"Why the fuck would I want someone to scratch my head?"
"Because it feels nice."
"I have no need for—“ his words die off as my fingernails sink into his damp hair, massaging his head and running my nails over his scalp. A low, satisfied grumble sounds in his throat and I laugh out loud.
"You were saying?"
"Why are you stopping?" He asks, his voice low and husky as he moves my hand back to his head which only serves to make me laugh harder. But he just closes his auburn eyes again, long, dark lashes fluttering shut, and I let my fingers continue. I feel him drift to sleep beneath my hands, and my heart swells so big it threatens to burst clean out of my chest.
I would die for this man, and him for me.
I see my future at his side.
Chapter43
Tomato Soup (Rexxan)
Istand atop the roof of the palace, the sun beating down on my skin. It’s hot today, and the land that stretches out before me is a million shades of yellow and green.
The water has receded out of sight.
The whole of my forest and the fields beyond are visible once more. It's been two months since Renna returned the stone, and over a month now since we found Poppy drowning in the floods. Her injuries healed quickly and she’s back up on her feet; so much strength built into such a tiny person. She was adopted this week, and it feel like one of the many loose-ends of my life had at last been tied. Her and Rennalya, they're two very powerful women that I'm very grateful to have met.
And this week, Onyx was finally moved from his bed in the healers quarters into a room in the palace. He requires healers full time, but he has stood on his own and walked across a room with assistance. It’s small progress, but it’s progress all the same.
Our 'wedding' is in seven days. Rennalya wants no part in the planning, so I've made it exactly how she wants it. It's her, myself, Siddie, Lynna, Frian, Ellatar, Cetresar, Talyn, Ascan, Annaliya, eight of her hunters, and Onyx, if she can convince him to come. We'll sign the paperwork, we'll eat and drink with our friends, and then we'll leave.
It’s not what I imagined it would be like, and it’s a far cry from my first wedding. Food and drink are still being rationed for us all, and I suspect they will be for a long time yet. The only reason I’m sure that Ren will follow through with the wedding is because she’ll get a huge meal for the first time in a while.
Then I'm taking her to one of my many properties, a small cabin, buried in the middle of a woodland, which itself is surrounded by fields. It's truly remote, where no matter how loud she screams my name, no one will hear her. And as for her wedding present, it has cost more money than I've ever spent on anyone in my life, but I'm hoping she'll like it.
Iknowshe'll like it.
* * *
The week passesin a blur of planning, hiding surprises from Rennalya, helping with the thousands of sick and injured, helping at the Healer’s Halls, and liaising with Ocealia, who is furious to be missing the wedding. We've promised her and Espan that we'll do another one next year when they're able to leave their kingdoms again.
High-pitched screaming from the garden has me putting down my paperwork and speeding to the window. Siddie is chasing Renna around the garden with a bucket of icy water as she throws plums at his head with alarming force. I've come to realise that those two are like dogs. I just need to let them tire themselves out in the garden for a while until they're more manageable.
She trudges into our bedroom twenty minutes later, dripping wet.
"He got you," I observe. She nods, water running off her nose. She’s shivering, but she’s also glowing with pure childlike joy. She and Siddie have become close friends, and he is helping her through her grief for Stellan. Perhaps it's because he's so much like Stellan was.
"Ready to go?" I ask. Each kingdom has its own wedding traditions, and in the Forest Kingdom, your honeymoon begins the day before you marry. You spend the night together and then you arrive at your wedding together.
In thirty-five hours, she'll be my wife. It's thirty-five hours too fucking long.
She nods and smiles. "I am ready, because your staff have done everything for me!"
"Because I want you to relax and enjoy the days before our wedding." I planned for her to have a massage today. She cancelled it in favour of stabbing trolls in the forest with my son.
"That is if I don't jilt you."
"If you jilt me, I'll jilt you harder."
She raises her eyebrows a couple of times, biting her lip. "Mmm. I like the sound of that."
She straddles me in my lap, kissing me hard as she rolls her hips in a circle. I'mferalfor her.
