Page 100 of Acedia
And while I was nervous about making our big debut as a mated couple, I was excited about it too. There was a possessiveness to it that I hadn’t expected to feel.
Damen was mine and I was his. I wanted everyone to know that.
“Are you ready?” I asked. “Do you need to stop by your room first? Yours is probably much bigger than mine,” I added, realizing that Damen was making sacrifices for me already.
“It is, but the courtyard with vegetation around the edges is far more comfortable for Tilly, and this room is easier for you to get to.” He was quiet for a moment. “Though, perhaps we could renovate a couple of the rooms in this row. Join them together, and make more space for us that way. We probably need a formal sitting area for visitors at the very least. You were already popular, princess. It’ll only get worse.”
He sighed dramatically, like this was the worst thing he’d ever heard.
“Do you not like me having visitors?”
“I don’t like sharing your attention, but have just enough self-awareness to know that this is selfish and unacceptable, and I’ll have to learn to deal with it,” Damen laughed.
“You’ll have plenty of visitors too,” I pointed out, moving toward him. Damen’s hands landed on my hips the moment I got close, and he pulled me down into his lap on the floor. Tilly flopped her head on my stomach, and I gave her some enthusiastic ear scritchies. “What with all the projects you’ve gotten involved in recently.”
“That’s your fault too,” he replied affectionately, kissing the top of my head before encouraging my head to the side, brushing kisses down my cheek and jaw until he got to the mating mark on my neck. “You were too wonderful. I had to learn to be less of a drain on society.”
“You’re ridiculous.”
“Probably,” Damen agreed. “Shall we go? The noise is dying down, likely most of the court is seated now.”
I exhaled a little shakily. “Okay.”
I’d sat at the high table before, but I’d never made the formal entrance with the king and queen down the center of the room with everyone watching. I had absolute faith in Damen and Tilly to keep me upright, but it was still a little intimidating.
We headed for the entryway, Ophelia’s excited squeal letting me know we’d arrived.
“You look so beautiful, Iris!” Ophelia said the moment we arrived, grabbing my hand and giving it a squeeze. “Oh, that ring—Damen, you did so good.”
“Would you expect any less of me?” he asked, standing a little taller next to me.
“No. When you apply yourself to something, you really go all in,” Ophelia said confidently. The king hummed in agreement, but didn’t offer any further remarks. I got the impression that from him, that was pretty high praise.
“What’s that smell?” I asked, leaning forward to try and get a better whiff.
“Ooh, so there’s an ancient tradition of decorating with garlands at Modra,” Ophelia replied enthusiastically. “They’re from a tree that grows all over the shadow realm and it smells so pretty, doesn’t it?”
“We haven’t bothered with it in recent years at the palace,” Allerick added gruffly. “Neither my father nor I have much of an eye for decorations and such.”
“I would have decorated every year if I’d been king,” Damen announced.
“You would have forgotten about the Modra entirely,” Allerick said dryly.
Damen laughed. “As you did last year, if I recall correctly.
“He’d have forgotten this year too, if it wasn’t for me,” Ophelia confided in me conspiratorially. “But Affra, my attendant, told me about it and I couldn’t let it pass by unacknowledged. “I know we all eat together every day, so that part isn’t particularly special, but I miss the festiveness of a proper holiday season.”
I nodded, though I’d never really experienced one. The holidays had been basically the same as any other day, except Nana and I had received leftovers from whatever meal the family had eaten downstairs.
In all honesty, the regular meals we shared that Nana cooked had been preferable to the stone-cold scraps we got on holidays as some misguided way of including us. And those days had always served as a reminder that I wasn’t a part of my family and I never would be.
After all those years of diligently telling Nana that I was grateful for those experiences, I could admit now that I wasn’t. I didn’t like those holiday meals. I wasn’t grateful for them. The life I had now was something I could be grateful for.
The noise in the dining hall briefly died down when the four of us entered, before building into a crescendo that had me clinging to Damen a little tighter in surprise. Were they stomping their feet? It was the cadence of applause, but a duller sound, and the ground vibrated beneath my feet.
“You all had such little faith in me,” Damen called, laughing loudly. “I’m shocked that Iris agreed to be my mate too, believe me. The wedding will be held as soon as we can arrange it.”
The stomping and whistles grew louder, and I felt myself relaxing into Damen’s side, my face aching from smiling. The sounds were raucous, but they were warm and welcoming at the same time.