Page 52 of His Human Believer

Somebody in the third row says shhh to somebody else.

“At the second hour this morning I called an emergency meeting of the full council of the Royal Hyrrokin Academy.”

I put a hand over my mouth.

“I gave them a formal presentation, thereby properly filling the sighting. I formally withdrew the central conclusion of three published monographs and years of work, on the record, in front of every Fellow of the Academy. As of this morning, the Skyggjar holds emergency protected status through Sir Bane Ashmoor’s office.” His eyes don’t leave mine. “Any being who hunts it goes to prison. The listing on the outer-sector exchanges is now a criminal solicitation. It cannot be fulfilled.”

There is a noise from the crowd. Somebody starts clapping and somebody else shushes them.

“And the Academy will issue a public statement before the close of business today, with the Queen’s seal of approval. It will describe what that animal actually is.” His voice changes. “It is not a predator of offspring. It has never taken a child and it is instead a guardian species and I will spend the rest of my career saying so.”

Heat forms behind my eyes. “That’s what you were doing while you were gone?”

“Yes, that’s why I couldn’t answer because I was busy with all of that, and I wanted to surprise you with this.”

“I love you,” I whisper.

He takes a breath. “At the end of that session I requested formal release from the Vow of the Empty Hearth. With cause. It was granted. Entered and witnessed, in the same chamber in which I swore it, by the same council that received it. The Presiding Fellow asked me what the cause was and I stood in front of my peers and told them that I had met a human female whom I wished to take as my bound.”

“You did not. In front of the entire Academy?”

“In front of the entire Academy. And I would like to point out that I did that before I had asked you, which was possibly not the correct order of operations.”

Somebody in the crowd laughs. I think it’s Bane.

He takes my hand in his claw. “Margaret, I am lucky to have met you during your vacation and my latest investigation. You are one of the most honorable and loyal beings I have ever met. The IBB was lucky to have you and they lost a great peacekeeper when you left. And most importantly, you made a vow to me that you did not owe me and you kept it when I could not.”

Oh gods.

“And you made me listen to a child,” he says. “I did not want to. You made me do it anyway. I like the fact that you were a believer and helped me to see beyond my skepticism. We make a great team.”

I can’t say anything at all.

“I have a domicile on the Academy grounds. It is stone with a walled garden and a library. There is a room facing east that gets the morning light between the second and the fifth hour and the opposite wall would take acoustic treatment extremely well.”

I make a sound.

“You would work in it. That is what it is for. I stood in the doorway of that room yesterday and worked out whether the light was good enough for you and whether there was space for a desk and a chair you are fond of.”

I bite at my lip. This man is killing me with kindness.

“And if you do not want it,” he says, “I will come to Salo.”

The lawn goes absolutely silent.

He takes a small black box out of his pocket and opens it. It is a gorgeous ring, a with clear stone with fire in the middle.

He takes my hand. “Margaret Reyes. I love you with my heart and my fire. I want to be the male who puts out all of your flames. Will you remain here on Tarvos as my bound, until days turn into time? Will you walk with me to the courthouse and make it legal? And will you do me the honor of becoming the mother of future Coalstones?”

He thinks I might say no?

“Yes,” I say. “Yes to all of it. Yes.”

The lawn erupts.

It takes a full nanco to settle again, and Vidar has slid the ring onto my finger. I stare at it like a woman who has lost her mind. “Wait,” I say. “Wait. Everybody wait. Sit down.”

Two hundred beings sit back down.