"We need to make sure all the Lyla shit has blown over before you move back into the house," he explained, squeezing me tight. "But I am not doing last week again. So give me a day or two to get shit sorted out, and then…" He exhaled. "You're all fucking mine."
"I have always been yours."
Thay dropped his mouth to my neck in a playful suck.
"Speaking of which," he said quietly, brushing my hair to one side. "Will you hand me my bag?"
I yawned into his arm, reaching for the backpack and sliding it toward us.
"Front pocket," he ordered, smirking against my cheek.
I dipped my hand in and pulled out a pen and two pieces of paper folded into fours.
"What is this?" I looked up at him as I unfolded them in the dark. "Thay?"
It was a pre-filled marriage application, and Nathem had already signed the marriage certificate.
"Only if you want to make it official," he steadied his voice. "I mean, it's enough that my name is on your skin."
"Nathem officiated our fake ceremony, and Blade and Wolfe were our witnesses?" I laughed softly, peering at the way his name felt like forever. Like something that wouldn't go away if I shut my eyes too hard or not enough.
"We'll have a real one," he said. "Go to that spot on Second Beach you love so much and say all the shit."
"Say it now." I turned in his arms, loving the way the cold air made everything feel alive.
"What?" he laughed.
"If this is our wedding day, why wait?" I slid closer, wanting to take him in fully. "Why not just say the wordsnow?"
Thay blinked, a rare, faint blush rising in his cheeks before he cracked a smile.
"There's something else in there," he said, nodding toward the bag.
I reached down, shifting my hand until my fingers caught on something smooth and thin before I pulled it free.
A ring.
"It's the sea glass," he said, searching my face in the dark, "from the winter we spent in Joyce, right before my naming ceremony. And the dandelion wisp folded into its center is from the wish you made for home that night under the bridge," hisvoice quieted. "You didn't know, but I caught it. Because the universe is a piece of shit and I figured I could do better."
Something warm cracked open in my chest.
"I know it's not a diamond," he added, a little rougher now, "and it sure as hell isn't home. But I don't know…" He swallowed. "I thought this was better."
My vision blurred as I turned the ring in my fingers, my breath catching when he slid it onto my hand.
A perfect fit.
"You know you are my home, right?" I said, finding his eyes in the quiet. "That when I wished for safety, roots, and something to hold me… I was wishing for you. You are what I wanted everything to feel like."
Thay stilled, clearing his throat before he spoke.
"Have you ever heard of the Undying Lands?" he asked, his voice so steady it made the world go silent.
"Like fromLord of the Rings?" I laughed softly, trying to follow. Of the five novels he has ever read, this was his favorite.
"When the hobbit gets back from Mordor, he realizes the Shire isn't the same. That the world took too much from him, and there's no going home after that kind of darkness, that kind of weight. You can't go back. Not to life. Not in the same way."
I blinked.