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Tears welled in my eyes at the thought of being without her for any length of time beyond today, now that I knew her heart beat.
“How will I know? She cannot rise alone.”
“She will not be alone,” said Casamir. “The fae will help her. By then, she will be fully one of them…one of us.”
My gaze snapped to him, but he did not look at me, as if he did not wish to know my reaction to this news.
He rose abruptly and left me beneath the willow.
I lingered a moment longer and pressed a kiss to the willow roots, whispering, “I love you. I’ll come for you. Ipromise.”
When I left the eaves of the tree, Casamir stood at the center of the meadow, Balthazar waiting nearby. To an untrained eye, he looked menacing and dangerous, but I knew the truth.
I started toward him but stopped a few feet short of reaching him.
“Why did you do this for me?” I asked.
“Because it was what you wanted,” he answered.
I shifted on my feet, swallowing hard.
“And what do you want?”
I thought he would reply quickly, but he waited a moment, and when he answered, he spoke slowly, almost uncertain. “I would like to keep my name.”
“Why is your name so important?”
“It reminds me of who I was and who I have become,” he said.
“And you cannot remember all that if you choose a new one?”
He nearly flinched, and I wondered what tumbled around inside his head as I spoke. I stepped closer, careful, as if I were approaching a predator. I stopped inches from him, our heads inclined, the tension between us thickening, a weight I could barely breathe beneath.
“Is it the name you truly want?” I whispered, my eyes lowered to his lips.
“There is nothing else to desire beyond a true name,” he said. “Yours or mine.”
His words confused me. “Not even love?”
Casamir’s brows lowered. “Are you taunting me?”
“No,” I said.
He stared at me and then let his finger trail softly over my cheek, warming my skin.
“Could you love me?” he whispered.
The question stole my breath and burned my lungs in the silence that followed.
I wanted to answer, to whisper yes into the space between us, but I was afraid.
What if I confessed but he could not love me in return?
Did it even matter if I was content to spend my days with him?
His features grew cold and distant, and he took a step back. The tension that had built around us burst, leaving my limbs weak.
“We should return,” he said and crossed to Balthazar.
