I don’t deserve her. She forgave the unforgivable. She saved my life, even after I put hers in danger.
Her actions had consequences. That power she unleashed ... it didn’t just kill the dreks. She lives with guilt daily. Pain. I try my best to make things better.
Some days are better than others.
We moved the date several times, until now. Now, the time has finally come to speak words to this bond, to this vow that we’ve already proven several ways.
What’s one more?
Love wasn’t just something I believed myself incapable of. It was something I believed myselfundeservingof.
But when she looks at me ... I find myself reaching for the parts of me that existed long ago, that aren’t cloaked in shadow.
When she looks at me, I see a reason behind the darkness—the light I was always meant to find.
A puddle of stars forms. My own power. And from it emerges the most beautiful woman that has ever existed.
“You didn’t think I’d leave you all alone, did you?” she says, smiling. “You followed me into death. Marrying you is the least I can do.”
Her beauty is ruinous. My eyes glisten, watching her approach me in her wedding gown.
It was made for her, by her new tailor. She wouldn’t let me look before, so now I do, greedily, and my heart feels like it might melt right through my chest.
Our story is stitched onto her dress—curls of shadow, meeting colorful flowers. Death meeting life. Creating something beautiful.
“I take it you like it?” she asks, as she joins me in front of the altar.
Truthfully, she could have shown up covered in dirt and mud the way she was during most of our trials, and I would be smiling as widely as I am now.
She reaches up to brush against the dimple she’s discovered. I lean into her touch.
Astria’s disbelief hits me, and I don’t even care. We turn toward her, and she reads from the ancient book.
Nightshade rulers have never married. A woman hasn’t even lived in their quarters. There is no precedent, so I asked Astria to look in the library she loves so much and find the best vows she could.
“Ready?” Isla says.
“Always.”
Astria begins.
“Love is the greatest surrender.” She turns to me. “Are you, Grim Malvere, ready to face your most important battle yet, without armoror weapons? Are you ready to lay bare your mind and soul to another, for the rest of time?”
“I am,” I say, and Isla smiles.
Astria turns to face her. “And are you, Isla Crown, ready to put down your daggers and swords and shields, and open yourself to the greatest vulnerability of your life, a union of minds and souls, for the rest of time?”
“I am,” she says, and this smile, this happiness—it is infinite. Just like the stone I plan to get her, as a symbol of our union, because she deserves nothing less.
“Then I pronounce you, Isla Crown, and you, Grim Malvere, bound until the end of time. In this life and the next.”
“And all the ones after that,” I say, just to make it very clear, and then I pull Isla into my arms.
Our kiss is gentle, soft. I feel her tears against my own cheeks. Only when they keep falling do I realize I’m crying too. Our tears are mixing. Our feelings are intertwined.
And so are we. Always.
Until the end of time.
