Page 24

Wedding

SALLIE ROSE

Seraphyne. The real Princess of Aralysse is here.

I watch the missing Kinnarick drag her in sobbing. While three other soldiers pull in the King and Queen of Aralysse.

And my father.

My father.

My wonderful, innocent father, who should be back home in his garden, is confused about my sudden disappearance, but safe— safe from the Stone Fae King’s wrath.

Veyrion expected me to scream the first time I got a good look at him.

But I think that’s because he’s never experienced real terror.

Real terror hollows out your chest. It steals all your breath and erases your voice.

And it turns your mind into a windstorm when you realize that the male you love most—the one you were willing to sacrifice your life for—is going to die. Right now. And there’s nothing you can do about it.

“Rosie!” he calls out when he sees me. He tries to rush toward me, but the soldier escorting him keeps hold of his arm and pulls him back.

And when I try to go to him, Veyrion steps in front of me, blocking my path.

Helpless tears fill my eyes as the rest of the horde and quite a few nobles enter the hall, and the doors close behind them.

“Please…” I start to plead for my father’s life.

But the Stone Fae King cuts me off. “I suspected from the moment Sallie Rose revealed her special power that she was not who she said she was,” he announces, turning his back on me to address the gathered crowd.

“As far as I know, magic cannot be bestowed—only passed down by blood, and she told me that the Aralysse palace gardener taught her to wield her special powers….”

The hollow windstorm rages inside my brain as Veyrion explains how, when he and his contingent paid a special visit to Aralysse, where, just as he expected, “I found the King and Queen harboring their daughter. The true Princess of Aralysse.”

Proving where Seraphyne learned her cowardice, the Aralysse King suddenly cries out, “Sovereign, I am blameless! She came to us in secret after a mere day of trying to live as a commoner with her sentry lover. I told my wife we should turn her away, but she was too soft-hearted!”

“Can I be blamed?” the Queen asks, her tear-soaked voice defensive and haughty.

“We have been made to live in fear of your wrath, and did not know what you would do if we came forward with the truth! And besides, we’ve always treated her handmaiden as one of the family.

She’s grown up in the lap of luxury, while my daughter has suffered the dread of a fate unknown. ”

My blood freezes at the familiarity of those words. And that’s when I realize…

The Queen knew.

The same queen who met with me to discuss my plans for the Aralysse gardens less than a week ago—she knew about Seraphyne’s scheme all along. Perhaps even helped her plan it.

Utter rage clenches my fists at my sides.

But Veyrion listens to their defense with his arms clasped behind his back, wearing the same impassive expression he used on me when I asked whether his shadows would hurt.

He turns his red gaze on Seraphyne, who’s been sobbing this entire time. “And you? What do you have to say for yourself, Seraphyne?”

“Yes,” I find myself calling out. “I want to know the answer to that question, too.”

“It’s not fair! It’s not fair!” Seraphyne wails raggedly to Veyrion through her tears. She then turns her tear-soaked face toward me. “How could you slip up so badly. And after everything I’ve done for you, Thornie!”

“After everything you’ve done for me ?” I curl my fist even tighter. “You’ve done nothing . Nothing but make my life miserable for twenty years.”

I glance toward the queen. “I didn’t live in the lap of luxury. I lived at your beck and call. My one dream—the only thing I ever asked for—was to take over as the palace gardener. And you took that away.”

I then turned my wrathful gaze on her daughter. “You risked our kingdom just so you could keep terrorizing another handmaiden after I was gone.”

“You don’t know what it was like for me!” Seraphyne shouts, snot expelling from her nose. “You’ve never had to live with a fate worse than death hanging over you like a cloud!”

“See, the thing is, I did, Seraphyne,” I reply with a shake of my head.

“For the last three days, I’ve lived with the certain knowledge that I would die today.

So, I built a garden to leave behind as legacy for those who came after me.

I offered as many kindnesses as I could, so that these good people might remember me fondly after I was sacrificed to their moon god.

I was you for three whole days. And all I can think right now is that you could have been doing the same for twenty-five years. ”

I regard her with a bitter shake of my head. “But you chose to be the way you are.

You had a lifetime to make your life count, and you spent it making nearly everyone around you miserable. And that’s on you. Only on you.”

The speech—likely my last—rips out of me.

But Seraphyne gives it not even a moment’s consideration before snarling, “You’ve always been ungrateful! How dare you not appreciate everything I’ve done for you?

Your life is worth nothing, and I am a princess. You should have been more than happy to take my place even for a few days, you feckless bitch. You should have?—”

One moment, Veyrion is standing calmly with his talon hands clasped beneath his wings. The next, one of those hands is wrapped around Seraphyne’s throat and they're launching into the air.

His wings crack like thunder as he rockets up toward the ceiling.

Then—he lets her go.

Seraphyne screams.

I gasp.

And the King and Queen cry out as their daughter’s body hurtles downward.

The screaming cuts off the instant her body hits the altar’s built-in Offering Bowl with a sickening CRACK —a sound I can only assume is every bone inside her snapping at once.

Then the Stone Fae King alights on the ground in front of the Aralysse king and queen with the graceful calm of a breeze after a sudden storm.

“Would anyone else care to speak to me about what is fair—and how you’ve done my female no harm?” he asks, voice low but lethal.

A beat of silence.

Then both the Aralyssean king and queen collapse to their knees, wailing in unison. “No, Sovereign!”

“Please, have mercy!” the king sobs, pressing himself flat to the ground. He even attempts to kiss Veyrion’s taloned feet.

But the Stone Fae King steps back before he can.

“Take them to the dungeons,” he commands. “I will deal with them later.”

With the unhesitating precision of soldiers who’ve known real war—not just court pageantry like Aralysse’s—the Ironwing Commander and a garlanded warrior step forward and drag the royal couple away.

And then Veyrion turns his terrible gaze to me.

I want to run. I want to grab my father and flee, even if I know escape is impossible.

But I’m trapped…caught in the hypnotic red suns of his glowing eyes as he strides back toward me and tips up my chin with the same taloned finger he used to stroke my cheek when calling me a liar.

“You will tell me the truth,” he says. “You are not the Stone Bride, are you?”

I swallow. I try to look away, but can’t.

Finally, I admit, “No. I’m not. I’m just a lowly handmaiden.”

The confession burns as it leaves me. I take a breath, then rush to plead, “But please, don’t punish all of Aralysse for my choices. And spare my father. He’s a gentle, innocent man. He’s done nothing?—”

“Would you like to be?” Veyrion asks, cutting me off.

I blink, not understanding. “What?”

“Would you like to be the Stone Bride?” he repeats. “Would you like to become my wife this moonsrise and rule by my side… until your relatively weak human body succumbs to the organ failure of old age?”

Is he… is he asking me to marry him?

“What?” I whisper again.

But this time, my stunned question is echoed from across the hall—“What?!”

His father storms forward. “Surely, you cannot be serious about marrying a human commoner !”

He practically spits the last two words. “Never in our history has such a thing come to pass!”

“As you told me last eve,” Veyrion replies coolly, never removing his touch from my chin, “my reign will be the greatest era yet. Unlike anything in our history.”

He turns to face his father fully now. “And I wish to usher in this new era with Sallie Rose—the most compelling, alluring, and audacious being I have ever known—by my side. If she will forgive me.”

Then he looks back at me, and his voice gentles. “Forgive me. Please… forgive me for ever listening to my father. For every trespass I made against you. I can no longer fight these weak emotions inside my chest.”

He has feelings for me? Just like the ones I’ve been trying to fight myself? Deny? My heart thunders as I try to process the enormity of what he just said.

Before I can, his father rushes forward again.

“No, son. No!” His father grabs his shoulder.

“You cannot marry a human commoner. She’ll taint our bloodline! The warriors will rebel, and you will lose your command!”

Veyrion abruptly draws the sword I hadn’t even realized was sheathed between his wings. He lifts it in the air to address the standing behind the Seraphyne’s parents.

“Would any of you challenge me for the throne to prevent a human from entering our royal fold?”

The warrior with the topknot steps forward.

“A question, Sovereign.”

The whole room tenses.

“If you and this human marry, will I—and the other warriors who missed the gifting this daytide—be issued nature jewelry crowns too?”

The entire room releases a collective breath.

And Veyrion answers, “Kinnarick, if you remove my father from these proceedings, I will do my best to convince our future queen to provide you with a nature jewelry crown, as well.”

“They’re actually referred to as garlands,” I call out to Kinnarick. “Or flower crowns, if we’re being technical…”

I trail off when I realize the soldier Veyrion called Kinnarick is too busy dragging the former king out of the room to hear me.

Veyrion turns back to me as the sound of his father’s “Unhand me! Unhand me this instant!” fades into the background.

“You, and only you, compel me like this,” he says, taking my hand in both of his larger ones. “And I wish to be compelled in such a manner for the rest of your lamentably short lifespan.”

“I…” It takes a few tries before I can answer. “Well, first of all, I think we need to go easy on all the language, pointing out that my kind has a shorter life expectancy than yours.”

I carefully remove my hand from his. And I need to know: “Is this a ‘Marry me or else I’ll kill your dad and raze your kingdom’ proposal—or a ‘Marry me because I love you’ one?

I have to ask, “What exactly happens if I turn down your proposal?”

He tilts his head in consideration. Then answers, “I will have to command you…”

I open my mouth to explain why marriage by command isn’t exactly the best foundation for a relationship?—

But then he finishes, “…to go live with the goat called Brelliard and his wife. Because I do love you, Sallie Rose. With all the granite in my chest. And I would like to keep you here in my kingdom so that I might have the chance to woo you until you love me as well.”

He softens even further. “Of course, after he is seen by our royal healer, your father will accompany you to Brelliard’s and his wife’s home. Then, if and when you accept my proposal, he will be given the neighboring chamber beside ours—where Yilara and her family will no longer reside.”

“What?!” comes Yilara’s distinctive screech from somewhere in the crowd.

But Veyrion continues as if he doesn’t even hear her. “And as for Aralysse… this is a ‘Marry me, and I will give you that breadbasket kingdom as a wedding gift and charge them whatever tariff you deem fit.’

You will be my queen in every way—giving me counsel, helping me become a king who grows a thriving empire instead of taking and destroying everything he surveys.”

I stare at him. “I mean… I’ve only known you for three days.”

His face falls.

“But you know what? Mulch it. This ‘being your queen for life’ stuff sounds like a garden I’d like to grow.”

Veyrion stills. Then the most wondrous, tender smile spreads across his stony face.

Somewhere in the background, I hear my poor, mystified father murmur, “I’m so confused.”

“I’m not,” I reply, never looking away from the male I will call my king—happily, ecstatically —for the rest of my life.

I grab his shoulders and stand on my tiptoes. But it’s still not enough to reach his lips… until he wraps an arm around my waist and lifts me the rest of the way.

A great cheer erupts all around us as we seal our wedding agreement with a fiery, incredibly happy kiss.

One thing is for sure: I’m doing the opposite of dying today.

In fact, a life beyond my wildest dreams has just begun.