“Why not?”
I pushed him away from me, shoving his chest with such force, the shock of it alone was enough to have him stumbling a few steps back.
He stood there, hands by his sides, looking intoxicated.
I was trembling, and his eyes honed onto my shaking legs. He was back upon me in a moment, though this time, he didn’t touch me.
“Why not?” he pushed.
I didn’t answer.
“Why. Not.”
“Because I love you, okay?”
The words hung in the hot air we shared between us, between his ragged breaths and my short, staccato ones.
He froze, a sly, infuriating grin overtaking his face, and I almost thought he’d tease me, but then he said, “Please let me kiss you, Ellie.”
“What? No! I tell you I love you and you…and you…” What was he doing, grinning like a giddy, smug little child?
“I’m afraid I might have omitted a bit of important information earlier.”
My heart stopped. “What are you talking about, Evander?”
“You see, I have no intention of marrying anyone but you.”
I couldn’t breathe. “I saw you make the bargain. I saw you…I heard you…”
He tucked his hand into his pocket, and for a moment I thought it was just another one of his I-don’t-care-about-anything stances, but then he whipped out the paper he’d stuffed into his pocket, the one the palace soldier had brought him. “Shall I read it aloud, or should you?”
Apparently, I looked like I was in no position to read anything aloud, because he said, “Very well, then.
I, Evander, Heir and Prince of Dwellen, declare my intent to marry Cinderella and request permission from my father, the King of Dwellen, to do so. By doing so, I transfer all right of requesting who to marry to him, and declare any bargains I make without his permission void.”
He turned the paper around, and my breath caught.
In big, gaping letters, in the king’s handwriting, the paper clearly stated,
DENIED.
“But you made the bargain with her. How did you do that without dying, knowing it wasn’t true?” I asked, not quite ready to believe this was happening.
He rolled up the paper and tucked it into his back pocket. “Because I made my bargain without the knowledge of whether my father had signed this document or not. I had Imogen take it to him in the middle of the night while I rushed here.”
“Imogen?”
“She found me right after I woke up. After Cinderella knocked me over the head. She freaked out when Blaise went missing.” Well, that explained the blood caked into his hair. I made a mental note to forgive Imogen of all her uncomfortable side glances.
“That seems like quite a risk,” I said, half mortified, half delighted.
He shrugged. “Some might even call it rash.”
I laughed then, an exasperated, wild laugh that sounded like the drawstrings on my heart going loose.
But then he was close again, and the laugh died on my lips.
“Elynore Payne,” Evander said, his eyes dipping to mine before he dropped to his knee before me.
Something cold and metallic and round slipped over my finger, but I couldn’t bring myself to look at it. To look at anything but him.
“Please be my wife.”
My throat caught, the word stuck in my throat.
His sea-green eyes smiled wide, crinkling around the edges. “If you make me beg, I’ll never let you hear the end of it. Not for the rest of your days.”
The rest of your days. Not ours. A quiet acknowledgment that he knew the consequences of this decision. That I’d grow old while he stayed young. That I’d return to dust while he outlived me by millennia.
That he knew all this and wanted me, anyway.
Finally, my throat seemed to give way. I broke into a grin. “Okay.”
He rolled his eyes. “Okay?”
I nodded.
The smile that broke across his face shattered the last of my self-control, and when he rose and cupped my jaw, bringing my mouth to his, I melted into him.
