told her. She lifted her eyes away from our hands and met my gaze. I smiled softly. "You've always been. Ever since we met at that stupid convent."
She rolled her eyes. "It was not stupid," she retorted. "You just have an issue with authority."
I laughed. "Now that you're Queen are you going to hold it over my head?" I asked.
She smirked. "Perhaps I will."
"Ha." I shook my head. "Good luck with that. I've got three Princes to contend with and they've got magic."
"Yeah, but they also have the poor intelligence to be in love with you, too," she shot back.
"Yes," I said, unable to stop the ridiculously wonderful smile from overtaking my face. "They do."
"What I wanted to say," Nellie began again a moment later, "was thank you."
I blinked and frowned at her. "For what?" I inquired.
A sigh left her lips and she shook her head lightly. "For … it's hard to say what it is, it's more than one thing," she confessed. Her hands squeezed mine tightly as she beseeched me with her gaze. "Thank you for being my friend," she said.
"You don't have to thank me for that—" I started, only to be cut off as she kept going.
"Thank you for being my sister. Thank you for believing in me. Thank you for coming back for me, and Cress..." She paused and then dragged me forward—with far more strength than I expected in her small body—into a hug. As her arms wrapped around me, Nellie turned her cheek and pressed it to my shoulder before whispering the last of her thank yous. "Thank you for being you."
Tears assaulted my eyes. My tongue swelled and stuck to the roof of my mouth. There was nothing more I could do but accept her hug. I tightened my hold around her and reached up to cup the back of her head, stroking my fingers lightly through the curls her new lady's maids had no doubt spent all morning trying to perfect. I was sure she wouldn't mind if I messed them up a smidge—this was an emotional moment after all.
I sniffed hard as one of the tears escaped to cascade down the side of my face. When we pulled away from each other once more, I realized I wasn't the only one affected. I touched her face, grinning as her tears overlapped my fingers. Her face, even splotchy and red, was lovely.
"You are going to make the best Queen Amnestia has ever seen," I promised her.
Nellie's hands reached up and slipped over mine. "Will you be with me?" she asked.
It was an impossible question with a bittersweet answer. Because after what had happened on the battlefield … after the full breadth of my powers had been awakened, Roan, Orion, and Sorrell had explained what that would mean for me. An average Fae often outlived the lifespan of several humans. I wasn't an average Fae. I was the last of the Royal line of the Court of Brightling. Nellie was wholly and completely human.
My lips parted and I uttered an oath to her that I would take into her grave and then my own. No matter what else happened to this world, I would keep this vow unto my dying breath.
"I will be with you for as long as you need me," I said to her. "And when you no longer have that need, I will pass it on to your children and your children's children. For as long as your blood remains in this world, I will honor and protect it."
More tears came, pouring down both of our cheeks and, when the last of the words of my oath—sealed with an unspoken magic, a promise to a friend—Nellie pushed forward and hugged me again. We stayed there like that, for several long moments—clinging to one another until the lady's maids came back and the sound of their outrage and horror over Nellie's ruined hair and makeup forced the two of us to part with laughs.
"You're still coming to the coronation, right?" Nellie asked quickly, her eyes seeking reassurance as she was gently prodded back towards the corridor.
"I wouldn't miss it for the world," I said. She paused on the threshold with each of her arms engulfed by one of her maids and then with a brilliant smile, she nodded back to me and disappeared to ready herself for one of the biggest days of her life.