Page 24 of A Touch of Royalty

Emryn bowed her head over Brutus. “I’m-” she looked at Prince Cas. “I swore I would not hold you to any sort of standard, Highness. You can live precisely as you like.”

“Emryn, as soon as you are my wife, those vows are binding to me.” He tilted her chin up until she had to look at him. “You will not hold me to those standards, but I will hold myself there.”

“But-”

“Because you are worth it to me, Emryn.” Prince Cas said quietly. “As mother said, you can help us to make the city better for the people.”

16

WEDDING

Night had fallen, the banquet to celebrate them was ready, Cas had put on his most formal clothing, and Emryn was nowhere to be found.

He was standing at his mother’s side, waiting for his princess. He’d been waiting for a while now and the nobility sitting in their ranked chairs were getting restless.

And then the doors opened, and Emryn was standing there on Asan’s arm. Cas breathed a sigh of relief as she started moving down the aisle toward him. Her gown was a confection, flowers and silk on sky blue velvet. And he had to wonder what magic his mother’s seamstress had to create something to fit his princess in the space of an afternoon.

Emryn looked like she wanted to run, fear in her eyes as she stepped to his side and he took her arm from Asan. “It’s going to be alright,” he whispered to her as he turned them to face the priestess.

“The head healer yelled at me,” Emryn’s voice was choked and sad. “For abandoning the city.”

“I will speak to him.” Cas leashed his anger and smiled at her. “I know you would never abandon the people, Emryn.”

The priestess raised her hands, calling on the Mother to bless their union. And just for a moment, Cas thought he saw something at Emryn’s back. But it was just a trick of the light, because when he looked again it was gone.

Cas turned his attention back to the priestess, who was extolling the virtues and duties of marriage. Especially the marriage that the two of them were entering into. It had been a very long time since common blood had entered the royal line of Rodilla and to Cas’ mind this was going to be a good thing.

And the priestess must have been asked to keep the ceremony short in deference to Emryn’s weakness, because as she started to tremble, the priestess called for the rings.

Giving them their vows, listening to them repeat them back to her. Emryn tried to keep her voice steady, pitching it to be heard, and she was mostly successful.

In fact, it might be only him, his mother, and the priestess who could see how badly she was trying to be steady.

And then it was over. Emryn slid the band onto Cas’ finger and he did the same to her, lifting her from her shaking legs and bearing her down the aisle to the cheers of the courtiers.

He would ask to kiss her later.

He carried her to the anteroom as the Courtiers began to file out and down the hall to the reception.

“Are you ready to heal, Emryn?” Asan walked into the room followed by the queen. “It is time that we close the loop.”

“Will you tell me what I need to do?” Emryn asked when Cas set her on her feet.

“You need do nothing,” Asan said. “The reach back belongs to Cas.”

Emryn nodded and Cas walked her over to a chair in the room and helped her sit before kneeling in front of her, watching her face flame. “Now, just relax, this might feel a little funny.”

Asan had gone over how to close the loop with him a bit ago. So he leaned in and pressed his forehead to Emryn’s, letting the trapped flutter free.

He was not prepared for what happened.

Light.

A bright blast of it, scorching across his senses with the intensity of a thousand suns. But somehow it didn’t turn him into a cinder, no matter that it could have.

It was beyond powerful enough to burn him and everyone else in this room to ash, but Emryn didn’t want it to, so it didn’t. It answered to her call, spiraling down into her core until the room was dark again.

No, not dark, the fairy lights still burned. But the room was dark compared to that furious light.

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