Carriages bustled in and out of the square in preparation for the coming ball, weaving in and out of trees glistening with some kind of green fruit that appeared to have been dipped in sugar like the leaves in the Garden of Wings.
Water swelled below them in ripples of ebony and frothy white, crashing against the boulders near the shore. The salty spray made her heart beat faster. They were here. They were finally here.
She grabbed Jon’s hand as he came up behind her and tucked her to his chest.
“It’s magnificent, milady, don’t you agree?” he said at her ear, making her shiver.
She sighed against him, stealing yet another moment where she could be close to him. “I’ve never seen anything quite as beautiful.”
“I have,” he admitted in husky tones. “You, last night, with the fire gracing your perfect form and the serenity upon your face as you slept beside me.”
“It had to be the pillows. It feels like a hundred years since I slept on a pillow,” she teased, closing her eyes and smiling.
“Naturally, it had nothing to do with my quick aptitude at beginner’s bedsport.”
“Bedsport? I forgot all about that,” she joked, nudging his ribs with her elbow.
He turned her in his arms with a chuckle. “Tell me something, milady.”
Toni rolled her eyes at him. “Are you going to make me rate your bedsport performance on a scale of one to ten?”
“Nay,” he muttered, his eyes serious. “I’d like to ask you a graver question.”
“Rating the bedsport isn’t grave?”
“Toni…” he warned, letting her know he was done indulging her.
“Okay, fine. Ask away.”
“If it ’twere possible, would you live with a man such as myself—one without riches, in a small cottage in a clearing without phones or intor-nets or coffee spouts, and help me raise reindeer? Could that make someone like you, from a vastly different world, happy?”
Resting her cheek on his chest, she smiled against the hard surface. “Coffeepots. Not spouts. And yes…I think I could.”
“This is good to know.”
“Hey, are we doing the regrets thing? I thought we made a pact?”
“Nay, milady. I simply ask in order to stroke my vast ego,” he said on a rumble of laughter.
She laughed as her cheeks flushed despite the bitter cold. Lifting her head, she gave him a soft kiss, fighting the butterflies in her belly. “No regrets, right?”
“Not a one,” he said against her lips.
They’d decided to see what they could see rather than focus on when or if this would all end. Nothing was set in stone at this point. The king and this happiness she was supposed to find hadn’t been handed down yet.
She gnawed on her knuckle, thinking.
“What troubles you, Toni?”
“Just a feeling, I suppose. Here we are, finally at the castle, and this Queen Angria still hasn’t shown up. Why is that? You’d think after a couple of unsuccessful attempts to kidnap me, we’d have run into her by now.”
“Nay. The queen does not dirty her hands with such matters. She leaves that to her henchmen.”
Something just wasn’t sitting right with her. “Okay, so did she just give up? Call it a day? Realize there’s nothing I have that she wants?”
“This I do not know. Not even with all the asking I’ve done around the forest. However, you are here now and safe, and no one will harm you in the king’s care. This I know.”
“You keep saying that like he’s an old friend. Do you guys do lunch on occasion? Hit Happy Hour at the Stool and Gruel once a week?”
Jon smiled as he looked out over the ocean’s vastness. “I only know the kind of ruler he’s been in my thirty-five years. Fair, kind, if not a bit eccentric. He would never allow a faithful subject to be harmed. There has been peace for many years between him and Angria. I imagine once he finds she’s sent men for your capture, he will be quite displeased. Please trust this.”
She took a deep breath and tried not to allow her jitters about her fate to take over. “Okay. I trust you.”
“Now, I must go prepare for our crossing, milady. Sit tight,” he said, dropping another breath-stealing kiss on her lips before taking his leave.
Nina came up behind her, the bluebirds now contentedly sitting on her shoulder, still whistling their happy tune. “You ready, kiddo?” she asked, placing a hand on Toni’s shoulder.
She wanted to say yes. She wanted to be brave in front of Nina because that’s what you did with the biggest badass in the land. So she nodded. “I think so.”
“Bullshit.”
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Yep.”
“If I go back to Jersey, if that’s where this happiness I’m supposed to be granted is, can we text each other sometimes, maybe? Call or something?”
“Are you gonna wanna do lunch? Shop or some bullshit? Get our hair done?”
“I’d rather have my throat punched.” She paused a moment, fighting the swell of loneliness she’d staved off every day and night for three years.