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“Did you know?” Juliana asked. “About the two of us? It appears that most people did.”
Maytree’s smile widened. “I knew he liked you. Infatuation, perhaps. A little more as the years went by. It was clear he enjoyed your company, and that he cared about you. You… I was less sure of. You’ve always been so guarded. When he was injured, I suspected a little more, but duty and love can often be confused.”
“Of that, I am now quite aware.”
Maytree looked over towards her son, smiling and laughing among his subjects. “You deserve each other,” she declared. “He has grown into a man worthy of you. All that is left to do now is formeto become a mother worthy ofhim.” She stopped, smiling downwards. “I’ve the better part of forever to work with, I suppose.”
The better part of forever.
Juliana wondered how long she’d live, now that she’d shared her heart with Hawthorn andmarriedhim—become a princess of faerie. Mortal girls never did this. There was likely no way of telling how she’d been altered.
Time would tell.
Hawthorn came back over to her, still grinning. “Mother,” he said, “I’d like a word with my wife, if I may?”
Wife.
“By all means,” she said, patting his cheek as she passed.
Hawthorn stood in front of Juliana for a moment, as if startled by her presence. “Enjoying the party, wife?”
Juliana grinned, an action that had become more natural to her these last few hours. “Actually, I think the party might be getting a little dull. I was thinking of retiring to bed.”
Hawthorn’s smirk widened. “Would you like company?”
“Only if it’s yours.”
Hawthorn linked his fingers into hers, and tugged her away up one of the concealed staircases. There were no guards on duty, no one at all. People had abandoned fear.
They snuck away to his chamber like they were being chased, giggling like schoolchildren as they locked the door behind them. The vines trailed round the bedposts and curled around Juliana’s fingers, blooming at her touch.
They had never done that before.
“The vines seem to like you,” Hawthorn remarked, appearing behind her. “They already seem to know you’re their future queen.”
Queen.Queen.She would be queen one day. She hadn’t even thought of that.
“I doubt you’ll be considered exactly human anymore,” Hawthorn continued. “The vines alone seem proof. You may never be quite Fae, but you may well live forever, and… and you’ll be able to leave Faerie, and find it again. The borders shall open for their queen.”
Juliana could say nothing to this. The thrill of freedom paled beneath the chance to be with him, but to have both…
Something was still niggling at her. “You ran away,” she said. “After you… after your confession. I can’t exactly blame you, but you didn’t come when I ran after you. Or… or the next day, when I really, really needed to talk to you—”
Hawthorn frowned. “You came after me?”
“You didn’t hear?”
He shook his head. “I didn’t hear you the day after, either. I just… sat there in the dark, not thinking or listening or doing much at all. Not until I saw you were in danger.”
Juliana bit her cheek. He hadn’t abandoned her, not at all. The connection between them… he must have put up a wall, subconsciously, not thinking. He had never meant to ignore her.
A smile twitched in his cheeks. “Why did you come after me?”
“You’re an idiot if you don’t know why.”
“Well,” he said, finally closing the door behind them, “you have often called me an idiot before…”
“I don’t imagine that will change.”
