Hiding his pain the way I’ve been hiding mine.
And I love him anyway.
Senan holds them out toward me, open and empty. “Let us be broken together.”
He is giving me the choice, and he deserves the same. Slowly, I turn, allowing him access to the laces at my back. My voice hitches when I tell him to take off my gown. Those scarred hands gather my hair, lifting the heavy waves over my shoulder, tracing the square back of my dress to the laces.
The gown loosens and falls away, leaving me in a thin shift, white undergarments, and a body riddled with scars.
He draws one sleeve down my shoulder, replacing the cotton with kisses that linger. Kisses that warm. Kisses that heal. My body yearns to melt into his, and yet I remain rigid. Waiting. Terrified. Hopeful.
He does the same to the other sleeve, but then he stops.
His harsh intake of breath leaves me cold. “Allette…”
He has seen them… He knows… The tears burning my eyes spill free, slipping silently down my cheeks.
I feel him touch the top of my scar, where the base of my wing used to rest between my shoulder blades. “Who did this to you?”
His voice is low. Lethal.
I step out of his grasp and turn, but I’m too mortified by the hideous marks to look at his face. “Humans. Those wings you saw in that shack were mine.”
And now he knows the devastating truth.
“Allette, open your eyes.”
I shake my head. “I can’t.”
“Please.”
The brokenness in his plea gives me the courage to peer through my lashes.
Tears spill from Senan’s eyes, making them glitter all the more. “I need you to understand something,” he says, his voice catching. “There is nothing you can say, nothing you can show me, that will make me love you any less. You have no wings? I will give you mine. You have no magic? I will give you that as well.”
I press my hands to my eyes in a useless attempt to clear the dampness there. “You don’t mean that.” He can’t possibly.
Warm fingers slip around my wrists, pulling my hands away. “I do.” This time, his voice does not catch or waver. “I gave you my heart the day we met. What makes you think I wouldn’t give you everything else as well?”
Time. Distance. Change.Her.
“Do you remember what I said to you the night we exchanged our vows?” he asks.
I remember everything. Every single word and promise we made to each other.
“I said, ‘I will love you?—‘”
“‘Until the sun implodes and the stars stop shining,’” I finish.
“And last I checked, the sun still rules our days, and the stars still decorate our night.”
As if the sun itself hears our words, the light in the garden seems to brighten.
I raise my lips to his and whisper, “I love you, Senan Vale. Whole or broken.”
“And I love you, Allette Vale. Whole or broken.”
To the world, I may be Allette Rittey, but here, in this magical place, I am Allette Vale, wife of Senan Vale, third son of the late King Taranis of Kumulus.