“Fortunately, I’m rather partial to it.”
Adeline winked as she pushed his hair back from his forehead, but before she could sink back into his side he gave her wrist a gentle tug. She granted his wordless request without thought, climbing into his lap so their eyes were level when he brushed his nose over hers.
“I’d like to see you go grey,” he said.
Adeline’s nose wrinkled beneath his.
“That’s a bit mean.”
Kai breathed out a half-laugh, a stuttering sound underlined by his floundering heart. Adhlas, the nerves were unlike anything he’d ever felt. More potent by far than the call of the waters in his veins, more terrifying than facing a hundred Sealgair. But he was more certain than he’d ever been, and for the first time in a very long time, Kai trusted his own judgement. Adeline was the best choice he’d ever made. The one belief he’d always hold to.
“I’d like to see you grow old, Adeline. I’d like to grow old with you.”
Her breath caught, the absence of it cool on his skin for a moment. And when she gasped in her next breath, the rush of life all around them sprang bluebells and buttercups, bright in his peripheral vision.
Kai felt his lips tug, a reflex set apart from the roaring hum of his every nerve.
“That’s still happening then,” he said faintly. “The emotional Wielding.”
It was an awful attempt at levity, but Adeline barely acknowledged it.
“Shush. Keep talking.”
“Which is it, shush or—”
She grabbed his face in both hands and pulled back, eyes bright and blazing as they fixed on his.
“Kai.”
Such a fierce command in the single syllable of his name; she was a queen already. Kai laughed again, tension rushing from his chest in one breath though it did nothing to steady the hammering in his ribcage. Nothing would, he now knew,because it was no longer nerves driving his pulse. It was simply his heart adamantly making itself known, his very body striving to participate in the moment, every fibre fighting to declare itself for her. Because itwashers. Heart, breath, and everything else.
He could feel the anticipation humming off her skin, but she sat stock still, fighting to be patient for him, to let him find his way to the right words.
“The world wrote me into a tale I had no say in,” he said finally. “I’ve been the Drowned Prince and the Merrow King, but with you, I’m someone else entirely. With you, I’ve finally found a way to pick up the pen.”
Her eyes gleamed and her swallow was thick, but at her urgent nod he smiled and pressed on against the ache in his own hoarse throat.
“Despite all we’ve suffered and lost, I’d still call it a fairytale. I’d have to. Magic, and love at first sight, a beautiful princess, and a lovesick king and—” He sighed, shook his head in disbelief at his own outstanding luck. “Andeverymoment I’ve spent with you has been a happily ever after.”
She nodded again, more fervently this time.
“I love you Adeline. I always will. Will you marry me?”
Adeline gasped out one thick burst of watery laughter.
“I knew it.”
And before Kai could speak another word, the weight of her kiss knocked him entirely off balance. She fell astride him and did not pull back, kissing him until he could not breathe.
“Is that as a yes?” he finally managed, when she broke from his lips to shower his cheeks and forehead with kisses.
Adeline laughed again, the sound half drowned in tears.She brushed her nose over his, her lashes tickling his cheeks.
“Obviously,”she whispered.
For a long while afterward, neither of them felt either capable or much interested in moving. They lay side by side and watched the pink and purple dusk washed away by moonlight, and when the stars above them began to shimmer, Kai remembered the glittering ring that had been weighing down his pocket all day.
“It’s my mother’s,” said Adeline at once, voice soft with awe and hoarse with long dried tears.
