Текст книги "Alien god"

Автор книги: Ursa Dox

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An elated lightness expanded in my chest. I wasn’t the only one who had to play a part in this ruse – so did he. And in doing so, he stripped himself of so much of his hold on me.

A muscle feathered in his cheek.

“I am aware.”

I decided not to get too smug, not to revel in this fact too obviously. I figured there was a good chance that if I annoyed him too much, he could just send the Sionnachans away and then he’d be able to treat me however he wanted all over this castle without a care for who saw.

“What kind of timeline are we working with? Can we go see this council tomorrow?” Now that I knew freedom, and my friends, were within reach, I couldn’t stand to stay here. But Wylfrael brought my hopes back down to the ground quickly.

“Tomorrow? Certainly not,” he scoffed. “I have to be sure you can succeed in your role before we attempt to go before the council at Heofonraed. Your first real test will be seventeen days hence, at the gathering of the gods.”

“Seventeen days? That long?” I asked, deflated. Almost three weeks as his fake wife, and we wouldn’t even see the council until after that.

Wylfrael gave me an odd look.

“You mortals always astound me with how you perceive time.”

“Yeah, well, when you don’t have much of it, you don’t want to waste it. Especially not with the wrong person.” I glared meaningfully back at him, but he merely smoothed a hand over his hair, unruffled.

“There are many things you do not understand that I must weigh in this,” Wylfrael said, lowering his hand. “Many things that I must balance. I cannot rush this – we must both be ready. But I also cannot wait too long. There are certain signs that could eventually appear and prove that I am not truly mated.” He looked down at his glowing arms and then back at me. “I also do not want to give Rúnwebbe too much of a chance to gather whispers about our plans.”

“Who’s Rúnwebbe?” I frowned, looking around the space, suddenly fighting the feeling we were being watched. “What do you mean by whispers – can she hear us? Is it someone in the castle?”

“That is not exactly how it works,” he said. “She cannot hear us, and no, she is not here.”

“Then how would she learn about our plan?”

“Every action, every word, every whisper of every living being sends out signatures of energy into the cosmos,” Wylfrael explained. “Rúnwebbe catches these echoes of energy in her web, and she constantly sorts through the threads, absorbing all that knowledge. But she has thousands of worlds’ worth of whispers to comb through every moment. She has to find where a whisper is woven to understand it, to learn what has happened somewhere out there. Even if her web catches whispers of what we’re doing, she won’t necessarily find out right away. And even then, she’d have to tell another stone sky god for it to even matter. Most stone sky gods go to her bearing gifts for their own purposes. I doubt any would go to her to press for information about my mate.”

His voice snagged slightly on the word “mate.” A fierce emotion bolted down his face, but it was gone in an instant.

“So, the webbing you put in my ear that allows me to understand you...”

“Yes,” Wylfrael confirmed. “It was from the web of her world. You should now understand anyone who ever speaks to you, no matter the language. As long as the language existed when that bit of webbing was torn away, that is.”

I shook my head slowly and reached up to touch my ear. What he was telling me was more incredible than anything I’d ever learned in my entire career. The fact that there was an alien being out there capable of sorting through every single happening in the universe without leaving her own planet was astonishing. It also proved that there were even more types of alien life out there, capable of things we couldn’t even hope to comprehend. I continued rubbing my ear, amazed and, frankly, fucking humbled, by the fact I would now be able to understand every single language spoken, not just the thousands of human ones out there, but alien ones too.

This was exactly the sort of thing that had led me into studying astrophysics. The desire to come up against the huge, sublime concepts shaping the universe.

I just never thought I’d end up marrying an alien god to get there...

I met Wylfrael’s gaze steadily.

“When you put the web in my ear, it hurt.”

He tensed, wings twitching, but I continued speaking, not wanting him to interrupt.

“I was angry. Really angry. I mean, I still am. About a lot of things. But, I guess I also want to say, ‘Thank you.’ You may have only given me the web to interrogate me and to make sure I understood all your commands, but even so...” I tapped my ear. “This is a gift. I’m grateful for it.”

Wylfrael looked surprised by my words. Then his face softened, which made me feel completely off-balance.

“You’ll be able to understand some animals, too.”

My eyes widened.

“Are you serious?”

What he’d said seemed impossible – a miracle. Something I’d fantasized about as a child, a half-forgotten dream. A dream that quickly faded when I realized, “Oh, but the sontanna? I didn’t hear anything...”

“Sontanna are notoriously quiet creatures,” Wylfrael replied. “They communicate more by scent, and body language, than sound, which makes the webbing largely useless. It doesn’t work for all animals, only those intelligent enough to communicate distinct ideas using complex sounds.”

I nodded eagerly.

“Yes! We have animals capable of that on Earth. Dolphins, whales.” I couldn’t stop a disbelieving laugh from escaping my parted lips. “I can’t believe I’d be able to understand a dolphin now! I mean, if I ever saw one again, anyway.”

“It’s not the same as the way you and I understand each other now. You won’t usually hear long sentences, and of course, they won’t understand anything you say. But it’s possible to pick up certain words.” His mouth pulled into a grimace. “Most often, those words revolve around food. Or are variations of, ‘Get away from my nest.’”

This made me laugh again, harder this time. And then I laughed even more, gasping and giddy, when I considered just how absurd this whole situation had become. Wylfrael, my alien captor, wanted to marry me, and was now telling me I’d be able to hear animals talking to me? That, coupled with the image of Wylfrael striding powerfully through his forest only to be told off by some territorial, squawking mama bird had me doubling over, tears forming.

“Why are you suddenly laughing so much?” Wylfrael asked suspiciously as I wiped my streaming eyes. “Keep your wits about you. I can’t go presenting a half-mad human as my wife.”

My wife.

The laughter died instantly. I took a deep breath and slowly let it out, knowing that what I was about to say would change everything.

“I accept this bargain. I’ll... I’ll marry you.” I placed my empty cup down on the floor, then stuck out my hand, ready for him to shake it like we’d just closed some sort of business deal.

Wylfrael reached forward and clasped my hand in his huge, warm one. Obviously, he didn’t know about shaking hands. Instead, he rose to his feet, pulling me along with him until we stood facing each other, our palms sealed together.

“Oh, my little human bride,” he murmured, his words sliding like cold satin down my spine as his eyes caught mine in a tunnel of blue fire. “You speak as if you ever had a choice.”

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CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE Wylfrael

After escorting Torrance back to her chamber for the remainder of the night, I did not sleep. I paced the room, making plans. The first thing will be to tell the Sionnachans the glorious news, I thought with a grim smile. Their lord is engaged to be married.

As soon as dawn warmed the walls, I left the room, knowing Aiko and Shoshen would be awake. I headed for the kitchen, assuming they’d be there.

I was right. I heard Aiko’s trilling voice as I crossed the entry hall towards the kitchen.

“Where in the merciful snows of Sionnach have those knives gotten to?”

“I don’t know! I haven’t touched them.”

“Well, you’d best help me look, and quick!” I smiled at Aiko’s command of her younger brother. “How am I supposed to cut the lord’s bread without a knife?”

A note of anxiety entered her voice at that last part, which wiped away my smile. It bothered me that these young Sionnachans would be so worried about pleasing me, or not pleasing me. They didn’t know me well enough to realize that I cared little about things like whether my breakfast bread came pre-sliced.

I stiffened, wondering if, rather than not knowing me well enough, it was because they’d watched me with Torrance. Watched my anger towards her, the way I’d made her a prisoner when imprisonment was a concept almost completely foreign to them.

“Calm, Aiko,” I said, stepping into the warm, fragrant kitchen.

Shoshen and Aiko both spun at my voice, flattening their ears.

“Forgive me, my lord! I did not realize you were awake yet! Breakfast will be ready momentarily. I just need to find-”

“The knives?” I raised my hand, slowly bringing them down from the high shelf to the counter. “I apologize. I moved them last night and did not think to tell you. There was a... moment with the prisoner. I thought it better to move anything sharp out of her reach.”

Aiko’s green eyes went wide as stone saucers.

“You think she would have used them, my lord?” Aiko gasped. “On a person? I must admit, she’s been nothing but good to us, despite the circumstances. I brought her dinner last night and could understand her for the first time; she thanked me, and spoke kind words to me.”

I gritted my teeth, fighting the urge to caution Aiko, to tell her not to believe Torrance too much, that it was likely a show to gain their trust for some nefarious purpose. But I’d have to push down that sort of thinking now. I needed to prove to everyone that I loved Torrance, that I trusted her implicitly. That probably starts with the knives, I thought, eyeing them on the counter. If Torrance was to be my wife, I couldn’t hide kitchen objects from her like she was a child.

I thought of her face when I’d suggested she might hurt a Sionnachan. There had been instant shock and horror at my words, the kind not easily faked. No! she’d said. I’d never hurt Aiko and Shoshen! I thought also of her shining, gentle joy at being with the sontanna, and her hopeful excitement about being able to understand animals. It seemed there was maybe some true goodness in her after all.

I rather wish there wasn’t.

But at the very least, I did now think it was unlikely she’d hurt one of the Sionnachans. Her goodness aside, she seemed clever and at least somewhat reasonable. Now that she’d accepted our bargain, and her friends and freedom were at stake, she wouldn’t ruin it with something that wouldn’t help her situation, like using a knife on someone.

The knives stay there, then.

A new anxiety seemed to have entered the Sionnachans. I watched them closely as their gazes went from the knives to me and back again, their tails bushy with nervous energy.

“What is it?” I asked them.

“Well, my lord,” Aiko began uncertainly, her ears flattening, “I cannot imagine you were happy about Torrance – the prisoner – getting out and trying to use a knife for something. Is she... is she... still here?”

They think I killed her.

“Yes,” I said forcefully, feeling oddly dizzy all of a sudden. “She’s fine. She’s upstairs, and will require breakfast, as always.”

Aiko and Shoshen both relaxed visibly. This was more than just their Sionnachan abhorrence at the idea of killing another person. They’d grown to like Torrance. That irked me, but I reminded myself it was actually a good thing. It would make our ruse all the smoother going forward.

“Speaking of Torrance,” I said, trying to keep my voice calm and firm, “she is no longer a prisoner.”

A bolt went through the siblings.

“My lord?” Shoshen asked, and Aiko’s face echoed his question.

I cleared my throat, trying to figure out exactly what sort of emotion to let through. Should I appear happy? Relaxed? Grave? Mates were a serious matter, after all. Blast. I talked about Torrance failing in her role, and I’m already floundering just trying to tell two Sionnachans!

I settled on a smooth, serious tone, as if I were merely touching on some necessary part of daily life, mentioning some bit of the castle that needed repair or the status of the weather outside.

“She is no longer a prisoner because she is my mate. We will marry.”

The siblings stared at me as if they hadn’t quite understood what I’d said. Finally, Aiko was the one who spoke first, a tentative smile touching her orange and white face.

“My lord! Congratulations to you both! A wedding, oh, that is cause for celebration indeed!” Something turned quiet and nostalgic in her voice. “We were always told, growing up, about your father Cynewylf’s great love for Sashkah. To think that you are now following in his footsteps, finding your fated bride in the very same place – on Sionnach!”

I, too, had noticed the parallels. But the differences were more worthy of note. My parents had starburned for each other. They had been true mates and had always set before me the example of what a husband and wife should be. Loving. Respectful. Diligently devoted to one another and to their child.

My wings tightened, and with no small amount of pain, I thrust the memories of their love away. I couldn’t think about them now – it made me feel too much like I was doing something wrong. That this sham of a marriage in the house they’d built was some sort of dishonour to them. And it reminded me too much of what I’d lost. Reminded me I’d never have what they’d had.

“Thank you,” I said, my tone clipped. I decided I’d not bother trying to look happy about anything right now. I’d just plough forward with the things that needed to be done. Leave the pain abandoned at the back of my mind. “She will no longer be confined to any chamber. Whatever she needs or asks for will be attended to as if I had asked myself.”

“Of course, my lord,” Shoshen and Aiko said in unison.

“She will need new clothing, not just simple garments made from those bits of plain fabric I brought back from Hoshta’s. An entire wardrobe befitting the wife of a stone sky god,” I said, beginning to pace the room, taking refuge in the practical making of plans. It helped distance me from the tangle of uncomfortable feelings inside me. “And, of course, she will sleep with me, in my old chamber in the Eve Tower.”

Suddenly, making plans no longer felt like refuge but like danger. She will sleep with me. Of course, she’d have to stay in my room as my wife. But the reality of that was beginning to sink down upon me, like a bird landing on me and digging in hot talons. Torrance in my chamber. Torrance in my bed...

Aiko and Shoshen closed and opened their fists, uttering words of acquiescence. Luckily, they accepted everything I was telling them without question. They’d never met me before a few days ago, and other than childhood stories, they knew little of my parents. Despite my sudden misgivings, they did not doubt anything. But I’d have to get better at this. A stone sky god, who knew the reality of starburning much more deeply than they did, would cast a keener, more critical eye over our union. Seventeen days...

That long? Torrance had asked miserably.

I now worried it wasn’t long enough.

Once again, the need for distance came over me. If I could just fly and breathe in the cold air, I’d be able to settle myself.

“I will go to Hoshta’s in the village,” I said suddenly. “Right now. I will return tonight.” I reminded myself to bring coin this time, and lots of it. To settle the previous account and to buy new fabric for my bride. There was a dark, ticking point of pleasure at the idea, somewhere deep in my guts. I ignored it and tried to tell myself it was simply the satisfaction of finding a way to play my part. It would be expected that I lavish her with gifts, and buying a bunch of silk and leather was much easier than contemplating the reality of Torrance in my bed.

My satchel was filled to bursting with coins when I took off for the village. It was enough to buy out Hoshta’s entire blasted store, and I knew I’d spend it all. I could already anticipate the whispers spreading through the village, the Sionnachans’ reactions to the extravagance.

But Lord Wylfrael’s bride was here at last. And she would have nothing less than everything.

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CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO Torrance

A sound at the door woke me. I groaned, rolling over, warm light seeping through my eyelids.

I wonder how late it is...

I opened my eyes, squinting in the orange-pink brightness.

The sound at the door returned, a soft tapping sound followed by a hushed, “My lady? Are you awake?”

My lady?

I sat bolt upright, heart pounding as last night’s events played in my head, a vicious loop like a movie fast forward and rewound. I was engaged. Fake engaged. To a proud and demanding alien god.

He already told them.

Why else would Aiko knock now, when she’d always entered unbidden before? And she was calling me my lady...

I’d have to nip that right in the bud.

“Come in!” I called shakily. I smoothed my hair, a panicky, half-asleep gesture, as if my bedhead would somehow detract from the image that I was truly Wylfrael’s mate. I swallowed hard, telling myself that the bargain began right now. I had to succeed at this. I had to.

Aiko entered with a tray full of food. She smiled, something she’d done before, but then flattened her ears, something she hadn’t. At least, not to me. I’d noticed her do it in front of Wylfrael, though.

“Good morning, my lady,” she said, bringing in the tray and setting it down.

“Oh, please, don’t call me, ‘my lady,’” I said. I didn’t care if that was supposed to be part of the illusion of our marriage – I couldn’t stand it. And I was from a whole other planet, after all. Wanting to be on equal footing with the Sionnachans could just be considered one of my human quirks.

“Oh! If my lady wishes! Ah, I apologize, miss, ma’am, my...”

“Just call me Torrance, please,” I said. “Thank you so much for the food!”

I slid out of the bed, still an incredibly awkward task because of the height of the furniture. Aiko observed my movements, then delicately said, “I’ll be sure that the lord’s chamber – I mean, your chamber – will have a stool beside the bed.”

“The lord’s chamber?” I froze, halfway between the bed and the table where Aiko stood.

Aiko’s fur, tinted pink in the room’s light, shifted as she cocked her head at me quizzically.

Oh, no. Had I already messed up?

“Ah, yes! Wylfrael’s chamber. My chamber. Yes. Of course.” I grinned widely, babbling and nodding. “Yes, thank you. A stool. That would be fine. Thanks. Yes.”

Aiko smiled, and I breathed an internal sigh of relief. She’d only just started to understand me last night, no doubt due to more of that webbing, and she didn’t know my human speech patterns well enough to know that I sounded like a fucking idiot right now.

The bastard could have warned me, I thought, my smile turning hard. I assumed he’d be in here first thing this morning, ready to coach me and hammer out all the details of this new arrangement. But instead, he’d already gone ahead and made all these changes and decisions – including moving me into his room! – without even telling me.

We are going to have a talk when he gets back, I vowed as I seated myself in one of the huge chairs at the table. The Sionnachans may call him lord, but I won’t. I will have my say in how this all plays out.

Although he’d already set the expectation with Aiko and the others that we’d be sharing a chamber, and I’d just confirmed it, so I didn’t think I’d have much say on that particular matter now. Well, he can sleep on the fucking floor, then.

I must have been scowling, because Aiko’s voice turned tremulous with something that sounded like distress.

“Is the breakfast not to your liking, my – Torrance? I can make you something else right away!”

OK, first I need to have a talk with Aiko.

“The breakfast is great, thank you,” I said, relaxing my face. “Would you sit down with me for a moment?”

Aiko hesitated, then did so. It was much easier for her tall frame to fold itself into the chair than it had been for me.

“Aiko, I want to make something clear right now. I may be about to-” Oh God, oh my fucking God, “-marry Wylfrael, and he may be a lord of some kind, but that’s not me. That’s not how I grew up. You don’t have to worry about pleasing me or anything like that. In fact, if you wanted, we could be something more like friends.”

Aiko’s tail fluffed behind her, and her eyes got big.

“Sorry,” I said quickly. “Not if that’s weird for you.” Shit. Maybe that was inappropriate. Was I her boss now? But then again, she’d helped Wylfrael when I was a prisoner, so who the hell was to say what was appropriate now?

“No, that would... that would be lovely, thank you,” Aiko said, smiling. It got bigger, turning into a grin with sharp little teeth. “You don’t know how dreadful it’s been around here with only my father and brother for company for so long! We haven’t had another woman here since Osha left, and that was back when I was a child.”

“What about your mother?” I asked.

“She died when I was very young. Shoshen barely remembers her. But I do.”

My throat got hot.

“Me too,” I said thickly. “Mine died when I was just a baby. It was just my dad and me until... well, until very recently. Did you say your father is here?”

“Yes,” she said. “You have not met him. His name is Ashken.”

“Well, I look forward to meeting him then.” I pursed my lips, studying her, wondering how long the three of them had been alone here. “So, how does this work, exactly? You’re employed by Wylfrael? Are the Sionnachans tenants on his land?” His title of lord made me think of historical British lords who had vast lands and earned income from renting the farmland.

“Oh, no. Nothing like that. Wylfrael owns this castle, and the surrounding forests, because they belonged to his mother’s family. But no Sionnachans live on his land. Well, besides the three of us now. And yes, we are employed here. We are paid by the estate’s coffers.”

“OK... But how does Wylfrael have so much money then? Where did it come from?” If he wasn’t a lord in the sense I was used to, then how did he pay these three? I certainly hadn’t seen him doing anything that looked remotely like work, unless you considered bossing me around to be work. Which he probably did.

Aiko gave me an odd look.

“You... Forgive me, Torrance, but you really know very little of the stone sky gods.”

“Please! Enlighten me! I feel like I have no idea what’s going on half the time!”

“I... I should not. That should be something your husband tells you. It’s his history.”

I felt my expression sour. Wylfrael hadn’t even told me that he was putting me in his room, who knew how forthcoming he’d be about all this?

“Just tell me about Sionnachan history, then. Tell me about the things that have happened on this estate. That should be OK, right? You’re not telling me anything secret.”

“I suppose that would be alright. You do live here now, too.” She looked so happy at those last words that I felt a pang of guilt about the fact that if I had my way, and our plan worked out, I wouldn’t be here for long.

“Many generations ago, a stone sky god appeared in our sky,” Aiko began.

“Hold on. Sorry to interrupt, but what do you mean, appeared?” I leaned forward, my elbows on the table, as I gazed intently at her.

“He opened a sky door to Sionnach. We knew nothing of the stone sky gods before then.”

Holy fucking shit.

“Are you telling me,” I said slowly, “that he came here, flew here, from another planet?”

“Yes, exactly. That’s one of the stone sky gods’ many powers.”

I kept my mouth shut, but barely. I’d seen Wylfrael emerge from the sky myself, but I assumed he’d come from somewhere nearby. Not another fucking planet!

But then again, how would he have visited Rúnwebbe? She was on a different planet, too...

“What’s a sky door? How do they create them? They don’t even wear suits or helmets or anything?!”

“Ah, I’m sorry, I don’t know the answers to these things. Would they not be better explained by Lord Wylfrael?”

Impatience made me want to press her, but I didn’t. But my dear future husband better be ready for some very serious questions from this astrophysicist. Starting with, what the actual fuck?

“OK. Sorry. Please go on,” I said.

Aiko closed and opened her fists in a gesture I was starting to realize was something akin to a human nodding “Yes.”

“This stone sky god was Lord Cynewylf. He found his fated bride here, a Sionnachan woman named Sashkah. They married and had Lord Wylfrael.”

“So that’s why Wylfrael has some Sionnachan features. His mother,” I said.

“Yes,” Aiko confirmed. “The three of them lived here together until the Lord and Lady died.”

“What happened?” I asked, feeling a twinge of unwanted empathy for Wylfrael that he’d lost both his parents, just as I had.

“Lady Sashkah simply grew old. She passed of natural causes.”

“And Wylfrael’s father? I thought the stone sky gods were immortal?”

Aiko gave me another odd look. She hesitated, then seemed to decide to continue with what she wanted to say.

“Not the mated ones.”

She must have seen the confusion on my face. Her fingers twined against each other fretfully. “This really is something you should hear from the lord, but... but since it is something that affects you and your life together, and it is common knowledge among any familiar with the stone sky gods, I will explain as best I can.” She took a small breath, as if organizing her thoughts.

“The stone sky gods are immortal creatures. They can travel between worlds and move materials with nothing but their minds. But their immortality ceases once they claim their fated bride. A stone sky god’s lifespan becomes inextricably entwined with his mate’s, and he dies the moment she does.”

No wonder Wylfrael doesn’t want to find his true mate and needs to use me instead, I brooded. The bastard wants to hold onto his immortal life!

“What happens if two stone sky gods marry each other? Do they just both stay immortal?” I asked.

“Oh, no. Stone sky gods are all male, and they only produce male offspring. They must find their brides on other worlds.”

I mulled over her words, taking a tentative sip of the sweetened milk drink. It was missing that edge of spice from Wylfrael’s late-night recipe, and I hated to admit I liked his version just a little better than this one. As I drank more, Aiko continued speaking.

“Anyway, Lord Cynewylf found Sashkah here and married her, but he’d already lived many generations before then. Untold mortal lifetimes to engage in trade and collect wealth from different worlds. This was all passed down to Lord Wylfrael, and has sustained the estate in the lord’s absence.”

“His absence?” Right. He obviously hadn’t been here when we’d arrived in our ship. So, when he’d appeared out of the sky, he’d been gone a while, then. “Was he off trading or something, like his father used to do?”

“Oh, no. No, he was in battle. Or, recovering from it, from what I understand. His cousin, Lord Skallagrim, went mate-mad and crashed through the sky into our world. Lord Wylfrael fought him to protect my ancestors and dragged him through a sky door and away from here. We have had no news of him since then. Most Sionnachans assumed that he was dead.”

So, he can be killed, then. It’s just extremely difficult.

“Wait a second,” I said, my mind going back to a detail I hadn’t fully absorbed when Aiko had first said it. “He protected your ancestors? How long was he gone for?”

How long has my future husband been alive?

“He has been gone for many Sionnachan generations. I had never seen him before his return a few days ago, and neither had my parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and so on. But we were always taught that the great Lord Wylfrael might return someday. We have not neglected our duties, even for a moment, in case he came back. Which he now has. With a bride of his own, no less!”

I had even more questions than before, but I held them back, trying to sort through all the information Aiko had already shared with me. I made mental notes of subjects to come back to when I had a clearer head, things to try to get out of Wylfrael if he’d tell me. Like what going “mate-mad” was, and what had happened with this Skallagrim character. And just how the hell he travelled across the cosmos without any kind of technology or protection or anything that made sense to my human scientist brain.

“Thank you for telling me all this, Aiko,” I finally said, smiling, feeling tired already even though my day had just begun. “I imagine I’ll have a lot of questions as I get used to things here.”

“Of course, my – Torrance. And I will have questions for you, too. Especially once we begin planning the wedding.”

Oh, God.

“Is there much to plan?” I asked with a sudden feeling of dread. “What’s involved with a stone sky ceremony?” I kind of figured it would be pretty simple. Like signing a business contract or something.

“I don’t believe there is such a thing as a stone sky wedding,” she replied. “Stone sky gods adhere to the cultural traditions of their bride’s people in marriage ceremonies. At least, that’s what Lord Cynewylf did. So that means...”

I choked on my next sip of milk, coughing violently when Aiko cheerily proclaimed, “We’ll be planning the first human wedding in Sionnachan history!”

Jesus fucking Christ.

A human wedding. Me, in a white dress, walking down the aisle to him. Wylfrael, my groom. Now that the image was in my mind, I couldn’t get it out. He stood there inside my head like he owned the place, vivid and severe in a luxurious, perfectly tailored black suit, his white shirt crisp, his tie a pale fire-blue to match his eyes.

In my mind, he held out a hand for me. His lips parted, and he said words that I didn’t have to imagine because I remembered them. Words he’d said to me just last night. Words that represented my salvation and my greatest trial.