A Deal with the Elf King (Married to Magic, #1)(110)

“I love you,” I repeat from earlier, but this time only for him. “I’ve loved you since the cottage. Since…I don’t know when. Somewhere along the way I fell in love with you. You and I…these circumstances we met under have been a bit of a mess. But I love you despite them all.”

“Then why did you stay away?” he whispers. “Why didn’t you tell me before you left?”

“Because I was a coward,” I admit aloud for my sake and his. “I was afraid that I only thought I loved you because I had little other option. I thought the love was fabricated for my own survival, since I thought there was no other way out—that I would be stuck here forever. I was afraid of a love that came from a lack of choice. I was afraid I didn’t even know what love was because I don’t think I’ve ever felt it before.”

“But when you had your way out…when you had the choice you desired…you came back.” Eldas trails his eyes over me now and I tingle with delight. A look has never been more intimate. I’m stripped with a gaze alone.

“I had to come back. I found my answer while I was in Capton—I love you for all you are and all we are together. It is not my imagination; it isn’t survival. Yes, Eldas, I had freedom and choice and I choose you. I know none of this came about in a conventional way, but it’s genuine. And I thought that, maybe, we could give this another try.”

“A try?” He arches his dark eyebrows and I laugh softly.

“We went about this backwards, you know. We got married, tumbled into bed, fell in love. Usually it’s the other way around.”

“I liked how we went about this,” Eldas says. His voice is auditory silk. It brushes over my skin and my body tenses. “Because it led me to you.”

“I think I can agree with that,” I breathe.

He crushes his lips against mine with a restless kiss of pent-up desire and longing caresses. He presses me against the door, groping at my rear, pulling at my hair. For the first time in my life, I hate that I wore trousers.

I kiss him with equal fervor. I run my fingers through his raven hair, shamelessly spilling it over his shoulders and curtaining it around our faces. I caress his cheek as his mouth moves against mine. I taste his tongue over and over and hope it is merely the first taste of many I get of him today.

And when he pulls away, I am weak in the knees and relying on the door behind me for support. I am ready to tumble on the floor with him naked. I am ready for that whole room to hear my cries of ecstasy so long as it means I would have him moving within me once more.

“So what now?” I breathe, glancing between him, the floor, and the door behind me.

Eldas pulls me to him and his other arm slips back around my waist.

“Now,” he growls over my lips. His fingers have slipped into my hair and I tilt my head back to give him full access. “Now, my queen, my wife, I will take you to bed.”

“But the people—”

“Let them wait. We are the king and queen, after all. Our coronation will occur when it is meant to.”





Two days slip through my fingers like the ease of Eldas’s fingers through my hair when we’re in bed. The outburst has been the talk of the town and speculation has been firing left and right about why the Human Queen came rushing in, what it had to do with Eldas’s announcement about the seasons, and why the Human Queen was wearing such plain clothing. There’s even been some speculation that our love itself was what broke the cycle of the Human Queens.

That is a history I will be certain to rewrite. Love is powerful, but so is the hard work Eldas and I have put in. The hard work we will continue to do to be good rulers for this land.

If it were up to me, we would’ve stayed in his chambers for eternity. But duty calls eventually. Sooner rather than later the coronation must happen. We could stall for a day or two, but any more would blow past scandalous into lewd behavior.

We stand before the main entry to the throne room. I have Eldas’s hand in mine with a white-knuckled grip.

“Don’t be nervous,” he whispers.

“Easy for you to say,” I reply and try to smooth out invisible wrinkles in my skirts. The gown the seamstress made for me is breathtaking. Layers of chiffon shaped like leaves almost have a scale-like appearance when I’m stationary. But when I move, it looks like leaves departing late summer trees on a gale. It would’ve been such a shame to see this wearable art go to waste if I hadn’t returned.

“All you have to do is sit.”

“You know that’s one of the first things you said to me, more or less.” I grin up at him and he chuckles. But worry quickly gnaws at my levity. “We should have tried the throne beforehand just to be sure it won’t try to siphon from me.”

“We were occupied.” Eldas smirks. I give a yank on his hand and steal the expression with a kiss. My husband can’t look that handsome without ending up with my lips on his.

“After this, let’s be less occupied. I want to know what’s going on.”

“Going on? About what?”

“Everything,” I say. “I’m here to rule alongside you, after all. I’m more than just a pretty face now that the seasons are fine without me.”

He gives me a small smile and is about to say something when Harrow and Sevenna enter. Harrow still looks thin, and a little paler than I’d like. But his eyes are bright and sharp. His movements are strong.