“I would have asked if he’d found a husband for me yet,” she said, and Deckard grinned.“‘No, but I have a plan. I’m going to talk to your father,’ he would say. ‘I’m going to convince him to let you come with me to Loclight, and we’ll find you a husband together there.’”
“Would your father have agreed to something like that?”
Evylin nodded theatrically. “Oh, yes. Ryen was very persuasive.”
They chuckled together, and she continued, “Then off to Loclight we would go. Months would pass, and I wouldn’t find anyone who interested me. I’d be lonely, worried my father would recall me if I didn’t find a husband soon enough for his liking. And then when all hope seemed lost, I would go to a dinner party and meet this handsome, young lieutenant—were you a lieutenant when you were first stationed in Loclight?”
His eyes twinkled merrily as he corrected, “I was a sergeant.”
“Mm. Well, I would have met this lieutenant and realized he was stupid.”
“Mm-hm.”
“Then I would have been introduced to the most singular Sergeant Deckard, who would have inevitably swept me off my feet.”
Deckard laughed gently. “I doubt that.”
“No, it’s quite true,” she insisted. “This sergeant was ostensibly charming, unassumingly handsome, and excessively witty. I couldn’t have found a better match.”
“So I onlyseemcharming?”
“You’re perfectly charming,” she said. “But I see through your charms to the depth in your heart.”
His expression grew almost bashful.
“As I was saying,” Evylin teased, continuing her tale. “In this other life, we would have met at a party in Loclight, and I would have fallen in love with you readily and easily. You would have courted me and become friends with Ryen, and together, the three of us would have gone on our adventure. Although I don’t think you’d make a good pirate.”
“This is your fantasy,” Deckard noted. “I could be a fantastic pirate in this other life.”
Evylin scrunched her nose. “Mm, no. I wouldn’t change a thing about you.”
His smile flattened slightly. “So I’d still be a Mage in this version of reality?”
“And I’d be a Warrior,” she said. “So would Ryen, by the way. If this is my fantasy, the three of us live together forever.”
Deckard chuckled. “Just the three of us? Shouldn’t Ryen have his own love?”
Evylin pursed her lips and looked at the headstone. “What do you think? Do you find love?”
A gentle breeze rustled the everbloom flowers.
With a pert nod, Evylin turned back to Deckard. “Yes,” she confirmed. “A beautiful Mage who works with the Alliance.”
Deckard’s eyes grew wider. “The Alliance exists in this other life?”
“Well, someone has to stop Blount. And it won’t be Ephren.”
“I suppose you have a point.”
They were silent for a moment, and Deckard kissed her temple. “I like this story of yours,” he said.
“So do I,” Evylin said, a well of longing for the life that could never have been filling her chest.
Another long silence drifted between them as they sat there, the sun dipping lower in the sky. They stared at the headstone together, imagining what might have been. After a while,Deckard released her hand and adjusted to sit more comfortably beside her.
She could feel his unease, and it caused him to pull away from her. It bothered her that the Space Relic’s presence did this to him. But he needed to learn to control it. She wouldn’t allow him to take the easy path. Not when it could potentially mean their demise.
“Jonn,” Evylin whispered, breaking the silence, “I need to ask you something.”
