Page 90 of Charmed

Hope lifted my rapidly pounding heart. “What do you mean?”

“I—” He took a wavering breath. “I turned down my own apprenticeship on the Enchanters’ Council.”

It took me a moment to find my voice amid my shock. “Why?After all the effort you expended, to finally achieve your greatest aspiration…”

“Something else has become my dearest dream.” He finally lifted his gaze to meet mine, his expression shy yet earnest. “I missed you, Mae.”

“Really?” Emotion choked my voice.

In response he reached out a hesitant touch to caress the back of my hand with his fingertip; my skin tingled at the contact.

But rather than abruptly ending the moment as he’d previously done, Alden tucked his confidence around himself and laced our hands together. My breath caught. For a long moment I could only stare at our connected hands before slowly lifting my gaze to meet his in silent question.

“Of course I would thoroughly enjoy continuing to teach you magic,” he said in a rush. “But I also hope for a relationship outside of being a wizard and his apprentice, or even as a prince and his subject. I want to get to know you as a man might come to know a woman…to court you.”

“Courtme?” No spell could exceed the joy I felt at such beautiful words, ones I’d never expected from a prince once entirely disinterested in love.

He lifted our linked hands to press his lips softly against mine, a kiss that far surpassed those he’d given me as a frog; his lips felt far different cradling mine than against my warty head. “I love you, Maeve.”

The words filled the air as acutely as the magic surrounding us, seeping into my heart to heal every crack created from our separation and of anticipating a life without him. Part of me feared this most magical of moments was nothing more than an illusion my heart had conjured, even as the joy coursing through me at Alden’s tender confession felt too powerful to be real.

In my shock my silence extended too long. Alden shifted nervously, a shyness I found endearing, part of the uncertain prince and wizard who’d spent his entire life trying to find his place, the man I dearly loved. “After all your time searching, it seems too fantastic to think your place could possibly be by my side.”

My heart leapt as he stepped close enough to caress my cheek, but unlike the last time he’d bestowed the gentle gesture, this time he didn’t pull away; my heart expanded at his lingering proximity.

“Only by living the life I thought I wanted for myself yet absent of you made me realize I’d left behind the place I truly belong.” With each word, he ran his thumb along my jaw, growing braver when I didn’t resist his alluring touch. “Please come back with me. I need your strength as I walk this new path…not only as a wizard and a prince, but a man who hopes to be with you forever. For it is my endearing and beautiful apprentice, my dearest friend, that helped me realize I could be both.”

He twisted his face to press his lips against my hand, causing my skin to tingle. The corners of my lips touched his palm still cradling my cheek as I smiled. “Is that truly how you see me?” It seemed too wondrous that he could care so much for a common girl such as myself.

His gaze softened to a reverence deeper than he exhibited when performing a spell. He twisted some of my springy hair around his finger with a look of the utmost fascination, which gave me permission to do what I’d been fantasizing about for a long time—I ran my fingers through his own hair, silky to the touch, so different from my own coarse strands.

“You’re my dearest friend, Mae. There’s nothing I adore more than you…not even magic.”

Tears burned my eyes as he leaned down, only to pause millimeters from my lips. “If you don’t care for me the way I do you…no title or love spell could ever compel me to force you to give me what you don’t want.”

“I want you, for I love you too.” There was so much more I wanted to say, infinite confessions of my own feelings swelling my heart, but that could wait. I stood on tiptoe to caress his lips with my own.

The kiss extended beyond anything I could have ever imagined, a new magic I yearned to explore forever until I’d discovered all there was to know. Alden’s heated touch spread up my back as his hand encircled my waist to draw me closer, allowing all of him to envelop me in the most tender embrace.

It felt as if time had stopped and I was reluctant for it to begin moving again once we broke the kiss. Yet we didn’t pull away, lingering in our embrace with our gazes locked as we both fought for breath. Slowly, we both smiled before coming together again, this time to hug. The contours of his chest pressed against me as I nestled as close as I could, feeling complete in the comfort of his arms.

It was some time before we spoke, the moment too reverent to dispel. “I have something for you,” he murmured against my hair.

“There’s nothing more than I want than what you’ve already given me.”

“I want to spend a lifetime giving you everything and more. Even though I resigned from my new position, I was still able to keep a charm…the very one I promised.”

He reached into the pocket of his cloak and withdrew a glistening amber pendant. My limited magical training hadn’t yet extended to charms, leaving this one unfamiliar. My brows drew together. “What is it?”

“A charm of healing.”

My breath caught. “A charm of—but if you could only choose one, isn’t there a charm you were seeking for yourself?”

He shrugged. “I much prefer making you happy.”

He pressed the charm gently into my hand. Energy pulsated from it that upon closer examination I recognized ashealingwith how familiar I’d become with that magic with all the brews I’d tried to replicate. I glimpsed some of its power when upon my touch its magic reached into my heart to heal the remaining wounds my constant worry for my brother and my separation from Alden had left behind that hadn’t already been soothed by our kiss.

“Incredible.” Tears burned my eyes as I stared first at it, then up at Alden, aglow at the sight of my happiness. “Will this heal Corbin?”

---