Chapter 70

Ella

Two weeks later…

"Are you sure you're going to be able to walk in that thing?" Belle asked from the velvet settee, a bowl of cherries in her lap. Her leg had fully healed, and she was lounging like a barn cat in the sun. Pip sat next to her, happily gnawing on a cherry of his own.

I stared at my reflection in the standing mirror. The silk gown cascaded about me in a waterfall of cream.

Cara's head popped around the full skirt, a pincushion tied to her wrist. "It's not the walking but the getting up that's going to be a problem."

She wasn't kidding. This dress had to be twice my weight. If I fell in a lake, I would drown. I'd probably take Cassius down with me.

The prince . The man who was going to be my husband. My king.

Cara looked up at me. "How does it feel?"

Overwhelming. Impossible. A dream.

I skimmed my hands down the cinched waist, my fingers brushing the crystals that had been sewn into the embroidered flowers. Cara had adjusted the bodice so it didn't squeeze so tightly and hemmed the length of the skirt after I'd tripped on it and nearly broken my face. I'd asked her to be my bridesmaid, and despite her new role overseeing preparations, she'd insisted on making the dress herself—along with a team of overworked helpers.

"It's perfect, Cara," I said honestly. "More beautiful than anything I ever imagined possible. I feel like royalty."

She beamed up at me. "Well, you're going to be royalty soon, so you'd better get used to it."

The wedding was in a week. After that, I was going to be the queen of the Bloodvale. My breathing started to come more quickly.

"Getting cold feet?" Belle quirked her brow at me. She always knew when I was nervous. "Just say the word, and I'll run with you."

I laughed. "No, I'm not getting cold feet about the wedding, but I am a little worried about being queen."

"I can't think of anyone better for the job than my little sister." Belle plucked a cherry from the bowl and plopped it in her mouth. "And if anyone gives you trouble, I have no doubt your soon-to-be husband will kill them."

I couldn't help the chill that came over me. She wasn't wrong.

Cassius and Cassandra had purged the court of anyone who'd opposed my ascension or had deep alliances to the Triad. Many had fled of their own accord, including—mercifully—Lorayna and Bianca. It had helped that they'd seen my power during the ball, and rumors about what I'd done to Horace and the Triad had spread like wildfire.

However, I doubted Cassius's blade had remained entirely clean. I knew it hadn't.

"It's not all roses and rainbows yet," I muttered, adjusting my skirt to give my nervous hands something to do. "I think it will take time."

Cara perked up. "The villagers and the army are ecstatic. I don't think I've seen the city with this much spirit, not even during the festivals. They've gone all out celebrating. We'll be lucky if half the taverns don't burn down after the wedding. You have the entire populace behind you."

"Most of them," I said.

My stepmother was leaving the valley, along with many of the central figures of the resistance, despite Cassius's pardons. They didn't believe the immortals could change and couldn't forgive them for the past. Perhaps it was fair, but we needed to make a way forward together, as one people, believing in the possibility of change.

And the immortals could change. Cassius had already abolished the blood tithe and arranged for reparations from the royal treasury.

For once in my life, I had hope for the future.

I glanced over at Belle as Cara put a few more pins in the back of the gown. "Must you leave as well?"

"I'll stay for the wedding, but after that, I'm going on my own honeymoon." Belle smiled softly and walked over to me, meeting my gaze in the mirror. "This is my chance to see what else is out there. I've been stuck in this valley my whole life, and I want more. It's what we'd always talked about."

It had been my dream as well, but a new dream had found me—one with stormy eyes and the will to change the world.

I just wished she'd be here to see it.

Belle took my hand and squeezed it. "Don't worry. I'll be back before you know it, and I'll have all sorts of stories to share."

She'd always been the adventurous one, and I knew that she needed this, but it broke my heart to be separated again so soon. "What about the manor?" I asked desperately, letting Cara help me wriggle out of the dress so that I could slip into my riding outfit. Cassius had granted us additional lands and tenants to make us nobles and not, as Aamon put it, unseemly commoners .

"There's so much to do," I continued. "Do you really think Tarran can manage it all on his own?"

I'd appointed him steward, though Belle would have to handle the accounts.

Belle gave me that lopsided grin of hers, the one that made a dimple pop out of her cheek. "Tarran will be fine without me for a few months. He did a fair job of managing things while you were seducing the prince, though I'm afraid he's not too happy about you getting married."

A pang of guilt tore at me. "I guess not."

Tarran fancied me, but it was in the way most boys longed for girls. For all his friendship, the truth was, he'd never truly seen me—not in the way Cassius did. To Tarran I'd just been plain Ella, someone to be protected, someone who was just a farm girl and nothing more.

Cassius, on the other hand, made me feel like I was capable of anything, that he believed I could do anything—even rule a kingdom. How many people found someone in life who could make them feel like that?

Tarran would easily find another girl. For me, there was only Cassius, and I couldn't imagine spending a day apart from him.

"You're blushing, Ella," my sister teased. "Please tell me you were thinking about your fiancé and not that farm boy."

"What farm boy?" a deep, husky voice said from behind us. Tingles skated over my skin, and I turned toward Cassius. He filled the doorway, one brow lifted as he flashed a devastating smile.

I crossed to him and planted a kiss on his lips. "A dear friend that is looking after our affairs. No one for you to worry about."

"Good. Because I am a terribly jealous man when it comes to you." His arms looped around me, and he kissed me slowly and deeply. Shivers raced down my spine, and I couldn't help but softly moan.

I could feel Belle rolling her eyes behind me.

"What are you doing here?" I asked as soon as he let me go. "Trying to sneak a peek at the dress?

He brushed his knuckles along the curve of my jaw. "A proposition. The night is beautiful, and the moon is out. Come for a ride. I want to show you your kingdom."

Chastity and Tenebris were already saddled and waiting for us at the stable. We guided them out of the castle—soon to be my castle—and up into the dark woods, slowing as we met a lone figure hobbling through the darkness.

Siggy .

She paused as we approached, grinning. "It seems that you two found the people you were looking for after all."

My stomach tightened as if tugged by a string from very far away, and I reached for Cassius's hand.

"And where are you going tonight, Grandmother?" Cassius asked with a warmth I'd barely ever heard slip from his lips. "The woods are dangerous, you know."

"Not with this one looking after them," Siggy said, nodding to me. "Bogeyman or none, I had to see what all the fuss was about with my own eye—just to make sure the rumors were real."

"I gather you had a great deal to do with it," Cassius said, a thread of laughter hiding beneath the stony accusation.

She winked. "I just played my part."

I dropped down off Chastity's back and gave her a hug. "Thank you for everything. You're not here to say goodbye, are you?" With Belle leaving, I couldn't lose her as well. The thought sickened me.

Siggy scoffed. "And leave the two of you youngsters to run this kingdom on your own? Absolutely not. I'm invested in the success of this place now." She pointed her cane accusingly at Cassius. "Which is why I expect a seat on the council."

He raised his eyebrows. "Do you, now?"

She straightened her back. "I can see the future. The master of your treasury can't say that. He can barely see his own toes over his belly."

The prince weighed her with his gaze, then slowly nodded. "You shall have it, old woman—for your wisdom, and for all you've done already."

She grunted, but there was a hint of satisfaction in the curl of her lips.

"And what future do you see for us?" I asked as I stepped back toward the prince and took his hand.

Siggy stared into me with her one good eye, like she was peeling away the night around me. Then, as if waking from a dream, she laughed softly. "Why, you'll live happily ever after, of course!"

Thanks for joining us on Ella and Cassius's journey!