Page 50 of King of Fire and Scales

But all of that had been remedied by Thalia herself. She was finally able to take into account the magnificence of her abilities. She followed her instincts as one followed the pace of their breath. She became one with nature, the source of all sustainment, and fell into the sweet embrace of spell work.

She told Drake, as the wedding was being planned, that she wanted to use her gift to help the people. To rebuild homes, to enrich the soil, to alleviate the turmoil of distorted mental faculties with a simple touch.

The king admired her ambition.

“That is certainly something a queen can do,” he said, one night after dinner before the wedding. “But you must know your limits. Abide by them, and the world is yours.”

Drake had a way of filling her confidence to the brim and overflowing. He also was skilled at pleasing her in bed. She felt powerful, gorgeous, and supremely desired.

She was no longer a village girl with a gardening aptitude. She was a Creation Sorceress, one of the first to have arrived in the Mountain Kingdom for decades.

She was also going to be crowned as queen of said kingdom. Everything was happening at the speed of a gallop, but Thalia was taking it all in spectacular stride.

They made love constantly. Thalia was perplexed by how much energy the king exuded, and how much she had truly been missing.

“That is because you were not with the right man,” he said indulgently in the cool air the night before the coronation. “Plus, I’m a king and a shifter. My hunger for you is bottomless.”

Thalia felt like her true self had been awakened. Losing her mother had destroyed her heart, mostly because it had destroyed her father’s. But she could feel it, mending itself, like vines reaching upward toward a bright hopeful horizon.

“As is my love,” she replied, kissing him deeply.

“I can’t wait for you to become my queen,” he muttered between kisses.

“And Creation Sorceress,” she teased him, raking her fingers down his back. “You must not forget that.”

“Forgive me. I must make it up to you, darling. Please state your terms.”

Thalia smirked. She had never felt more safe, and thus, more playful.

“I think you know the keys to my chamber?” she cooed.

“Indeed, I do.”

The king lowered his head between Thalia’s legs as he had and would on many long, rapturous nights.

The wedding, coronation, and pronouncement as Creation Sorceress was a three-part, lavish, and over-the-top event. The entire kingdom was invited, but only members of the royal brigade and family would be welcomed into a post-celebratory festival within the dining hall of the castle.

“Gods, you are stunning,” Sorcha crooned.

Thalia was thankful for her friend during the tailoring and subsequent dressing of her three costume fittings. The wedding and coronation were both traditional attire, consisting of an under-tunic, smock, and a flowing gown sown with a captivating red tapestry of ancient dragons in an intricate crimson over lush hues. It was fitted at her waist with a long cincture decorated with tassels that flickered in rose gold.

Her silk hazel hair was braided in two long lengths and held together with red ribbon, as was the aristocratic manner. The most sublimely vivid roses adorned her headdress as an earthy garland. It was a tradition to have a symbol of nature blended into the coronation when the woman wedding the king was the indelible Creation Sorceress.

Sorcha was preening over her as the kingdom came alive. The witch could hear a stream of voices snickering, hollering, applauding, and murmuring. Fear crept up in her mind, the reality of what she had consented to hitting her like a tsunami.

“That sounds like many people,” she muttered.

Sorcha nodded, her sea-blue eyes unwavering in luminosity.

“The entire kingdom is here, dear. They haven’t seen a Creation Sorceress in ages. Likely, not even within their lifetimes.”

The hands that clutch the bouquet of wildflowers that were plucked from along the distant mountainside began to shake. Sorcha noticed and tipped Thalia’s chin up to meet her gaze.

“Honey,” she implored. “I know it may seem a trifle unnerving to be granted such a role. But the role is yours, and you have proven time and time again that it is your fate. Not only as Creation Sorceress but as queen.”

Thalia smiled sweetly.

“You always know the words that I need,” she sighed.

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