of red brick illuminated by the soft glow of yellow lamps flickering on. Richard tried to nonchalantly guide Elizabeth where he wanted to go—not back to their shared apartment but to the odd little triangle where Yesler Way and First Avenue met, at the heart of oldest Seattle. He floated as if above himself, his feet barely touching the sidewalk. As he grew closer, Richard could feel the portal beneath his feet less than a block away, thrumming with the magic that bound both his world and Annwn together.
When they came to the triangle, with its large iron pergola, Tlingit totem pole, and towering ancient maple trees, he gestured to one of the benches that offered tourists and the homeless a place to relax.
“Let’s sit.”
“Okay…?” she agreed curiously.
He sat next to her, his palms damp. He suddenly felt oddly solid again now that he was sitting. “This is where we met, remember?”
“Doesn’t seem so long ago, does it?”
“Feels like yesterday.”
She cast him a worried smile. “Is everything all right?”
As he slid off the bench onto his bended knee, he stared into her eyes and pulled the jewelry box from his pocket.
“I have loved you from the moment we met, here in this very place, a grad student giving directions to a new girl in town,” Richard said, the practiced words spilling out of him “When you said yes to a drink, I had no idea how lucky my life was to become. Now I do, and I want that luck to last to the end of my days.”
He paused, regrouping his shaky voice, and opened the box for her to see the glimmering diamond set in a simple band of polished white gold.
“Will you be my wife, Elizabeth Anne Welles?”
The glow from her cheeks spread over her entire face. Eyes shimmering with tears that were threatening to fall, she nodded vigorously.
“Yes,” she said, smiling brighter. “Yes I will, Richard McAllister.”
Fumbling in pleasurable panic, Richard took the engagement ring and slid it over her finger. Almost before he had finished, she pulled him up by his shirt and kissed him tenderly, joyful tears now staining his cheeks as well as her own. The dampness that had broken out over his body gone, Richard embraced the moment and the love of his life, the fear he had had replaced by giddy completion.
As the colors of the sunset faded to black, the two intentioned just sat and reveled in the moment, watching people lost in their own thoughts and dreams walk by.
Elizabeth stared at the ring. “It is odd, not having any family to call and tell.”
“I am your family now.”
“Merle will want to know, I’m sure.”
Richard looked away, toward where Old World Tales presented its wares to the public. Merle had warned him about falling in love, marrying, trying to have a family. The life of a knight in any age of the world was difficult, made more so by connections to loved ones put in danger by the close proximity of creatures that would see the knight and those close to him dead. Merle worried about the growing relationship between Richard and Elizabeth and how it would put her life at risk, but it was ultimately Richard who had made the choice to marry. Merle could do nothing to prevent it.
“You would give me anything, right?” she asked suddenly.
Richard nodded, hearing the earnestness in her voice. “You know I would.”
“Well, I’ve always wondered…”
He smiled. “Yes?”
“I’ve always wondered what it would be like to hold the weapon you carry.”
“You know I can’t do that,” Richard said, suddenly serious.
Elizabeth leaned closer to him, her blue eyes mesmerizing, hypnotic. She smelled like lilacs and vanilla, intoxicating. Fire stirred in his loins like he had never felt before, electric and passionate. He grew dizzy, lost deeper in her eyes with every breath. The triangle and greater Seattle dropped away, fading into a gray soup. Only Elizabeth remained, needful of his full attention, and he desperately wanted to give her anything and everything her heart desired.
He had never felt like this before—drunken yet functional, wanton but paralyzed.
The power of her eyes compelled him, made him want to obey.
As soon as he was about to answer her request and draw Arondight from the ether, caution screamed. Something was wrong. The memory of Merle warning against allowing anyone to touch Arondight surfaced and stayed his hand, fighting his impulse to give her what she requested. It dampened the power of her gaze, cleared his mind enough for him