Page 127 of Alien God

He’ll set me free.

He would really do it. I could see it in the hard set of his jaw, his unyielding gaze. He still held my hand, and I held the ring, beautiful and hard, fisting it so tightly I knew it would leave a mark against my palm.

Any sane person would have taken his offer and run. No more being his little wife, no more confusion, no more fights, no more bargains or terms or kisses or loving him even though it didn’t matter, even though it meant nothing in the end...

“What do you want?” I asked, my voice falling to a choked murmur.

“I-” He clamped his teeth together, breathing out between them as if barely stopping himself from saying something he thought he might regret. “I just want you to choose.”

He let go of my hand, and I felt cold without his touch.

“Everything for the ceremony is prepared in the library,” he said, his voice smooth and calm, but firm, like he was making a most sacred promise. “I will go there now and I will wait for you, Torrance. I will wait there for you, at the end of the aisle, for as long as it may take. If you do not come, then I will have my answer.”

Now I was the one who shook, throat closing with tears so that I couldn’t even call his name as he turned away from me and left the room.

I watched the open doorway for a long, long time, then looked at myself in the mirror. As I took in my reflection – my pale face, glistening eyes, my human body wrapped in a dress from another world – I wondered who I was anymore.

And who I’d choose to be.

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

Wylfrael

I waited so long for my bride in the library that I began to fear I’d made a terrible mistake. I stared at the library’s door so hard that the crystal sometimes shuddered with flickers of power I hadn’t meant to unleash upon it.

Maybe I should open the door myself, I reasoned, though I knew it was not reasonable. Maybe she’s already come and she’s on the other side, but the crystal’s too heavy and she can’t open it like this. Maybe, maybe...

But no. There was no maybe about it. If she had come, if she was on the other side of that door, I would have heard her. Plus, small as she was, she was perfectly capable of opening a door.

Even knowing all this, I did end up smashing open the door with my power from my place at the end of the aisle. If she chose to come here and marry me, I did not want a single barrier in the way that would make her pause, that would give her the chance to stop and think and turn back.

“My lord?” Aiko asked.

She was on my left. Shoshen and Ashken stood on the other side of the long, white fur carpet that had been placed here specially for the ceremony. We were in the centre of the library. I stood in front of the huge crystal-grated firestone, and all the chairs and pillows had been moved to the sides. Brekken was there, too, seated between Ashken and Shoshen, long tongue lolling out.

When I didn’t answer Aiko’s vague question, the hound added in his own.

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