“It’s not a joke.” Going back to Kumulus means certain misery. Staying down here, we have possibilities. A future together instead of apart. Happiness.
I step over the rotten floorboard and take both her hands in mine. The longer I hold her, the more right this feels. “I want you to marry me, Allette.”
Her breath hitches, but instead of smiling, she frowns. Shit. Why is she frowning?
“That isn’t funny, Senan.”
I’m not trying to be funny.
She jerks out of my grasp and starts swiping at her eyes. Hold on. Is shecrying? “You can’t say things like that to me. My heart cannot take it.”
“Allette, look at me. Please. Just look at me.” When she finally does and I see tears glittering along her lashes, my heart turns to dust. “I’ve never been more serious. I cannot marry someone else when my heart and soul belong to you.” I tuck a loose lock of silky black hair behind her ear, already missing the blue. Blue or black, it doesn’t matter. I’d love her if she were bald. “Up there, I am bound for a future without love or hope. Here, with you, we can have both.”
What is the point in a long life if I cannot share my days with the woman I love?
“You truly want to stay here and marry me?” she says slowly, as if she still can’t get her head around the idea.
Doesn’t she see how much she means to me? Haven’t I shown her every day since the moment we met? “More than anything in the world. But what I want means nothing if you do not feel the same.”
Still sniffling, she runs her thumbs beneath her eyes, catching her tears before they fall. “How would we support ourselves?”
“I have some gold in my pack. It should be enough to get us started.” Speaking of, I need to collect my pack as soon as possible. If anyone else finds it, we’ll be in right trouble.
“And when the money runs out?”
“I’ll find work.”
She snorts. “You? Work?”
“Yes, me, work.” Why is that so funny? “I’m young and strong. Finding gainful employment should be no trouble at all.” How hard can it be? Surely someone down here could use some help in exchange for coin.
“You’ve never worked a day in your life. Neither of us have. You’ve been raised for politics and merrymaking, and I’ve been brought up to be some wealthy Scathian’s wife.”
Philip Windell’s smug face flashes through my mind. My hands clench into fists. I should’ve hit him. Just once. Just enough so that he’d be too embarrassed by his broken face to show up at Allette’s tower for the next month.
My girl is far too intelligent to end up as an accessory on that irritating ass’s arm. She deserves better than what awaits her. We both do.
“That is exactly what I mean, Allette. If we go back, that will be our fate. Don’t we deserve to choose?”
What did I have to offer her up there? Life as a mistress? A social pariah? I want to give her the world, but for that to happen, it must bethisworld.
She wrenches her hands together, tugging on her littlest finger the way she does when she gets nervous. Why hasn’t she answered me yet? What does she want me to do? Beg? I will. At this stage, I’ll grovel. “I can do anything as long as I get to come home to you at the end of each day. There may not be magic in this realm, but we can make our own.”
Allette’s eyes soften, and she cups my cheeks in her frigid hands. “I love you so much.”
“Then marry me.” Better yet… I remove my dagger from its sheath at my belt. Allette’s breath stutters when I drag the sharp blade along my palm.
Shit. I knew this was going to hurt but didn’t expect it to stingthisbad.
Blood wells in the shallow wound, dripping down my wrist and disappearing beneath the sleeve of my coat.
“Senan, we can’t do this. If the stars don’t agree, we’ll be cursed.”
The stars can go and shite if they disagree. This woman is the other half of me, of that there is no doubt. “I choose you, Allette Rittey, as my wife and my mate.” No celestial bodies, no king, no council, and no priest can tell me otherwise. Besides, the stars are too far away to care about us. In this world, we make our own fate.
I extend the hilt of my blade toward her, waiting for my love to choose me too.
Allette hesitates for only a moment before taking the blade and cutting herself as well. Her eyes lock with mine, reflecting the smile on my face when she says, “I choose you, Senan Vale, as my husband and my mate.” When her blood-drenched hand clasps mine, the magic flowing through our veins grows hotter and hotter, burning like hellfire. We cling to each other until silver scars are forever marked upon our skin.