“No. Absolutely not.”
Oh, thank god.
“You may not care for him, but that doesn’t mean you care for me.” I’d fulfilled my end of our bargain. She was only here because of her sister. Because she didn’t want to go home.
“That’s just it. Idocare for you. When the Queen killed you, I couldn’t stop crying. It was like she’d stabbed me in the heart as well.”
“Youcried? Overme?” That’s what she’d said, wasn’t it? That she’d shed tears over my death. “But you knew I’d be back.”
She laced our fingers together, touching where the marriage bond once lived. “But you wouldn’t be my husband.”
I needed to see her eyes when she said those words. Needed to know they were true. “Are you saying youwantedto stay married?” I held my breath, afraid to hope.
“Yes.”
The ring. She was wearing my ring. “I know you’re lying.” There was no other explanation. “You saw the curse and now you pity me. That’s what this is, right?” I let her hand drop, my magic coiling inside my chest, my feet itching to bring me away. “You think I’m some sort of charity case? Well, I’m not, you know. I may want to be free, but I’ll not accept your life as payment for my sins. It was wrong to have asked you to keep our vows in the first place.”
She pulled the ring from her finger, letting it fall to the gravel by my boot.
And then she said words I never thought I’d hear falling from her lips. “I want to be bound to you.”
32
I wantto be bound to you.
This woman. This beautiful, fierce, naïve, loyal, forgiving woman wanted to be bound to me.ME.
“Why?” I whispered, needing the truth to keep me from drowning in hope.
“What do you mean, ‘why’?”
“Why would someone like you want to be with something like me? Is it all of this?” My castle? My magic? “Is this what you’re after? Because it sure as hell isn’t my winning personality or impeccable style or flawless manners.”
She must be mad. There was no other explanation. I loved a stark raving madwoman.
Her brow furrowed, and she bit her lip, and I hated that my words had struck home. Why had I opened my foolish mouth? I should have kept quiet, basked in her light before it was too late. Before she tore it away and left me with darkness.
Eventually, Keelynn said, “I want to be with you because you make me laugh.”
“I make youlaugh?” What the hell kind of reason was that?Lots of people made me laugh. You didn’t see me wanting to marry them.
“Yes. Even when I know I shouldn’t,” she said, moving closer to where I stood. “You left food for Padraig and gave an apple to the boy in the market. And you saved that grogoch in Kinnock. You stole a pig and kidnapped those children.” With each reason, she took a step, erasing the distance between us. “You have taken care of me and kept me safe even when I was rude and condescending and horrible.”
Her hands met my chest, warm and steady as they slid toward my shoulders. “Today, you died for me.” Her cursed lips met my black heart.
I couldn’t keep still any longer, my hands finding her waist, bringing her into my embrace. Bringing her home.
“So the real question isn’t why someone like me would want to be with someone like you.” The confession may’ve tickled my jaw, but I felt it deeper, in my very marrow. “It’s whether or not someone like you would want to be with someone like me.”
Didn’t she know? Hadn’t I made my feelings for her painfully obvious? “There will never be a time or place when I won’t want to be with you.” In this world or the next, forevermore, this woman would have my whole heart.
She eased forward, our lips almost meeting.
Something flashed green on the ground.The ring. I evanesced, collecting it from the gravel. The way starlight played in her hair, the heat of the night, and the sparkle in her eyes culminated in a vision I would hold close for the rest of my days.
“Since I’m already down here, I may as well ask you to marry me.”
When Keelynn’s eyes widened in panic, I stumbled to my feet. “Don’t feel like you have to say yes,” I blurted. “It’s just that it’ll be impossible to make you fall madly in love with me if I’m forced to go off with every woman who invites me to her bed.”