ask?—”

They spoke at the same time, and Alder chuckled lowly. “You first, darling.” He lifted one hand and stroked her hair.

Which imparted some of the courage she’d lost. “I’m not sure what comes next.”

“What do you mean, exactly?”

“Well. Exactly . I don’t know. I am one of you now, and so I don’t belong back in Harran?—”

“Do you want to go back to Harran?” His voice sharpened, and his hand stilled in her hair.

“I need to see my family, Alder. The Rift is safe, and I need to find my papa and Levi, and make sure the rest of my family is all right.” She paused, and he waited. “But beyond that…I don’t know.”

Alder sat up a little straighter, and this time he pressed his palm to her cheek and turned her face toward his, forcing her to look at him. “Can I tell you what I want?”

Her gaze clung to his as she waited.

His thumb traced patterns along her cheek. “I want you,” he said, cradling her face as he gazed straight into her eyes. “I want you to be my wife. My equal. My better . I want to share my bed with you every night and wake to you every morning, and I want our children to know that their mother sacrificed her life and all the power in the world to save it. To save me .” He stopped, and Seph found she could hardly breathe. “I know you love your family, and I would never ask you to abandon them. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking, and I believe they could enjoy life here. They will never want for anything—that, I swear to you. I will do whatever you ask of me, but I don’t want a future without you in it. I love you, Josephine.” These words spilled over her like sunlight, warming her from the inside out. “And so I came here to ask…what I mean to ask, my sharp little arrow…is if you would give me your whole beautiful heart and marry me?”

Seph stared at him, into his handsome face, his palm like fire upon her skin, and her heart swelled. “You already have my whole heart, Alder.”

His answering smile was like the sun on a cloudless day, but then that smile froze, as if he were struck by a sudden thought. One he didn’t like very much, and his eyes narrowed just a little. “Is that a yes or a no?”

He sounded so suspicious, she couldn’t stop her grin. “Do you promise I can see my family first?”

“What if I don’t want to wait that long?”

“Then you had better marry me soon.”

“I’ll find someone to conduct the ceremony right now.”

Seph laughed. “Then yes?—”

“Oh, thank Demas,” he said before she could finish. He claimed her with a kiss, and Seph hardly noticed the field of flowers blooming all around them.