Winter's Bride - Candace Wondrak Page 0,57

with a bunch of cats or something.

Alas, somehow life had something else in store for me.

I was married to both Ishan and Abner, spending half the year with one and then the other. Around and around the cycle went, the years blending into each other. I wouldn’t trade it for the world, though I did often catch myself wondering what would happen when I got older, if they would find another girl to share or if I would hold their hearts forever.

Death was the great equalizer for humans, after all. Rich and poor, royal or commoner… it came for us all, and no matter what you did to try to outrun it, you never could.

I didn’t go back to visit my family, though I did go with Ishan to find my sister. We stayed invisible, of course, so we didn’t interfere with anything. Ember was happy; she and Sorsha had followed up on their plan to run off together. They didn’t build a cabin in the middle of the woods, but they did make it to one of the bigger cities in the kingdom, a place with high stone walls and marketplaces that were the size of our village. A place where people were a bit more accepting of those who were different.

It was hard, at first, being separate from them. When I was with Ishan, we were usually in his castle, and the same when I was with Abner. That didn’t stop the other from randomly popping in, and it made for some somewhat awkward times, but we made it through.

I was happy. I was loved, and I loved in return. I would not let the fear of the unknown stop me from enjoying my life and what it had to offer—and right now, it had two handsome gods who would bend over backward if I asked them to.

I sat with Ishan in the castle’s garden, the sun shining brightly overhead. Summers had grown to be more stable, less oppressive in its heat and occasional thunderstorm, while winters had become less prone to freezing entire herds of livestock. The people in the kingdom were better off, I think.

The garden was a beautiful space, full of flowers and insects buzzing around, birds swooping from tree to tree as they chirped. Ishan sat beside me, a blanket beneath us and a plate of fruit before us. Ishan’s dark skin was dotted with sweat, but a dimpled smile lined his face all the same as he picked up one of the strawberries and made it out like he wanted to feed it to me.

Right. Very sensual.

Not.

I still didn’t think I was beautiful enough or graceful enough to merit the loyalty of these two gods, but I’d learned not to linger on it, to simply live life to the fullest while I could.

I bent my head back, giggling as I bit into the strawberry. A juicy thing, yet utterly delicious in every way. Much like the Summer god lounging next to me. Some of the juice splattered down my chin as I took a bite and chewed, and Ishan grinned as he leaned closer, his tongue flicking out, licking up the juices off my skin.

Turning my head slightly, although my mouth was still full, I kissed him. I had to pause to swallow the strawberry, but after that, I kissed him more, throwing my arms around his solid frame and pulling us down onto the blanket. I wore a thin sundress, the kind of dress I used to wear in my old village; regal ballgowns were beautiful, but what was the point if it was only me and my husband?

Things were just about to get heavy when a cough rose in the air. Ishan and I pulled apart to see Abner standing there, looking quite out of place in the warm sun, as he always did. He wore his ivory fineries, his white hair swept to the side, a bit windswept from the breeze. He looked every bit of a king, of a god, as he should, and perhaps it was due to what Ishan and I had been doing, but I felt my stomach clench in the best of ways gazing up at him.

“I don’t believe she’s yours quite yet,” Ishan mused, reaching for another strawberry and biting into it, giving his brother a mock glare.

Abner made himself comfortable on the blanket with us, giving us a smile—though that rare, elusive thing was mainly for me. Some days I’d catch him looking as sad as he used to, but those days had become few and far, far between. “Calm yourself,” he said, plucking one of the berries off the plate, “I only came to visit.”

It was a game they liked to play; who could show up at a more inopportune time? It wasn’t an official game, but sometimes it sure felt like it.

I gave Abner a grin, scooching to lean closer to him. Though he was busy eating a strawberry, I placed a soft kiss on his cheek anyway, whispering, “It is good to see you, my love. I’ve missed you.” The next time I kissed him, it was on the lips, and he tasted sweet and warm, just like the strawberry had.

I know. Winter tasting warm? It was almost unheard of.

Ishan made a gagging noise, and I pulled myself off of Abner, returning to my place near Ishan. “Oh, sorry,” he said, “it’s just that I don’t like watching you two together when it should be my time—”

“Right,” Abner spoke, lifting a single white eyebrow. “Because you’re the king of space.”

He wasn’t. Ishan found every little excuse to pop into Abner’s castle when it was his half of the year with me. If not every day, every other day, at least. It was kind of funny, their back and forth, how they still occasionally tried to one-up each other even though they already had me.

“Point taken, brother,” Ishan muttered, his grin never dimming.

Abner made a big show of looking all around, at the garden around us, all of the multi-colored flowers in bloom. There was life here there simply wasn’t at his castle, and a wistful expression crossed his face. “I wish my garden could look like this, instead of snowy and icy.”

“I told you I could help you with that,” Ishan said, referencing the time he’d offered to whip up a little magic and make Abner’s castle warmer. Abner had declined, though I could tell he was thinking about it again. “A wave of my hand and I could melt all that snow, if you’d let me.”

“Hmm” was all Abner said.

We remained like this, all three of us together in the garden, for quite a while. We joked, we laughed. It all felt perfect, and honestly, I wouldn’t change a single thing. My life had turned out exactly the way I never knew I wanted it to, but that was the fun of it.

Sometimes, life threw something at you that you weren’t expecting. Sometimes life offered you a hand—or two—when you needed it. Life was fun, unpredictable, and crazy, but all that aside, I was glad I didn’t turn into the village recluse. I had my gods, and they had me. Together, we would create something new.

As Abner and Ishan joked with each other, I smiled. Unconsciously, I found myself setting a hand on my stomach. I’d felt something in me shift, but I’d wait a little longer just to be certain. I’d had my doubts, of course, whether they could instill new life in me, whether it would be viable. Maybe it was because they were magical, but I swore I felt it the minute it happened.

Soon enough, things would change. That’s another thing about life, I guess: it was ever-changing, never stopping, no matter what it threw at you.

Life found a way, and we would handle it the only way we could.

Together.

Reader, I hope you enjoyed this little novella! Fantasy isn’t a huge sell for me, but I love writing it.

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