Page 72 of A Spell of Heart & Havoc

Dove was squealing with happiness. Bastion and Orinno linked arms and danced ridiculously around the bed, the cleric’s robes flailed wildly as the merchant-mage swung him about in increasingly frenetic spins. The infirmary’s other healer, though grinning, started trying to corral us all back into a semblance of calm.

“The boy must rest! He’s been through an ordeal. Come now, you hooligans, out. Out!”

Orinno, still chuckling, paused his merriment and came over, clasping my shoulder with a kind hand. “She’s right. Look at him,” he said, pointing at Balfie’s drooping eyelids. A pang of worry hit me, but Orinno shook his head. “It’s alright, Maerryl. I promise you he’s fine now. The boy will need some days to recover, gain his strength back, but he’s through the worst. You cured him.”

I turned to him, wiping tears away. “With your help. Yours and the priory’s. Thank you for everything, Orinno.”

He just smiled and patted my arm. Pulling Bastion away, they left the infirmary together, clapping each other joyfully on the back.

I gazed down at my little brother again, planting one more kiss on his brow as he drifted off to sleep. The healer assured me she’d stay with him until he woke up for his first meal. After all this time, after everything, I finally had my little brother returned to me. This was the happiest day of my life.

“Maerryl? Can I talk to you out there for a minute?”

Dove appeared at my side, a serious look on her face, and gestured to the door that led out into the infirmary’s small garden.

Oh, goddess. This sounded bad.

Well, you knew it was probably coming, sooner or later.

Whatever happened, I could handle it. I’d pick myself up, and I’d keep going. Balfie and I, reunited.

I took a deep breath, nodded to Dove, and followed her outside.

34

DOVE

Out in the peaceful green space, what the infirmary called their “healing garden,” I rehearsed again in my head what I wanted to say. The gist of it, anyway. This whole miraculous, wonderful scene with Balfie’s awakening had gotten everything a bit jumbled with emotion. I’d never seen Maerryl so overcome. So beautifully, blissfully full of joy.

If I wasn’t already deeply in love with her, that scene would have made me fall all over again.

But I’d had plenty of time to think in these past weeks. As icky as some of the prioress’s cleaning tasks were, they certainly gave me the time and space to sort out my feelings as we worked together, nearby but mostly apart. If it hadn’t been for our deal with Lumelle, I likely would have shut myself away in my manor, in my room—trying and failing to forget about the scowling half-dwarf who’d stolen my heart.

Not for the first time, I wondered if the prioress had known that, and chosen a request that would keep Mae and me stuck together while here. That cheeky, meddling elder.

I must make a mental note to bring them a special treat over from Choia one of these days.

Stepping to Maerryl where she stood by a boxwood bush shaped like a crescent moon, I cleared my throat. Her shoulders hitched up slightly, but she turned toward me. Hazel pools of uncertainty, her eyes pulled me in. I knew what I wanted now.

“Do you remember the night of the heist, after we returned back to the manor? I’d never seen anyone yell at Mother and Father like that,” I said.

“Sorry if I crossed a line,” she said quickly. And then, she muttered, “They deserved it though. Jerks.”

I barked out a laugh, and one side of her mouth quirked up, even as she nervously fiddled with a buckle on her pants. Taking that hand, I pulled it to my lips and kissed her rough knuckles. Mae’s breath caught.

“Maerryl Kirim. You are, by far, the worst bodyguard in the history of the profession. And a pretty terrible thief too, to be honest. May I suggest a career change?”

Her gaze moved from my hand holding hers to my eyes, confused. “… Yes?”

“Be my gardener. There is so much work to be done on the estate. I know you’ll be brilliant at it.”

“You want me to be the gardener there?” Disappointment clouded her face.

“I do,” I said primly. “And my girlfriend. If that’s amenable to you.”

Mae blinked at me once. Then again.

Then suddenly, she lunged toward me, sinking her hands close to cradle my head, connecting our lips in a kiss that felt like my first full breath in weeks. I pressed nearer, brushing my fingertips over and over her cheek. She sighed into me, kissing like she’d thought she’d never be allowed to again, before pulling back to hold me in a tight hug.