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“Open your mind to me.”
With only a little fear, which I ruthlessly kicked down, I did. Found his already open to me, like a warm embrace. It helped immensely and I clung to that as well.
“Make the wish. I shall do the same.” He stopped himself from saying more, though I clearly read the caution in his thoughts.Be specific. Be precise. And truly want it.
Wishes never did work right, unless you truly wanted them to come true.
“Take the time you need and show me when you’re ready.”
Did every bride do this? Did they all stand at that moment of saying “I do” and gaze down at the chasm of years? So many people regretted that vow, wished to take it back and never could. The devastation of divorce only made it worse and I faced far more dire consequences.
I tried to ignore those thoughts and muster the energy for the wish, but couldn’t find the wanting. I needed the desire to make the fuel, to set the spark. Apparently I lacked the heroic gene, because marrying Rogue to save humanity turned out not to be enough for me. Instead, I tapped into my emotions around our unborn child, giving her a face, using her as the reason.
But no.
All this time, Rogue held my hands, watching me, listening to my thoughts. Knowing I couldn’t make it happen. Because I didn’t want it enough.
He acknowledged that with a bare nod and a sigh. “I understand,” he said. “We’ll find another way.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
He smiled, a self-deprecating twist of his mouth. “I blame myself.” And chasing behind that thought came an image of the boy, alone on a beach, as thousands of dead birds rained around him. His fault. No wonder I couldn’t love him.
But I did.
Despite logic and reason and all the lists in the world, I did.
I gazed up at his unearthly beautiful face, caged behind the pattern of spirit lines. Silver frost gilded his inky hair, his blue-black magic like a nimbus of light around him, so alien, and saw only the man inside.Him.Not with the eyes, but with the mind. Though we occupied different kinds of bodies, came from different worlds, we were the same on some fundamental level.
Like to like.
I’d looked for him even when I hadn’t known what to look for.
If you won’t do it for your own good, consider doing it for mine.
If it was a mistake, so be it, but at that moment, nothing existed but the way I felt about him. I added to it, a measure of shining hope for what our future could be, what we could build together. He borrowed that feeling from me and fed it with his own desire, that I would care for him, let him care for me, and we would be one mind, one voice. A force that could not be put asunder.
He knew it before I did—as always—and, at the moment I formed my wish for us, he set the blazing spark of his intention to it.
At that precise instant, just as we set intention to desire, we kissed.
Minds, mouths, wills.
We joined them together.
Made them one.
It detonated around us, our combined wish a shock wave that set the water beneath our feet boiling in reaction. The waterfall curled up on itself, then unwound with crashing force, sending up a chime of songbirds without number.
The wedding guests cheered in thunderous approval.
Echoed by Titania’s shriek of rage.
Chapter 20
Send in the Clowns
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