The Rising (The Rising #4) - Kristen Ashley Page 0,24

not get angry at a legend for doing what makes her thus,” he finished.

“I-I just…well, I didn’t do anything more than what Elena does all the time.”

His brows shot together. “And that makes it less important, what you did today?”

I didn’t have an answer for that.

“The veil protecting The Enchantments was falling. The Enchantments would have burned. With the veil down, the parts that didn’t would have been vulnerable to attack along the entire Airenzian border. If you and Farah had not intervened, even if we routed their warriors easily, we could not have saved a nation,” he decreed.

“Well, I guess that was pretty…excellent of me and, erm, Farah.”

He grinned down at me. “Yes, it was pretty excellent.”

I didn’t think it was a good idea to remind him of my next, but much had happened that day, and the day before, and the months before that, and I knew we were likely not close to done.

Thus, I wanted it all to be out now, rather than have Mars rethink his reaction to this occurrence, which would mean we would revisit it.

“You did not want me close to danger,” I reminded him.

“I did not, I do not,” he agreed. “And I did not when I did not know you could wield fire, also when I knew. You are treasured by me, and if my choice was omnipotent, I would have you live your life reading your books and concocting your extraordinary gowns and the most vexation you’d experience is attempting to design a seating chart for a royal dinner that won’t have warring clans spilling blood in our dining room. I am not omnipotent. But I am fortunate. There have been many times, my Silence, since I met you that you have surprised me about me.”

“I have surprised you about…you?” I asked.

“Indeed, for one year ago, if you told me my heart would be taken by a petite, raven-haired beauty with skin as pale as pearls and eyes of mercury, who was smart enough to observe before speaking, think before doing, except when it came to chasing through the forest after traitors, I would call you mad. Indeed, but a week ago, if you told me my wife would go chasing through the forest after traitors, I might have been moved to find some way to intern you so you would not harm yourself. But now…now…”

The banking flames burst anew in his eyes as he dipped his face closer to mine.

“Now, my Silence, you must answer me. Do you matter?”

I felt my throat close as I stared up into his flames.

“Tell me, my love, do you?” he pushed.

“Yes,” I whispered.

“You did before,” he stated. “I am just glad now you see the strength of it as I have always seen, and yet it grows more day to day, from the first moment I laid eyes on you.”

“I very, very much love you, my darling husband,” I told him with no small amount of fervor. “And you must know, you are treasured by me too.”

“This is good, for I very, very much love you, my beautiful, brave wife.”

Beautiful and brave.

I smiled up at my king right before he kissed me.

But he was Mars. As much as we both enjoyed the kiss, I had my back to the damp leaves, and being Mars, he had a mind to that.

Thus, he finished the kiss all too swiftly, pulled us both to our feet, and murmured there were decisions that needed to be made so we must join the others.

However, as he walked us to where they were huddling, I noticed something I’d never quite noticed before.

It had been there, it just had not dawned on me.

As my husband moved with me tucked close to his side, he did this with a pride of bearing that had a great deal to do with who he was, what he was, and how he was.

But he also did it because he had me on his arm.

He was proud of what I did that day.

But truly, he had been proud of me since our beginning.

Because there was something of which to be proud.

And this something was…

I was me.

127

The Women

Tedrey

Abandoned Stable, Twenty Miles West of the Ancient Ritual Grounds

WODELL

Tedrey stood next to Moira, one of the young women who had been rounded up by Fenn and Thom to sacrifice in order to surface the Beast. She had been the one who had first helped him release the other girls.

And they were all still with him, seven in total, either