Page 126 of Alien God

I had been right about not being able to handle seeing myself like this. I clapped my hand over my mouth at what I saw. I looked like a bride. A real, actual bride. Like someone from a movie or a magazine. And there was my groom, alien and magnificent, not looking at the knee-weakening beauty of his own reflection but solely focused on mine.

I lowered my hand and forced myself to breathe.

“It’s bad luck to see the bride in her dress before the wedding,” I offered weakly.

“I do not believe in luck,” Wylfrael said.

Normally, I didn’t, either. But at this point, I figured we needed all the help we could get.

“Besides,” Wylfrael said, “I wanted to give you this.”

Before I could see what it was, he lowered himself to the ground. On one knee.

It was a ring. He held it up between us.

“You remembered,” I said, shocked to my core. I’d only said the thing about getting down on one knee with a ring once. I’d never mentioned it again.

“I’ve already told you, Torrance. I remember everything about you. Everything you’ve ever told me.”

I swallowed, my throat feeling thick and hot, and stared at the ring. He held it up carefully between his thumb and forefinger so I could see almost the entire circle of it, even though it was so tiny in his grip. It was crystal, crafted with what looked like dozens, no, hundreds of minuscule shards fitted together, creating a rainbow of cascading fire all along the loop. It wasn’t gold, it wasn’t diamond. And it was more beautiful than anything I ever could have imagined.

“I told myself I would not do this,” Wylf said. “I told myself that the deal was done. That I would give you this ring, but I would not ask. But now... now...” His voice grew deep and raw. “Now I find that I must hear your answer.”

“My answer?”

A nearly imperceptible tremor went through his hand, his finger and thumb twitching against the ring.

“Are you going to go through with it, Torrance? Will you marry me?”

“Would anything change if I didn’t?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“No,” he said. “My life would end the same, whether you marry me or not. I will not find my true mate, and I will go into exile to keep the Sionnachans safe from my mate-madness.”

“I wish you’d tell me why,” I said softly, even though I knew by now he wouldn’t. “Well, if my marrying changes nothing in your life, it changes things in mine,” I reminded him. “It’s part of our deal, remember? Finding my people, and my freedom.”

“No,” Wylfrael bit out. His entire being seemed to thrum with tension, tail fluffed up, wings pulsing, the ring vibrating with the pressure of his shaking arm. “No.”

“No?” I echoed. “What do you mean, no?”

Was he taking it all back? Had he just been pretending this entire time, dangling the things I wanted most in front of me like a toy I couldn’t have?

“I mean that I offer those things freely to you now.” Finally, he stood, as if he couldn’t bear being down on his knee any longer. In a movement that should have been graceful for him but was rough, nearly clumsy, he found his feet and grabbed my hand. He dropped the ring into my palm, then closed my fingers over it.

“Put it on, or don’t. Marry me, or don’t.”

What? What?

My heart slammed as confusion spun inside me, whipped into a frenzy by Wylfrael’s next words.

“I’ll give you everything, Torrance. Everything. Blast the bargain, I’ll still give it all to you. Safety. Your friends. Freedom. Without the council’s help, I can’t guarantee I’ll find the human ship in your lifetime, but I promise you that I’ll search for as long as it takes.”

“But... but the Sionnachans already think...”

“I can figure out a way around that,” Wylfrael grunted. “No other stone sky gods know that I’ve apparently found my mate. They would have found out tomorrow, at the gathering.”

“But... Skalla. Even if you can find him on your own, don’t you need the council to deal with him if he’s still berserk or mate-mad or whatever’s going on with him?”

“Yes,” he confirmed. “But I’m no longer willing to trap you in order to save him or anyone else.”

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