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“I’m more than a memory now, love,” I whispered, and I saw something thaw in his eyes.
He brushed his fingers down my face. “Aye. But I hope we’ll be making memories for the rest of our lives.”
What started out as soft and sweet quickly devolved and somehow, at some point in the shenanigans, we made our way back to the bed.
By the time Valen and I finally fell asleep in a tangle of bedsheets, the sun was peeking over the horizon, and I felt utterly spent. Fantastically used and tucked safe and warm in Valen’s arms.
And when I woke later that morning, he was still there beside me, looking the most at peace I had ever seen him.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Well, this is all very nice,” Florence said as the four of us sat around the next afternoon. “But what are you going to do about it?”
“What do you mean?” Apollo asked.
She rolled her eyes. “I mean, how do you plan to sneak around behind our world’s eyes and ears. Apollo and I will go to the ends of the earth to help you–”
“Team Apollo and Florence,” I snorted, and she glared at me to shut it.
“–BUT,” she continued as though I hadn’t spoken. “But we’ll only get so far.”
I shrugged. “I guess we cross that bridge when we come to it.”
“Do the two of you plan to get married in secret and then be all ‘surprise Archer, fuck you’?” Florence asked.
We could, but it wouldn’t solve anything. Being married wouldn’t suddenly make Valen immortal or invulnerable. It wasn’t something I enjoyed thinking about.
“I don’t know,” I said more vehemently. “Can I not just enjoy the now?”
“What if we offer Valk up instead of me?” Apollo asked slowly, like he was still working out the details in his head.
Valen looked at him quizzically. “What do you mean?”
“I mean you in my place. With Rex.”
He wasn’t the first person to suggest that an official alternate marriage contract might be enough to at least convince my dad to break the contract with Archer. When Marco had suggested it, I took it with a grain of salt and didn’t think much of it. Now, I started considering it more seriously. But I wasn’t the only one who’d have to agree to this marriage before they’d finished school and, for all Valen’s words and promises, he hadn’t said anything about the practicalities of long-term.
“I can’t just risk throwing everything away on a whim, Apollo,” I said gently.
But it was Valen who interjected. “It’s not a whim, love. You are not a whim. Any other couple at our age wouldn’t have to go this far yet, but–”
I knew what he was saying. “We’re not any other couple.”
He shook his head. “No. You’re contracted to marry. I have to offer you at least the same.”
“You don’t have to–”
“Yes, I do. I want you – us – and the only chance our world’s going to let that happen is if I offer to marry you instead.”
“Valen…” I started, looking him over.
“I’d have done it anyway, love. It’s just a little earlier than I planned.”
Florence cheered, but Apollo nudged her quiet, even if he did wear a ridiculously large grin.
I smirked. “Earlier?”
Valen shrugged coyly. “I was all in from the moment you told me you’d have me on my knees worshipping you. My heart bowed to you that day, even when my body couldn’t, and it’s never fucking got back up again.”
