Page 73 of The Unseelie Wish
Turning in his arms, she wrapped her own around behind his neck, gazing into his sea-green eyes.
“Say the words I long to hear, my songbird,” he murmured.
Three words. So simple yet so powerful. She pulled him down into a kiss, but before she placed her lips to his, she finally told him the truth.
“I love you.”
EPILOGUE
“Wait—what?” Izael exclaimed as he took a step toward the throne. “You can’t do this!”
Alex tried not to laugh. She tried very, very hard not to laugh, but she failed miserably. She hid her giggle behind a hand to keep from further offending Izael, the Duke of Bones. And now her husband.
It was odd, being a duchess, but she had only been that way for a week. She figured it’d take a little more time for it all to sink in.
Valroy was sitting on his silvered throne, grinning victoriously down at Izael. “We had a deal, Duke. Or have you so soon forgotten?”
Izael snarled. “But?—”
“If you believe that this”—Valroy gestured at Alex and Izael— “new arrangement will spare you the ramifications of our bargain, you are sorely mistaken.”
Izael took a deep breath, held it, and slowly let it out, clearly doing everything in his power to keep from losing his temper. While Valroy didn’t seem to be holding much of a grudge, all things considered, it was probably a really bad idea to push their luck. “Forgive me, but I am simply confused, my liege.”
“Then allow me to explain it to you, Duke.” Valroy leaned forward, clearly loving every minute of this. “You and I had a bargain. That if you could not convince Alex to use her wish to love you that the price would be your soul would become her possession.”
Alex was really trying not to laugh at Izael’s angry sputtering.
“What is wrong?” Valroy leaned back in his chair. “You have her soul. Is this not wonderfully poetic?”
“This is entirely different!” Izael exclaimed, unable to keep it in any longer.
“Oh, really?” Alex interjected with a grin. “Do tell.”
“I. But. This—” Izael let out a long, heavy sigh and stared up at the sky. He didn’t have a leg—or tail—to stand on, and he knew it. “Fine. Then can we be done with this nonsense, finally?”
“Gladly,” Valroy replied. “I will trust you to do the deed on your own. I needn’t sully myself with such a task.” He gestured, waving them off. “Begone, both of you.”
Alex was more than happy to leave the throne room. She wanted a vacation. A very long vacation, preferably in Tir n’Aill’s version of a tropical beach.
Izael took them through the swirling portal back to his home.
She flopped onto his sofa, smiling at him. “Don’t look so put out. Fair is fair.”
“Fair has nothing to do with it. He just wants to make me suffer.” Izael shifted back to his human form, straightening his tie in the mirror. “He wants to embarrass me.”
“At least I’ll be the one who has your soul, not him. It won’t be that bad. I promise not to do anything stupid with it.” She paused. “Too stupid, anyway.”
An orange ball of fur jumped onto the sofa next to her. She scratched the cat’s head as Pumpkin came up to greet her, rubbing himself against her hand. The tabby cat loved Tir n’Aill, even if the prey in the world of the fae gave him more of a run for his money than he might have been used to with Boston alley rats.
Though if you asked him, Pumpkin said it hadn’t changed much.
Izael sat on the sofa on the other side of her, stretching his legs out and propping them up on his coffee table, careful to avoid putting his shoes on his tablet. They had brought all of the electronics from Earth that she could gather—not like there was any internet—but that didn’t stop him from amusing himself endlessly with games and the like.
She leaned her head against his shoulder.
None of it felt real. If she had died and this was her afterlife, she honestly wouldn’t be too surprised.
They were together. And they were happy, come what may—even if Izael wouldn’t stop mourning the loss of their trips to Earth. She promised she’d figure out how to cook Chinese food for him.