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Heavens, my heart beat too quickly for all the wrong reasons. A child was what I’d wanted for so long; the thought of cradling my own, feeding it from my breast, kissing it—
But I couldn’t want it with him.
I didn’t.
I paced my breathing, which helped clear those thoughts that would only drive me into useless hysteria. “Thank you for rotting Anna.”
He offered a low grunt. “Don’t ask it of me again beyond our agreement.”
Oh, but I would.
I might have forever failed at escaping Enosh, but that was a small price to pay in exchange for children to find rest and peace. Smaller yet for what I set out to do during my eternal life—to open the Pale Court to the dead. But how?
Once we returned, Orlaigh and I needed to have a chat.
“You should have negotiated for my silence if you didn’t want me to ask it of you again,” I said. “I might have settled for less.”
“I might have offered more.”
A genuine smile curved his lips, offering a strange sight with how it smoothed away the edges of his usually severe face. Had he been like this before the loss of his unborn child? Could he be like this again?
As if he’d seen the question in my eyes, his features hardened, shutting me out, as though he decided I’d seen enough of him. “This search for the temple is starting to bore me.”
“Over there.” Untangling myself from his grip, I pointed left toward the sunstar peeking from the treetops of scattered pines. “Guess I can no longer call myself your whore since I’ll be your wife.”
He clicked the horse into a faster pace toward the temple. “You’re about to wed the King of Flesh and Bone. Correct me if I am mistaken, but that, my little one, makes you a queen.”
That shut me up until we reached the temple grounds, which turned out to be nothing but a shrine inside a small building of whitewashed brick. Few graves scattered to one side, most weighted down with boulders. To the other side, a small cottage lay quiet, although a candle flickered in one of the small windows.
Enosh rode up to the door, giving it two hearty kicks with the heel of his boot. “We are in urgent need of a priest!”
Inside, furniture moaned and plates clanked.
The door swung open and a moment later, a man poked his gnarly nose out. “Who dares disturb my silence during such ungodly an—” Stumbling back, the man made the sign of Helfa as he blinked at us from underneath thick, white brows. “This cannot be…”
“Are you what they call a priest?”
“A priest is what you seek…” The old man scrutinized Enosh for long seconds. “Father Leofric is my name. A priest I am, yes.”
“Prove it.” Enosh dismounted, seashells crunching underneath the impact before he pulled me down and draped me over his arms. “You shall wed us before your… god as we take our vows as husband and wife.”
Father Leofric stood mute for a moment, his eyes flicking between us and the stack of books on the table beside the door. As much as he recognized Enosh, word of his presence might not have spread to this quaint place in the woods yet.
“You are the evil that plagues these lands, as depicted in the holiest of books,” Leofric said, his voice thin and shaky. “I cannot possibly wed you before the eyes of Helfa.”
“You will either see to our wedding or I will see to your funeral, mortal.” The threat in Enosh’s voice had the man’s neck shorten by an inch. “Choose, Father Leofric.”
A faint wail escaped the old man before he stumbled for his Tome of Helfa, which rested on a wooden holder on a shelf. “Vows, yes, yes, yes. The King wishes to be wed… Where is my… ah—”
Father Leofric haphazardly draped a gold-embroidered stole over his shoulders and slipped into his brown, hooded cape before he grabbed the holy book. Then he stopped and eyed my dress. “Does your bride not wish to don her blue?”
I looked at Enosh. “The bride has to wear blue, the color of innocence.”
“If a blue gown is what she requires, then she will have it,” Enosh said. “Lead me to the place of this… ceremony.”
“Right this way, if you will.” Father Leofric dipped his head, waving toward the shrine. “It’s small indeed, erected almost one hundred years—”
“Inside then.”
