“Weeks ago?” Maia asked, perplexed. “Why did you not tell me?” She felt a small throb of resentment in her chest.
He held up his hands. “It was a secret! I absolutely forbade Simon to tell you. Even though I did pass the maston test, I still struggled to pass the Apse Veil on my own. Every time I tried, I would get sick and retch, but I worked at it, very hard. I told you in my letter that I wanted to come to you. I wanted to surprise you, which is why I refused when you offered to come to me.” He shook his head guiltily. “Then that ship from Hautland came. Oh, by the Blood, how that tormented me! The Dochte Mandar annulled our marriage and began their invasion. Simon was murdered!” He threw up his hands. “I dared not reveal the truth then because my strategy required the armada to strike your coasts and move inland a bit. Only then did I move in on their fleet with my ships. The Naestors are trapped here, you understand. Their armada is no more. They require our leniency to return to their lands. While I attacked the armada, Paeiz challenged the army following Caspur. The Naestors were trapped between us, and we had the ships to move our forces around quickly. I do not think Corriveaux even understood how desperate their situation truly was. The only Void they were likely to create was their own.”
Maia closed her eyes, trying to absorb the information flooding her. Collier had been a maston for weeks. Simon had known.
“It was only later that I learned you had kissed the Prince of Hautland,” he said, drawing her from her reverie.
“That is not true!” Maia said defensively.
He smirked at her. “I know. Richard told me, and Aldermastons cannot lie.” He then knelt down in front of her, resting one hand on the stone railing, one hand on her knee. Even with him kneeling and her sitting down, he was nearly at eye level with her. “Then,” he said in a low voice, “I knew I had to tell you everything, so I came on the Argiver after I sacked the armada at Comoros. I knew that you would know it was me if I took that ship. You cannot know how it tortured me to learn that you had been abducted by that . . . man.”
Maia touched his cheek with her palm, her heart fluttering with new emotions. She sensed he wanted to kiss her. “And you cannot know how it felt when I believed I had lost you,” she whispered, her throat seizing up with tears. She moistened her lips, which suddenly felt dry as dust. The feeling in her stomach was like a whirlwind. “The dagger wound was fatal, I thought. But when you kissed me . . .” She shut her eyes and lowered her head, shuddering with the memory of those dark emotions.
She felt his fingers lift her chin.
“I was wounded, but not fatally as I supposed. Jon Tayt is quite able. When he brought me back to Muirwood, I could not stand up by myself. Within a day, I was walking. Within two, I could move freely. Richard told me that the prince’s symptoms began immediately after he kissed you. They kept me apart from everyone else after I told them about our kiss. But there was no sickness. Nothing. And then the truth struck me.”
Maia could hardly concentrate on his words. His face had gotten closer and closer as he spoke. She already knew the truth he was about to say. It sent tingles throughout her body.
“I realized your kiss would harm anyone else in the world . . . but me.” He smiled. “Or my Family, but I do not feel inclined to share you very much.” He gazed at her. “I have given you my kingdom, Maia. I have given you my heart.” He snagged her fingers with his own. “Please tell me that you are mine. Forever. Always.”
Maia stared into his vibrant blue eyes. “Forever,” she whispered. And then she planted a kiss on his warm lips. She pulled back, barely noticing the little burn on her shoulder, her tingling lips. “For always,” she whispered next and kissed him again.
Collier kissed her back and drew one arm around her waist. Then, parting from her for a moment, he gently lowered her onto the bed of tiny forget-me-nots. He joined her on the bench and proceeded to kiss her ardently, claiming her mouth with his own, claiming her heart and all that she was and wanted to be. And she kissed him back without timidity, digging her fingers through the thick locks of his hair until she was breathless.
The crushed blue flowers cushioned her hair, filling the air between them with the sweetest of fragrances. Her shoulder throbbed dully from her wound, but she could hardly feel pain through the blissful sensation of his mouth on hers. She surrendered to his kisses, feeling as if her heart would burst apart.
They both heard the creaking of the cart wheels as it approached the garden.
Collier lifted his head, cocking it to listen, sighed deeply and with exaggerated anguish, and they began to laugh.
Where there is darkness, there is courage. Where there is ambition, there is power. Where there is will, there is dominion. I thank the Medium for an unconquerable soul.
—Corriveaux Tenir, King of the Kjavik Wastes
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
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