Page 97 of Stolen Threadwitch Bride
“I hope you find its contents even more beautiful.” I cupped my hand beneath his. “You just have to use the command to access the moving images.” I pointed to the wordNightembroidered on the pouch. If I said it now, I’d trigger the stone and I didn’t want to do that when he wasn’t ready. It might take a few days before he was used to the idea—it had been so long since he’d seen them.
I had to swallow past a lump in my throat before I could say the next words. “Each stitch contains a memory of your parents.”
His mouth dropped open on a soft gasp. Eyes glistening, they turned to the stone and skimmed over it. “But there must be a hundred stitches… more… I…” He shook his head. “How did you…?How?”
“With help. Sylvie, Hil, Boyd, Sallis, and Hobb all added their memories and favourite moments. Then I had Sylvie take me to your neighbours and some folk from court to ask them to add to it.”
His eyebrows rose. He understood how hard facing strangers had been for me, that it was something I couldn’t have even dreamt of a few months ago. Hopefully, it showed just how much he meant to me.
“They all agreed with only token bargains.” Little things like asking me to pass Ly their well-wishes. I’d been prepared to offer much more to get those memories. “Your parents were well-loved. I wish I could’ve known them.”
A muscle feathered in his jaw as he nodded and caught my hand. “One day, in the great beyond, where I’ll meet yours, too. But perhaps before, you can visit these memories with me?”
“I would love that.”
“Ari…” He shook his head and put the stone back in its pouch. “Thank you seems woefully inadequate.” He lifted me and rested his forehead against mine. “But woefully inadequate words are all I have. Thank you, Ari.Thank you. My love, my evening star, the best bargain I ever made.”
We were both smiling as our lips met, but that soon faded as we tangled together and our breaths heaved.
My hand went to his chest, seeking. In my throat, my thighs, my entire body, my pulse pounded. It was an asking call that his heart answered, throbbing against my palm, hard and sure.
With ease, he sat me on the workbench and cupped my head, angling us together. My husband, my love, my night kissed me thoroughly, breathlessly, gloriously, then he made me his and gave every part of himself to me.
* * *
After,we lay entwined, and he pulled a blanket from the armchair over us. “Hmm, you know,” I murmured, cheek on his chest, hand resting over his heart, “we’re going to need another chair in here.”
“Oh?” He raised his eyebrows, one hand stroking my hair, drawing the strands between his fingers.
“For when you come and read to me while I work. I can’t possibly manage without that.”
“Really?” He grinned, canines indenting his bottom lip. “Only just married, and here you are,sucha demanding wife.”
Wife. It buzzed through me, warm and sparkling like magic.
“Oh, dear, husband.” I shook my head. “Didn’t my list of requirements for the workroom give you a clue?”
His chuckle was a rumble under my cheek, against my chest. “I should’ve known. And yet you’re entirely worth it.”
That filled me. I was worth it. I was enough—for himandfor myself. I’d spoken and I’d been heard and seen. I might never like large groups of people or loud noises, but I would not be silent or cowering again.
We fell quiet for a while, just our breaths and his heartbeat in my ear. His heartbeat that would go on so much longer than mine.
“I’ll be sad to leave you, you know.” I said it so softly, I wasn’t sure if he would hear, but he shifted and peered down at me, frowning.
“Why? Where are you going?”
“Not for a long time yet, but… there’s no escaping it—I’ll go long before you.” I couldn’t bring myself to saydie. Not when we were in such a happy place with so much to look forward to for decades yet.
“Ah, you mean the brevity of human existence?”
Despite that happiness, my eyes stung and my vision blurred. I nodded.
“You know you’ve been living in fae lands and eating fae food for months now? Didn’t you pay attention to the stories?”
The threat of tears faded as my eyebrows knotted together. “Wait, what? You said the food was no harm to me!”
“It isn’t. But it will lengthen your life, keep you healthy and youthful. And…” He licked his lips as though nervous and traced the edge of my ear. “If you wish, there’s an element of marriage—a private ritual. I didn’t ask yet because I thought the proposal and the wedding might be too much alongside asking you to—”
