great old wood, coiling and digging themselves deeply.
"Good luck, daughter," my mother whispered, and her hand pulled free of mine, leaving me alone. I stepped back once and took my seat on the throne, deaf to the clapping, the cheering, my gaze full of the future.
I giggled, tossing a fistful of charmed coins into the street, seeing the shimmer of the metal catching the sunlight before leaping hands claimed them from the sky. The carriage bumped along the main road of the capital, crowds packed together. Flowers were tossed over the heads of the guards marching alongside us, just as my Chosen and I threw coins back into the hands of my people.
"My people," I murmured, suddenly stunned, staring into one face and then the next as they cheered at our passing.
Large warm hands wrapped around my waist, drawing me back until I was seated on Cresswell's lap. Cosmo took my place at the edge of the carriage, and I caught my breath, watching the glitter of coins in the sky, the roar of voices in my ear. Then a soft pair of lips pressed in closer.
"You did it, my queen," Cresswell said, voice gravelly and dark, my eyes falling shut and a slow smile stretching over my lips. "Are you happy?"
Camellia came first to my thoughts with a pang, my grandmother too, every ache of the journey to this point rising slowly up in my chest. Becoming queen hadn't been simple or sweet, and I wasn't the girl from a year ago. Kimmery wasn't the kingdom I'd imagined while growing up. But it would grow and heal, and so would I.
"I am," I decided, twisting on Cresswell's lap and helping myself to his heady kisses, sinking into him as his hands mapped my form beneath the feathered cape.
"Save it for the ground blessing," Aric called to us, laughing from the opposite bench of the carriage.
"As if she couldn't have both," Cress grumbled, but he turned his kisses into pecks along my jaw, back up to my ear, and turned me back to the others, steadying me as I stood in the wobbling carriage and grabbed another two fistfuls of coins.
"We don't know how far these will go," I said to Aric, tossing them into the air, watching the crowd hurry to catch them.
"We don't," Aric said, looking wickedly pleased with the notion. "But it's fair to say there's more magic going into Kimmery than going back to Noren with Holden and Kenneth. A little magical commerce might do the kingdom good."
"To magic and commerce then," I said, throwing another shower of charmed coins, adding a little extra boost of magic to them and grinning as they transformed into bright yellow and copper butterflies, drawing gasps from the crowd.
"To you, Bryony," Aric said, wearing a half-grin.
The moon was high and so full in the sky, it almost looked as though it might burst above us, but it lit the large tent in the field that had been erected for the blessing.
I was grateful for the cover of night because just looking at the space made me blush.
"Are you nervous?" Owen teased, ducking to bump his head against mine.
"A little. I know I've never been the most modest, but it's very??ransparent, isn't it?" I asked. "The one at the festival at least had proper curtains."
There were bonfires erected past the four corners of the tent, an odd collection of nobles, officials, and commoners gathered together around the field to observe the ceremony. If it could be called that.
Aric pushed the door of the carriage open and leapt down first, Daniel following just after him, their hands outstretched in offering to help me down.
"I think between the seven of us, we can safely guard your modesty," Aric said.
"You liked being watched at the ball," Daniel added, smirking just a little.
I swallowed hard, but I didn't deny it.
"Forget the audience, muse. Forget the magic and Kimmery too, for that matter. Just take tonight to celebrate what you've achieved," Cosmo said and then grinned. "With us. Naked."
Laughter burst out of me, and I shook off my nerves, accepting Daniel and Aric's hands and stepping down to the cool earth. We'd ridden in the carriage for most of the day, north out of the capital and through the towns that bordered it, until we'd reached farmland. I didn't know if the magic we made tonight would reach all the way to the north, but it would ensure that the soil here in the heart of