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His hands stilled, then he wrapped her in his arms, leaning his cheek against her hair.“Or it could be that you’ve been living through extraordinary changes.We both have.Unless I can blame the pregnancy for last night?”he added with a hopeful note, as if excited by the possibility.
She giggled.“You are the great and powerful wizard Phel.You can do as you like and no one will question it.”
“Except those things the Convocation doesn’t like,” he reminded her.
“True.”She sighed, feeling safe in his arms and knowing it for an illusion.“Gabriel, we should discuss the probability that my father will arrive to retrieve Alise, in force.That’s likely to happen first, and—”
“Shh.”He kissed her cheek.“No war planning yet.I want this moment with you.Watch.”He gestured over the sea of fog, glittering and billowing in soft blues and ivory as the sun rose over the trees.A chorus of birdsong rose in greeting, the air suddenly filled with their music and the scent of rain-washed vegetation.Tendrils of Gabriel’s magic stirred the mist, encouraging it to stream away.
Revealing a meadow of deep crimson blossoms.
Nic gasped as the flowers stirred, lifting their petals to the sunlight in an almost audible susurrus of movement.The color stood out vividly, almost shockingly, against the misty green of the shallow valley and the rounded hills surrounding it.
“Blood poppies,” Gabriel murmured, nuzzling her cheek.“I learned yesterday that they had begun to bloom.Your lips have always reminded me of them.”
Her heart shivered at the romance of that.“I don’t deserve you,” she whispered, wishing desperately that it was otherwise.
“Funny, I often think the same thing.”
She turned sideways, facing him, searching his face.He kissed her, lingering over it.“Blood poppies,” he whispered against her mouth.Then he lifted his head.“I may not deserve you, but I love you.”
“I love you, too, Gabriel,” she replied in a hush.“So much I think it might break me apart sometimes.I want to deserve you, too.”
His lips curved in a crooked smile.“That sounds like a good goal for our marriage.Let’s spend our lives trying to deserve each other.”
She had to laugh.“Shall we put it in the wedding vows?”
“Yes,” he answered, then kissed her again, with such leisurely thoroughness that she forgot everything for a while.
