“I lost track of time on the other side of the Fade. Did I miss the coronation?”
“Not yet.” Rinni guides me into the tunnel. I hear the rumbling of a mass of people on the other side of the castle doors. Rinni opens them with a flash of her eyes.
I step into the castle and, for the first time, I see color. Tapestries of bright blues and vibrant greens stretch from ceiling to floor, hung along the wide columns that support the large entryway. More garlands of flowers are hung from the railings of the mezzanine.
Vases of flowers line the great hall behind the gathered crowd. Men and women of all colors and shapes are here and all their eyes swing from where the Elf King stands on the stairs—presumably having just been giving a speech—to land on me.
But his eyes are the only ones I focus on. His mouth is slightly agape. Shock has shattered his usual mask and he stares in a stunned silence.
I know there are important people here—lords and ladies. People of his kingdom, our kingdom, if he’ll let me share it with him. I know I’ve come before them with dirty knees and in what they’d consider pauper’s clothing. I know that I had one chance to make this first impression count and I ruined it. I have ruined Eldas’s years of planning, sacrifice, and suffering leading up to this moment. None of this has gone according to plan.
I didn’t even think of what I was going to say. So I open my mouth and say the first thing that comes to mind. I let my words echo to the top of the hall.
“King Eldas, I love you!”
Chapter 39
The silence is deafening. I could hear a cherry blossom petal land it’s so quiet. I don’t know what everyone’s reactions are. The only person I’m focused on is Eldas. The only person whose opinion even remotely matters to me here is him.
His shock fades into something I’d dare say is warm. After the initial horror at my outburst—at how none of this is in line with his traditions—fades away. There are the eyes I recognize. Eyes I fell in love with and have been longing to see while back in the Natural World.
“And I love you,” he says, finally.
Four words, and things click into place. I have a lot I need to figure out here. There are a lot of unknowns surrounding what I will be to this world now that a Human Queen is no longer needed to make the seasons turn. But I’ll figure everything out, because the man standing before me is every possibility I want to embrace.
“If—” Eldas clears his throat “—if you will all excuse the queen and I for a moment.” Eldas holds out his hand and I cross the room to him, trying my best to glide and hold my head high.
I might not look like the queens they know. But maybe in time they’ll embrace the different sort of queen I already am. I slowly ascend the stairs and Eldas’s fingers curl around mine. My magic calls out to his and invisible sparks fly between our skin, leaving me breathless.
He escorts me up the stairs and into a side room, closing the door quickly behind us.
Eldas rounds on me. I might have expected him to be slightly cross for how I handled things, but there’s a fire in his eyes that isn’t angry in the slightest. His hands are on my face, cupping my cheeks. “Say it again,” he whispers like a sigh of relief he’s been holding ever since I left.
“I love you,” I repeat from earlier, but this time only for him. “I’ve loved you since the cottage. Since…I don’t know when. Somewhere along the way I fell in love with you. You and I…these circumstances we met under have been a bit of a mess. But I love you despite them all.”
“Then why did you stay away?” he whispers. “Why didn’t you tell me before you left?”
“Because I was a coward,” I admit aloud for my sake and his. “I was afraid that I only thought I loved you because I had little other option. I thought the love was fabricated for my own survival, since I thought there was no other way out—that I would be stuck here forever. I was afraid of a love that came from a lack of choice. I was afraid I didn’t even know what love was because I