Blinding Beauty (46 page)

“
Of course he did.” Ever groaned
and placed his head in his hands. He’d been so blind. It was Isa
Bronkendol had been after. And by leaving her alone, Ever had
practically handed his wife over on a platter. If only he’d
listened to her. “But you can feel again now, even though he took
your power?”

This time, she turned and looked
right at him, her eyes gazing directly into his. “Yes,” she said
quietly. “I can feel again.”

Somehow, that was almost worse
than when she couldn’t.

Ever pushed himself to his feet
and began to sift through the glass. He found Isa’s sword, and she
took it without a word. Before she could walk away again, he
grabbed her shoulder.

“
I need to know.” He searched her
midnight eyes. “Did he touch you?”

Isa’s gaze softened for just a
moment. “No. Not in that way.”

Relief filled Ever so that he
nearly felt giddy. The question had burned within him since she had
been taken. Buoyed with the knowledge, he grew a bit bolder with
his questions.

“
Why didn’t the glass shards work
on you?”

“
He pitied me after he took my
power, so he removed the glass before he sent me home. He promised
me I would never have to suffer the shards again.” Isa stopped
searching the debris below and smiled acerbically up at the frigid
starry night. “He may scheme to the utmost, but the man has a
strange sense of honor. He could have given me more glass anytime,
and he didn’t.” Before Ever could ask anything else, she declared
their search fruitless. “He most likely escaped before the castle
fell, and I know for certain he wouldn’t have left the mirror
behind. Let’s go.”

Ever followed in somewhat of a
daze. That she was speaking to him at all was encouraging. But her
walls were up. Ever sighed. It was their early days at the Fortress
all over again.

He didn’t dare speak until they
had crossed the stone bridge, which had miraculously survived the
castle’s collapse, and had mounted their horses. It hurt to watch
as Isa dropped her stiff formality to lean over and whisper musical
tones in her horse’s ear. How long had it been since she had shared
that same warm smile with him?

Hugon tossed his head and rolled
his eyes back to glare at his master, as though demanding to know
why Ever wasn’t singing to him, too.

As they set out for the Fortress,
back into their world and out of the nightmare of snow and glass,
Ever gathered his courage to broach the subject that would either
save or break his marriage. They might as well get all of the
heartbreak over with at once.

“
Isa, I know that you’re angry
with me.”

“
You are right.” Isa nodded
amiably as though they were discussing one of Cook’s new dishes.
“But how well do you actually know me? How many hours have you
spent with me to know with any confidence what I think or feel, or
why I might be angry?”

“
What about the time we spent
practicing?” Ever stuttered. It was like trying to grasp a fistful
of water.

“
There was that. It was so kind of
you to fit me into your schedule so that we could fight every
day.”

“
What is this about, Isa?” Everard
pulled his horse to a halt and turned to face her. “I am trying to
fix this! But I cannot change anything if I don’t know what you
want!”

“
What I want?” Isa’s eyes finally
met his, and though the ring of fire within them was thin, it
blazed with heat. “What I want to know is why you are incapable of
putting me first! Why I will always come second to your weapons and
your allies and your schemes. Even on—”

“
A war was about to break
out!”

“
On our wedding night? Twelve
hours, Everard. You couldn’t give me twelve hours before you
galloped off to meet the first cry for help that reached your ears,
off chasing that next glorious feat.” With that, she urged her
horse into a gallop, tears streaming down her face.

Ever followed along, but more
slowly. It irked him to know that his ultimate failure hadn’t been
the enchanter’s success, nor had it even been any of his idiotic
words back at the Cobrien palace. No, this pain had been brewing
since the beginning of their marriage. The chink in their
relationship had been there all along, beneath every hopeful smile
she gave him, each time he’d put her off for a foreign dignitary,
or when he’d imprisoned her in her room so he could consult with
another queen. As usual, it was his own pigheadedness that had
threatened to dash the thing he loved most.

“
I am so sorry,” he said into the
wind. The words were pathetic, but they were all he had.

Isa didn’t even turn to look at
him.

Ever pushed his horse to catch up
to her. If his heart hadn’t been contrite already, it shattered
completely when he saw the way she now wept. Her cries weren’t
silent, as they must have been for so long, but were ragged and
broken. Abandoned.

Ever wanted nothing more than to
draw her into his arms and hold her until her tears were all gone.
He would hold her until they were gone, he decided. Reaching over,
he grabbed her horse’s reigns. Then, after hopping off his own
horse, he pulled Isa off, too, ignoring her weak
protests.

“
We will sleep here
tonight.”

“
It looks cold.” Isa sniffled as
she glared at the snow-covered ground.

“
It will be cold up on the horses,
too. Besides, we won’t be in familiar territory until tomorrow. We
might as well get some rest.”

Before she could argue, Ever
lifted his hands to his face, palms up. He blew gently but steadily
into them until a small blue flame danced within them. Then, with
the flick of his wrist, Ever tossed the flame to the ground. The
blue flame grew larger, and flitted to the ground, surrounding
them, licking up all the snow in its path. It didn’t die until they
had a perfectly round patch of dry ground, large enough to fit both
the horses, a campfire, and enough space for the two of them to
stretch out fully and lie down.

Since they had moved into the
lower country, evergreen trees were scattered about. They broke the
plains of whiteness in small, uneven clumps. It didn’t take Ever
long to find and dry some firewood in the same fashion as he had
dried the ground for their camp. Soon enough, a small but warm
flame blazed in the center of the circle. As he worked to prepare
their supper, Ever watched Isa out of the corner of his
eye.

She no longer cried, but the
emptiness in her face said it all, and Ever prayed for words to
tell her what he felt. If only she could see his intentions,
perhaps she could forgive him one day.

“
I know it doesn’t change
anything.” He handed her a bowl of dried cherries, honey-sweetened
bread, and pork, then sat down beside her with his own food. “But I
swear, I was only doing what I know best to prove that I love you.”
He looked at his bowl to realize his appetite was long gone. “You
had just saved me. I was eager to show you my own love in
return.”

Isa turned and looked up at him.
The anger in her eyes had somewhat lessened, but it had been
replaced with dark circles beneath her eyes, as though she hadn’t
slept in a week. “But you were never there. How was I supposed to
know your love if you were never there?” She dropped her eyes and
muttered, “I thought you were avoiding me.”

“
Avoiding you?” What on earth had
possessed her to think that?

Isa nodded without looking up. “I
hadn’t fulfilled my duty to the Fortress. My fire was dying. I just
thought that perhaps being gone on official duty was your way of
avoiding the subject. If you were off being the king everyone
expected you to be, then you wouldn’t have to be embarrassed when
someone asked about your inept queen.”

“
Is that what you truly think?”
Ever put his bowl on the ground and grabbed her face with both
hands, forcing her to look at him. Isa bit her lip before nodding
as tears came once again to her eyes. Ever pulled her close,
holding her as she sobbed quietly into his shirt. How had he
muddled things so badly?

“
Before we go any further, you
need to understand something. My father rarely spent more than five
minutes with my mother after I was born. The way he showed his
family and the kingdom his devotion was by conquering those that
threatened their freedom.” Ever chuckled humorlessly. “You may
think I’m gone often, but I am present much more than he ever was.”
He pulled back just enough to wipe her eyes with his thumbs. “I’m
not strong enough to be without you for that long.”

“
As much as you’re absent, you
would never know it,” Isa pouted.

“
But that’s what I mean! Isa, you
grew up with a family that spent time together and built one
another up! And thanks to you, I’m learning. But it’s hard to show
love in a way you’ve never seen it! Just because I don’t know how
to love you doesn’t mean I don’t love you at all.” He gave her a
cockeyed smile. “It just shows you what an idiot I am.”

Isa let out a choked sound that
seemed part sob and part laugh, and Ever was able to breathe once
again. It was the first hint of a smile he’d seen on her face since
she’d been taken. Ever leaned over and pulled a thick blanket out
of his pack, draping it carefully over them. It would be a long
time before he was able to sleep, but the late night air was
becoming exceptionally cold. After making sure his sword was
positioned well beside him, he reached under the blanket and pulled
her closer. Warmth flooded his soul as she snuggled her head in the
hollow beneath his chin. Teach me, he begged the Fortress silently,
to show her how much I love her! I need her to know what she means
to me.

The only sounds were the snaps and
pops of the fire as it slowly ate into the firewood, and the songs
of the wind as it pushed through the trees and over the snow
drifts. The yellow tongues of flame licked the wood, filling the
air with a sweet earthy scent that rose and danced into the night
air, where it dissipated. A tired silence floated around them for
such a long time that Ever was surprised when Isa spoke
again.

“
It was just so hard to be told
time and time again that I was the Fortress’s chosen. That I was
the queen everyone had been waiting for. And then months passed.
There was no child, and my powers drifted, and you were always
gone. I suppose I never really felt the part of a queen after the
coronation, nor did I feel like your partner. You were just so good
at everything, and it felt like I could nothing right. But worst of
all, having what little power I had left ripped from my heart...”
she shuddered. “It was like losing the air from my lungs. After
Bronkendol sent me away, my heart simply decided it would be
easiest to be without feelings at all.”

She turned her face up to gaze
into his, and Ever felt his breath catch. How he had hungered to
see her look to him with that sweet adoration once more! “Forgive
me, Ever?” she whispered.

Before she could say anything
else, Ever had drawn her into the kiss he’d been craving for so
long. It was pure bliss. There were no curses to be broken, no
enchanters to defeat. Only wounds that needed to heal. And it would
take time, Ever knew, to heal the wounds they’d inflicted upon one
another. But that was alright. They had the rest of their lives to
move past this place, and Ever swore then and there to never let
her hide from him again.

Ever would have gone on kissing
her forever, but Isa pulled away, a small frown on her
face.

“
I’m still not sure where to go
from here. I mean,” she stared at her hands, “a little of my power
returned at the Glass Castle, but only just a little.”

Ever placed his forehead against
hers. “Honestly? I don’t know. This is new for me, too.” He picked
up her left hand and traced circles on her finger, around the
crystal ring she always wore. “My father and I were close, but
either he was king or I was. I’ve never had a partner before. And I
mean it when I say I’ve never needed anyone so much.” He tipped her
chin up, drinking her beauty in. Her hair was mussed and there were
deep shadows beneath her eyes, but never had she been so lovely.
“You may think I’m strong,” he whispered, “but I don’t know how to
go on without you. I may be Destin’s sword, but you are the heart.
I cannot tell what the Fortress has in store for you, but you are
too rare a woman for its choice to have been an
accident.”

For the first time, a wide,
radiant smile shone from her face, and an all-too-familiar yearning
filled Ever as her flame-rimmed midnight eyes stared up into his.
He began to pull her in again for another kiss, but she gently
placed her fingertips on his lips.

He must have looked pathetic, for
Isa let out a laugh, her blue eyes sparkling.

“
You can have all the kisses you
want in a minute, but your queen needs something from you
first.”

“
The king will do all that is
within his power and more,” he said somberly as he lifted her
fingers to his lips and bowed his head. “For he is under your
spell.”

Isa giggled again, then looked as
if she was trying to be serious. “If you truly mean it when you
believe I was meant to be queen, I need you to trust me to be your
partner. You can’t keep hiding me away like a little
doll.”