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Angelique’s mind went blank as she froze like a startled rabbit. Her fear, her joy, her paranoia that she might have dreamed the entire fight up—that perhaps her mind had lost it in an effort to shield her from the disappointment of missing him—everything screeched to an smoking halt at the simple, electrifying sensation of his lips on hers.
Except for her traitorous pulse. Which was racing fast enough to outpace Pegasus.
A loud, magic-induced crack sounded, the wisps of a dissipating spell flaring and vanishing too quickly for Angelique to catch.
What…?
Then, just as quick as the kiss had started, it was over. Angelique could only blink up in a bewildered stupor as Evariste suddenly pulled away, something like panic in his expression. To which she reflexively grabbed ahold of his blue-black cloak to prevent him from retreating further and squashed an entirely rebellious spark of—surely that couldn’t be disappointment?
No matter how stupefied she was, Angelique was not letting him go anytime soon. If ever.
(Briefly, she recalled that they were currently standing in the center of Snow White’s half-destroyed throne room, but she really couldn’t muster the effort to care at the moment.)
“Y-you-“ she stammered.
“Angel, I can explain-“
Most unfortunately, her vindictive price chose that exact moment to slam her in the gut like a sucker punch. She doubled over, the taste of bile crawling up her throat, and ripped herself away before she could spectacularly embarrass herself by vomiting all over herself, Evariste, and whatever was left of the throne room.
A few seconds after emptying the contents of her stomach in a most unfortunate vase, Angelique felt hands hesitantly peeling her off the floor where she had collapsed miserably.
Evariste spoke softly at her ear, his voice a hundred times more musical than Angelique remembered. Stars, she’d missed the sound of his voice. “I’m sorry. If you don’t wish for me to-“
She immediately grabbed a fistful of his cloak, wincing a little as the sudden motion caused her nausea to rear its ugly head again. “No, I-“
She clutched the vase close as her stomach gave another spasm. Immediately, he knelt at her side and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, supporting her even as she repeated a rousing encore of her retching performance. Despite her current misery, the burning ember of fierce joy that had flickered into existence the moment she finally pulled Evariste from the Mirror hadn’t wavered in the slightest.
He’s here. No matter what’s happened, or how many questions I still have, he’s here.
The achingly familiar sensation of Evariste’s bright magic bloomed in her mind before the soothing touch of a healing spell sank into her skin…to no avail, naturally. Her price wouldn’t be satisfied so easily. Still, Angelique luxuriated in the sensation before bonelessly slumping to the cool stone floor once more. This. This was fine.
“Why are you so ill?” He scooped her up so that she was now slumped against him. In her delirious state, Angelique let out a brief hum of contentment. This was better. “Is my magic not what it used to be? Were you injured or cursed?”
“What?” Her brow furrowed before she recalled that Evariste understandably would have no idea about her price. “Oh. No, it’s my price.”
As she briefly summed up her price’s consequences, her stomach slowly settled enough for her to regain most of her equilibrium and sense. Which left one rather pressing question to address.
“Why did you just kiss me?”
His gaze suddenly skittered from hers. “Blame it on the moment, if you want.”
“The moment? What moment? There’s no sort of moment that would make me kissable! I’ve just obliterated an army of mindless evil constructs! AND faced down a psychotic talking artifact with no better plan in mind than overpowering it with love.”
(That it worked was besides the point.)
Evariste, meanwhile, had doggedly honed in on the last part of her rant and was seemingly ignoring the rest. “What do you mean, love?”
“I was unaware you needed a definition of love given how often you’ve extolled its virtues to me,” she snarked without thinking.
He was undeterred by her sarcasm. “Are you saying you used your love for me to pull me out?”
“How else do you think out of that blasted mirror?!”
“I don’t know, I wasn’t thinking too hard about the details. And why are we shouting?”
“Because I don’t know how else to process your inexplicable urge to kiss me!”
“Um.” Snow White, bless her, hovered resolutely a few feet away, despite looking as if she’d rather be on the other side of the throne room with Fritz, who was doing his best impression of a human gargoyle watching over his fair maiden. “Angel? Is everything alright?”
“Yes,” said Evariste at the same time as Angelique snapped out a ”No.”
Snow White nodded sagely, as if this made perfect sense. “After your…reunion…I saw that you were ill. Is there anything I can do?”
Angelique shook her head. “It’ll pass on its own, Snow. But thank you.”
Snow’s perceptive gaze shifted to Evariste. The clear blue eyes that had pierced the darkness to Queen Faina’s heart now coolly studied her master’s expensive clothing and his less than polished appearance…and took it all in ready stride. “Your magic wasn’t able to help her, Sir Mage?”
“Unfortunately not. Though not for lack of trying.” He let go of her hair, which Angelique hadn’t even realized he’d been holding out of her face during her retching sessions. In her recovering weakness, she slumped against his shoulder, completely uncaring of her poor public image. Snow had already seen her in far scruffier situations.
“Do you need anything?” she asked Evariste lowly, plucking at the soft fabric of his tunic. Despite her continued befuddlement at his recent actions, she wasn’t completely blind to the way exhaustion hung on him like a second cloak, or the way he kept drinking in the sights and sounds around him like a man rediscovering his senses.
His warm hold on her tightened. “This is fine.”
A thought suddenly occurred to her. Angelique frowned. “Evariste, what was that spell from earlier that I felt shatter-“
“GUARDS UP!” Marzell shouted a warning as four grey-clad figures burst through the window.
Angelique growled. Why was it always something?
~+~
Facing the courtyard, Evariste breathed in the crisp, clear air, thoroughly reveling in his newfound freedom. His core magic, freed after so long, curled around his shoulders, occasionally surging with an uncharacteristically excited air whenever tendrils of Angelique’s silver core magic brushed by. Which was fairly often, now that Angelique had finally stopped bottling up her power.
When the seal had shattered, the little piece of Angel’s magic which had stuck with him for so long had gleefully zipped forward and nosedived straight into his wellspring of power. He truly had no idea what had become of it, though at least there seemed to be no ill effects. His magic was as potent as ever, albeit slightly more…enthusiastic than he remembered it being.
As if pulled in by her orbit, his eyes strayed over to Angelique, who stood a few paces away and out of the path of the wind, idly swinging her bucket of miscellaneous sharpened objects. She immediately met his gaze, her alertness easing into an adorably lopsided smile.
There was a not-insignificant twinge in his heart at the sight, thinking of what harshness Angel must have suffered to force her to develop such constant vigilance. A larger part of him was just content to take in the sight of her, as beautiful as any view he could wish for.
You’re free.
He could hardly believe it still. Not only was he free of his accursed captivity, but thanks to his shamefully wild impulse, his magic had been freed as well.
Never in his wildest dreams did he think he would be able to perform his darkest desire without utterly destroying his relationship with Angelique. By Pegasus’s flaming mane, he had outright kissed her, and her strongest reaction was a slightly agitated confusion rather than the sheer anger or revulsion he’d imagined. Particularly after how badly she had reacted in that disaster of a dream when he had merely attempted to kiss her.
(Though for a nightmarish few minutes, he had been under the painful impression it was his kiss that had made her so violently ill, and not her price.)
This is good. Fantastic, even. If she can still stomach being around me in spite of what I did, I can’t ask for anything better.
He truly couldn’t say what possessed him in that moment, except that for once in his life, he stopped thinking and just…acted.
And had thoroughly enjoyed every second of the stolen kiss, up until his curse decided to shatter into a million pieces, brutally snapping him back to the reality of what it was he was actually doing.
Which was forcing a kiss on someone who once had told him, in no uncertain terms, that such an action was ‘stupid, improper, and downright disrespectful!’
His hand, hungrily skimming the textured worn cobblestone of the palace wall, stopped as a tide of guilt swamped him once more, numbing him far more than the cold of the brisk wind.
Perhaps she wouldn’t bring it up. If there was one thing he could count on for certain, it was for Angel to avoid any discussion of romance, at all times.
“Can we talk about earlier? Please?”
…Or perhaps he should stop trying to predict Angelique’s actions, since she apparently lived to defy his expectations.
~+~
The last thing Angelique wanted was to disturb the momentary peace of the sunset, especially after everything they’d just gone through. But now that the fight was over and her adrenaline had largely faded, she could barely look at Evariste without the memory of his mouth on hers instantly searing itself in her mind, leaving behind a prickly, almost itchy sensation crawling up her neck every time she tried to puzzle out what it meant.
Despite the fact that there were far more important things to concentrate on (like losing the Mirror to the Chosen, for one!) her stupid, illogical mind kept replaying that one moment over and over again like one of Stil’s broken record charms. And whenever she had wrestled her unruly, screaming thoughts into submission, her brain would immediately pull up that other moment from the dreams they had shared, the way his eyes had smoldered as he slowly leaned in-
Enough. Evariste will have a perfectly reasonable explanation for how bizarrely he acted. I just need to hear it, and then I can stop sighing over…this… like some insipid romantic fool and focus on what truly matters.
“Can we talk about earlier?” She ventured forward, hating the awkwardness of the gap that seemed to be swelling like a balloon. “Please?”
Inexplicably, Evariste almost seemed to tense before he tilted his head at her. “You can always talk to me. What is it?”
Angelique drew in a deep breath, fidgeting in place. Rip off the bandage, Angelique. Don’t let this fester.
“You…kissed me.”
There. Straightforward. No room for misinterpretation.
He nodded. “I did.”
Angelique waited, but when he made no further elaboration, the silence left her squirming in discomfort. She scrambled to fill it. “…why?”
His gaze was maddeningly unreadable. “Why do you think?”
“I don’t know! Were you addled? Delirious? Under a compulsion? I wanted to get a clear answer so I could stop-“ She broke off, not knowing how to phrase what she wanted to say.
So I could stop thinking about things that I have no business thinking about. But that’s a dangerous path of thought to travel down.
He hesitated, not quite making eye contact with her. “Kissing you was the only way to break the seal on my magic.”
His.
What now.
“You-you were sealed?” She goggled at him, icy horror trickling through her veins. “But how? When?”
In her agitation, her war magic unwound without her say-so, nudging at him like a particularly worried pet. She was too distracted with this latest revelation to call it back, though thankfully Evariste didn’t seem to mind its intrusion. In fact, she swore he seemed to relax as the silvery magic circled around him, clinging to him like spiky burrs.
Still, the shadows around his eyes were noticeably back as he answered her. “I was sealed with a particularly dark curse before being placed in the mirror, so that I couldn’t use my magic to free myself.”
“But that must have been years ago.” She spat out a strand of hair that the wind had seen fit to whisk into her mouth. “You’ve been cut off for all this time?”
In hindsight, Evariste being sealed off from his magic made a sick kind of sense. How else could the Chosen have held him for so long? But she had just been so relieved to have him back that she didn’t even question how he had his magic.
Evariste continued running a finger along the palace wall, skimming over each dip and divot in the stone with deliberate precision. “Up until you saved me, yes.”
Angelique bit her lip, feeling almost scared as she took a step closer and reached towards him. She lightly brushed his other palm, unsure if he would welcome her attempt at comfort, but he immediately took ahold of her hand, lacing their fingers together with a reassuring firmness that warmed her just as much as the heat charm that bloomed to life.
Stars, I’ve missed him.
“So you were cursed. Then you kissed me. And then it broke.” She was proud of the way she was able to outline the bare bones of the situation without betraying her emotions, but then ruined it with a snort of cynical amusement. “If I didn’t know any better, I would say this sounds ridiculously similar to all the ‘kiss of true love’ modifications I’ve been forced to implement for all those blasted curses.”
She’d been expecting Evariste to join her in laughing at the absurdity, but he remained oddly furtive, watching her almost…carefully?
“Probably because it is similar,” he said slowly.
She snickered again and flapped an arm at the inane statement, the wooden bucket of her sharp objects swinging precariously. “No it’s not. For all those other cases, the parties involved had to be in love. That’s not true for us at all!”
Evariste’s hand tightened around hers.“Actually, I’d say it is true. Or half-true, since I’m the one with the one-sided feelings.”
Her amusement melted away, her forehead wrinkling in confusion. “…I beg your pardon?”
Surely…I must have misheard.
Yet he offered no further clarification, only continued to watch her with an unreadable look.
Waiting. For what? Because the only conclusion to be drawn thus far was…she flicked her eyes down at their linked hands, then up to met his intent gaze.
The bucket of weapons fell from her slack fingers with a loud clatter.
Angelique swallowed, mouth inexplicably dry as something low in her stomach fluttered. “…you cannot be serious. Are you saying you have feelings for me? Of what, love? Romantic love?”
He tilted his head, shadows from the setting sun half sliding across his handsome features. “And what would you do if I were to say yes, to all of the above?”
“I would need to immediately contact Lord Enchanter Clovicus,” she said, nodding decisively, “because you are clearly addled and I am nowhere near skilled enough to be playing around with the proper spells for head trauma!”
He had the audacity to roll his eyes, as if what he was saying was perfectly sound. “Please don’t tell Clovicus. He would undoubtedly club me over the head, causing actual trauma.”
Angelique pulled away from him, mashing her face into her hands and willing the furious fluttering from this stomach-twisting conversation to go away. “You cannot be in love with me. That’s impossible.”
At least now Evariste was starting to sound a tiny bit bewildered. “Why would it be impossible?“
“Because it makes no sense.” She dropped her hands, then immediately felt regret because now she had nothing to hide behind. “Kissing me to break your spell is one thing, but claiming that it’s true love is ludicrous!”
“No it’s not.”
“Yes, it is.”
“Is not.”
“Is too!”
He stared in wordless disbelief, then broke out into breathless laughter, pushing a hand through his windswept hair. “You know, of all the reactions I imagined when I confessed, denial was not one of them.”
“I am not in denial-“ she began hotly, then paused. “Wait, how many times have you imagined-what did you imagine?”
“Usually anger. Horror. Disgust.” He listed them dispassionately, ticking them off his fingers. Angelique narrowed her eyes. His skin looked slightly blue from the cold. Was the heat charm not working? Oh, right, she’d let go of him.
“-and not to mention the rather high probability that you would have socked me in the jaw-
He broke off when Angelique seized his hand and planted a heat charm on his palm, curling his fingers around it. “What are you doing?”
“You’re going to freeze,” she informed him bluntly, before awkwardly patting his hand and retreating. No, not retreating. Just…maintaining some distance. As was appropriate.
“This is what you’re concerned about.” Evariste said wryly, staring down at the heat charm in bemusement. “I am a thousand times more emotionally exposed, and you want to focus on my physical health.”
She glared, feeling far too emotionally fraught herself. Because of him. “You’ve just been freed from half a decade of captivity under horrific conditions. Obviously I’m going to focus on the physical side of things, since I am clearly of no help on the emotional aspect.”
“May I ask why you’re having such trouble understanding why I kissed you out of love? I’ve never seen you so stubbornly vehement on anything besides your own magic.”
She winced. Yet another subject they needed to discuss, and one that was far more important than this ridiculous romantic drivel. Which is why they needed to clear this up as fast as possible before she could stew on it much longer.
Angelique tossed her head to rid herself of the troublesome thoughts. “Because it’s just not feasible. Because…”
Because that might mean I’m someone worthy of being loved.
And wasn’t that an awful thought?
“I just don’t understand, that’s all,” she said finally, wrapping her arms around herself, hating how small she sounded. Angelique turned her face to the darkening horizon, needing some space to put herself back together before she blurted out something she’d regret. Though she kept his figure within her peripheral line of sight, still not willing to trust that Evariste wouldn’t vanish the second she took her eyes off him.
She heard Evariste exhale, his hand coming up to brush her shoulder. “I’m sorry to cause you such distress. I…I acted on impulse. Burdening you with my feelings was the last thing I wanted to do-“
What?
She spun back around, narrowing her eyes as she grabbed the folds of his cloak. “What are you talking about? You didn’t burden me with anything.”
“Because you seem utterly delighted with my confession.” He gently covered her hands with his, but she didn’t move away. “Don’t spare my feelings out of pity, Angel. If you’re upset-“
“I’m not upset with you! You did what you had to do. I’m just…”
She trailed off, unsure how to finish her sentence. She was most definitely baffled. And flustered. And overwhelmed. And above all, she still refused to take Evariste’s so-called confession seriously.
I’m fairly certain any special feelings—like always, she squirmed at the idea—which he’s convinced he has for me are merely a twisted byproduct of his time in the Mirror. Or his curse. Yes, I’m sure that’s all it is. He was just looking for a way out of his curse.
“So…you don’t utterly despise me for kissing you,” Evariste was saying slowly, mismatched eyes wide as if this was some great revelation.
“Of course not!” Angelique protested, feeling unbearably hot and irritable in spite of the low temperature. When had this conversation shifted into how she felt about him? Angelique wasn’t even fully sure how she felt about him! “Why would you think that?”
“Considering how you last reacted when I overstepped boundaries,” he said, raising an eyebrow, “it wasn’t some wild stretch of the imagination.”
She frowned. How she last reacted…?
More heat flooded her face. The dreams-that-weren’t-just-dreams. When he’d leaned so close that sometimes, she still felt the ghost of his breath long after she’d woken up.
Well, I finally got my answers for that after all. And they’ve only made everything so much worse.
“…That was different,” she muttered finally.
“How is it different?” Evariste pressed on. “I tried to kiss you in your dreams and you recoiled as if I were your personal boogeyman. But when I actually kiss you, suddenly you’re alright with it?”
“Because,” She floundered wildly, feeling all but trapped under the light of his probing gaze. She forced herself to let go of his cloak, though Evariste still had ahold of both hands. “There’s a difference between wasting energy dreaming of something that could never happen and it actually happening!”
In the silence that followed, the abrupt percussive blast from the courtyard made her jump backwards slightly, nearly tripping over her bucket. She peered down below, spotting the most peculiar sight of Aldelbert and Oswald with a strange contraption of an instrument and a random horse. A horse with its mane and tail all done up in pretty ribbons and braids like it was a blushing debutante heading off to her first ball. What in the-
I should really stop being surprised at anything the Seven Warriors do.
A line of blue magic suddenly erupted between the balcony and the bedlam below, significantly muting the chaos. Which was probably for the best, since Angelique could see Rupert, face nearly purple with irritation, marching towards the idiotic dynamic duo.
“Please ignore them,” Evariste advised, blazing cerulean magic brimming at his fingertips. There was a growing light in his eyes that Angelique felt like she hadn’t seen in years. “I’d like to continue our conversation, if you don’t mind.”
Drat.
“You are,” Angelique struggled to find a word that wasn’t a colorful swear. “Persistent,” she decided on, all the while trying to persuade her recalcitrant war magic—which had inexplicably perked up when Evariste had unleashed his magic—to settle back down.
“Pot, meet kettle.” Evariste was studying her with a strangely appraising look, almost…calculating? “Just to be clear, you don’t seem to be opposed to the idea of my being in love with you.”
“I am opposed. Someone like you can’t possibly love-“ she faltered.
…can’t love someone like me. You deserve better. You always have.
“…someone who doesn’t feel the same,” Angelique finished lamely, not willing to bare the darkest parts of her soul. “I don’t know what I feel.”
I’ve only just figured out I do love him in some shape or form. I don’t have the mental capacity at this moment to untangle any more than that. Nor can I afford to.
“Still a far better reaction than I’d pictured,” he said lightly, smiling in a manner that only served to make him more handsome than he already was. In that moment, he practically seemed to brim with the brightness of magic. “My fears were more along the lines that you would want nothing to do with me anymore.”
Angelique scowled, gesturing with both arms. “I spent six years scouring the Continent and won an incredibly twisted game of tug-off-war just to get you back. What would have been the point if I went storming off immediately-are you laughing?!”
Evariste, the incorrigible madman, was indeed laughing. At the bright, musical sound, Angelique felt the corners of her own mouth curving upward, and something deep inside her relaxed.
His laughter. That’s one more thing I’ve dearly missed about him.
Despite all the tumult and the currently absurd topic of conversation, Angelique was, above all else, just glad to have him back.
We can talk more later. About my magic, that fight, the war, everything. For now, I just want to keep seeing him happy.
There were so many little details about Evariste that she’d never quite remembered before, like how his fingers were always in some form of motion, or the stubborn way he’d set his jaw, or the little curl of his silky hair that almost fell into his eyes whenever he laughed.
Why am I suddenly thinking about this?
“I also need to thank you,” she hastily said, before she could continue to dwell on further nonsense. She shivered from the lingering bite of a sudden winter breeze as it blew by. Despite the freedom her current outfit offered her and the multitude of heat charms active, she missed her dress.
His laughter faded away, though his eyes still shone with mirth and something indescribably softer. “For what?”
“For always supporting and caring for me, even when—and especially when—I didn’t ask you to.” She drew a deep breath, self-consciousness twining down from her spine to her stomach as she looked down at her feet. “I’m not in love with you. At least, I don’t think I am. But I can finally recognize and accept the friendship you offered to me when no one else would. It meant—and still means—more to me than I can say.”
Angelique didn’t know what she’d been expecting, but it hadn’t been his hands skating down her shoulders as he tugged her into an easy embrace, his arms wrapped loosely around her waist.
“Is this fine?” He murmured, a surprising amount of uncertainty threading through his voice.
In answer, she squeezed him back, shifting her head slightly so she was more comfortably resting against the top of his chest. She felt him press his cheek against her hair in wordless response. In that moment, she would have been utterly content to bask there forever.
This is so much better when I’m not on the verge of hurling my guts out, was her first idiotic thought. Her second was that as warm and comforting as his embrace was, it felt…different from the hugs she’d shared with Quinn or Elle or even Snow.
But why…?
“You’re being far less prickly about this than I thought you’d be,” Evariste mused. The vibrations from his chest as he spoke created an almost ticklish sensation against her ear. “Perhaps I should have confessed far sooner, if this is what your rejection looks like.”
Angelique huffed half-drowsily, like a cat interrupted from a blissful nap in the sun. “This is not a rejection.”
There was a long beat of silence.
Then her head snapped upward as her brain finally caught up to what she had said without thinking.
“Wait, no-“ she croaked, horrified.
“Not a rejection, Angel?” Evariste was grinning devilishly, his blue and green eyes alight with a dangerous gleam of interest that made the hairs at the back of her neck prickle with alarm.
“It’s not what it sounds like,” she rushed out before he could get the wrong idea. “I meant what I said, I don’t feel…that way for anyone right now. Especially when there are much more important matters at hand. That’s what I meant. It’s not a rejection because I’m neither encouraging nor rejecting anything at the moment.”
She was babbling. What was she even saying? She didn’t need to explain herself!
It appears I’ve made a groundbreaking discovery that it is, in fact, possible to dig a six-foot-hole for yourself without any use of magic.
Meanwhile, Evariste's grin had not faded in the slightest as he continued to regard her with a look that was far too sly for her liking.
“What are you so cheerful about?” She grumbled, feeling extremely contrary and far too cognizant of the strange undercurrent of tension rippling in the air between them. “I just said I’m not in love with you.”
“I heard you,” Evariste acknowledged. Though his smirk remained, his eyes hazed over in a way that suggested he was lost in past memories. “But I’ve since learned that even the tiniest glimmer of hope can go a long way when you’re immersed in total darkness.”
Grudgingly, she had to admit that he had a very good point, though it was entirely unrelated to his subject of discussion.
Even at my lowest, I never gave up hope of finding Evariste. That’s what kept me going despite all those years of increasing darkness and evil.
“And besides,” and here Angelique swallowed a yelp as Evariste gently stroked a thumb along her cheekbone and leaned in, so close that their foreheads almost touched, “Just because you’re not in love yet doesn’t mean I have no chance of changing that.”
For an eternity of screaming panic, she had the absurd thought that he was about to kiss her again. But then he backed away with a slight chuckle and the much-needed air whooshed back into her lungs.
“You are being more than a little smug.” She directed an accusing finger at him once she’d found her voice again. “Do you even hear yourself? Who said anything about a ‘yet’?”
His smile only grew more broader as she spoke, and suddenly, she was acutely aware that she was still enfolded in his arms in what others—not her!—might accidentally misinterpret to be a passionate embrace.
Furious at herself and everything in the world that saw fit to keep landing her in these sorts of ridiculous situations, she yanked herself away for some desperately needed space and also snatched up her bucket for good measure, pointedly ignoring Evariste’s laughter at her antics.
Has he always been such a nuisance? She thought crabbily, eying him with suspicion when he only smiled innocently at her in return, no trace of his earlier craftiness. Or am I suddenly just hyperaware of his actions after he’s sowed such ridiculous thoughts in my head?
Now that she’d started moving again, her toes had apparently reawakened and now loudly complained to her that they were very much sick of being encased in rough, oversized boots that had already withstood being marched through two separate battles. She shuffled her sore feet, hoping to alleviate the aching, and felt rather than saw Evariste’s gaze drift downwards.
“Perhaps we should head inside,” he said.
Angelique shook her head. “It’s fine, I know you crave the outdoors.”
“I crave any different sensation at this point.” He offered her a wan smile. “I saw you shivering earlier as well; you must be cold.”
“Stil practically drowned me in heat charms, I’m fine.” Just beyond spoiled by my dress. The dress you gave me, in fact. “I’m more concerned about how you’ve only got the one.”
He tilted his head to look back at the darkening twilight, the faint dusting of stars not yet visible in the evening sky. “Even the cold is a welcome sensation compared to the horrific emptiness of my imprisonment.”
The velvety blue of the shadows did nothing to soften the haunted look that crept into his expression.
Angelique reached out, then hesitated, her hand hovering over his arm.
Should I ask him more about it…? But I don’t know what to say. He’s been through so much already and mere words can’t possibly soothe the kind of pain he experienced. She gritted her teeth. But I can still try.
She inched closer, carefully not looking at him as she slipped her hand into his.
“Regardless of your delusions of being in love with me-“
“Still not a delusion.”
“-your insensible emotions that have no probable cause,” she said more loudly, determined to drown him out, “I’m not leaving you. Not now, not ever.”
His smile didn’t return, but the bleak look in his eyes receded somewhat and he turned their joined hands over with a faint sort of surprised wonder.
“I feel the same,” he said quietly. “No matter what the Chosen throw at us, we’ll face it together?”
Feeling awfully sentimental, she leaned against his side, interlacing their fingers more firmly together in an effort to convey that unique sense of home he had always provided for her.
“Always.”