Page 51 of My Eternal Light
Kincaid shook his head. “I don’t think someone like that exists. Cord and Ryuu are on their own level as far as squires go. But, we’ll get someone who will cook for us, that’s all I care about.”
“And clean right? I hate doing bathrooms.”
“Absolutely.” He shuddered. “I don’t want to scare you, but sharing a house with twenty kids, the communal bathroom is the last place I’d ever voluntarily go into.”
She laughed. “Oh, I know exactly how that is, remember? School bathrooms have to be the nastiest places on the planet.”
Kincaid poked at his salad. “Will you miss your job? Your home and the life you lead?”
She put her fork down and picked up her glass of wine. Sitting back, she thought it over. “I think I’ll miss the kids, well, some of them. But, the job, no. As for my life there, I wasn’t miserable, but I wasn’t happy. I grew up in foster care, so I don’t have a family of my own. I worked because I needed money to live, but it didn’t feed my soul. I would come home to a dark apartment, eat, go to sleep and wake up and do it all over again.” She took a sip of wine. “I know we joked about the past being like a dream, but this feels too good to be true. An amazing house, a job where I am valued, and I get you.”
“I don’t have much, but whatever I have is yours,” he professed.
“Are you kidding? I’m getting all of this because of you Kincaid. Because of whatever deity decided I would be a good match for you. You’re giving me your friends and family. Because I’m your mate, I was introduced to a world of magic and live in this castle.”
“Estate,” he corrected.
“You know what I mean. If anyone is coming up short on what they’re bringing to the table, it’s me.”
He stood and moved his chair, so it was right next to hers, sat down and took her free hand. “We’re mates. That means what is mine is yours and what is yours is mine. There is no table to display your qualifications. You’ve seen me, magic ablaze, talking down council representatives. But, that wasn’t who I was before you. I was kinda passive and I just went with whatever my brothers were doing. You make me better, stronger, not because of you per se, but because you exist.” He brought her hand up and kissed it. “I want to be stronger to protect you. I’ll grow and so will you. That’s how I would like us to be. Doing what we love, coming home to each other, sharing our day, our thoughts, and our dreams.”
Zadie could see the sincerity in his eyes. “Are you sure you’re real? Because you have just said everything that I have ever wanted in a partner.”
He winked and reached for his own glass of wine. “We’re a perfect matched pair, remember?”
“I’m not fighting it here,” she’ll point to her chest. “It’s my mind that’s hesitating.”
“You mean you won’t blindly accept this whole new world, how utterly dare you?” he joked.
“Why are you so different than your unit brothers?”
“How do you mean? Like why I am the only witch in the unit?”
She didn’t quite know how to explain it. “I don’t doubt for a single second that Aiden loves Meryn to distraction, but I don’t think he uses terms like ‘invalidate your feelings’. You’re not just empathetic, you’re also very conscientious of others. They were right when they said there was a softness to you, but I see it more as a warmth.”
“I can see what you’re saying. I guess it’s because I’m younger than most of the warriors. Only Ari is close to my age, well, and the twins, but they’re only visiting.”
“How does your age make a difference?”
“Let’s see if I can put this in perspective. Joan of Arc fought the French, the Byzantine Empire ended, and the Ottoman Empire began and there was the War of the Roses.”
“Impromptu history lesson?” she asked.
He held up a finger. “These were the world events taking place when Aiden came of age. By the way, he was nowhere near the oldest person in the queen’s antechamber tonight.”
Zadie didn’t know whether to be excited at the chance to ask questions or succumb to the overwhelming sense of being insignificant. “What?” she asked. She couldn’t wrap her mind around how old some of them could be.
He nodded. “Now, when I came of age, we had Nixon, the Civil Rights movement, putting a man on the moon, television and let’s not forget, Woodstock.”
“You’re more of a modern man.”
He nodded. “It doesn’t make me better or worse. That’s the beauty of the units. We train together, so not only do warriors of different races learn from one another, but also of different eras.”
“That’s incredible.”
“But, to finish answering your question, I think the conscientious part comes from being assigned to Éire Danu. Sure, I helped look after my siblings, but the warriors here look after each other with a quiet devotion that goes largely unnoticed. I spent the first five years here, racing around, trying to ‘pay back’ all the warriors who helped me.” He smiled. “I passed out in training one day. I stayed up the night before learning how to make cookies for Leon because he showed me how to pack my gear. I woke up to no less than fifteen unit warriors freaking out. When Aeson figured out what happened, he politely side-stepped Ari and took me to his office. He sat me down and explained that that wasn’t how Éire Danu warriors operated. You help where you can, when you can, that was the only rule. I was able to slowly relax after that. I watched what they did and tried my best to be like them.”
“The other warriors aren’t like that?” she asked, taking in everything he explained. “They seem close as well.”