The gardens out back were as big as the ones on the Hallowell estate, but wilder: rose bushes clambering over random lattices and wildflowers left to bloom around the bases of the pear and plum trees. Together they gave off a pungent floral scent. Rose skirted them on her way into the sparsely wooded area at the back of the property. The longer grass there whispered under her feet.
She stopped in a little clearing about five minutes from the house and turned around. I turned with her, taking the space in. The trees were spaced far enough apart to let warm sunlight stream down, so grass carpeted the ground beneath us. But we’d come far enough that they hid the house and any sign of what else might lie beyond them in every direction. Privacy without feeling too closed in.
“It’s perfect,” I said.
“I thought so too.” She dragged in a breath and let it out slow. Gently, she set down the bowl with her supplies at the base of one of the trees. “I do want you all to be there. I meant that. I think you should be a part of the ceremony just like you were the first time, even if this one is mostly about Gabriel.”
“Absolutely. You know we want to be a part of this… collective? In every way.”
She chuckled at my choice of words. “Quite a collective it’s becoming. But maybe once I have that bond with Gabriel, and with Aunt Ginny’s family on our side… Maybe there is a chance we can push back that faction of the Assembly and put down roots somewhere.”
“I think there’s more than a chance,” I said. “But you need to give yourself space to breathe too, Rose. It’s not all on you.”
When her mouth slanted down as if she meant to argue, I motioned her closer. “Come here.” Hooking my hand around her elbow, I sat us down on the grass and then lay back. Rose made a vague sound of protest but followed me anyway. I kept my arm looped around hers and gestured with my other hand toward the sky.
“Look at the way the sunlight shimmers as it passes through the leaves. Look at how fucking blue that sky is. This is yours, right now. Personally, I don’t think there’s any point in even being alive if we don’t stop and absorb the beauty around us when we have a moment to.”
Rose was silent for a minute. “It is beautiful,” she said. “You’re right.” Some of the tension had ebbed from her voice. She twined her fingers with mine. “And I have a family I didn’t even know anything about a few days ago—a family that wants to support me.”
“A cousin who likes the same books you do.”
“I’ll be able to sleep in not just a bed but a comfortable one tonight.”
“And you have five hot and charming, if I do say so myself, guys who’ll happily share that bed with you.”
She laughed and rolled onto her side to sling her arm around my waist. “It’s pretty amazing, isn’t it, how much good there can be even when everything seems totally wrong?”
“You’re pretty amazing,” I told her. But the joy I’d been looking for had come back into her eyes. Her shoulders were no longer tight. The ache I’d felt before dissolved into a wash of warmth.
I’d worried in the past that I wasn’t taking things seriously enough, that I was focusing too much on how to make Rose happy and not enough on what would keep her safe. But there was room for both, wasn’t there? And this was the part I was good at. This was the part I loved. Bringing a smile to her face, knowing I’d lit a little awe and pleasure inside her.
Of course, there were ways I could add to that pleasure.
This time I didn’t hold myself back. I rolled to meet her, capturing her lips with mine. Rose sighed happily into the kiss, her fingers teasing up the back of my neck with a heady tingle through my skin. Her mouth tasted like the fresh pears we’d been eating at lunch time.
I kissed her again and then trailed my lips down her jaw to her neck, reveling in the hitch of her breath, the scoot of her body to press even closer to mine.
“What do you say we take this spot out for a little trial run?” I said.
Her giggle, light as anything, was a victory in itself. “I’d say that sounds like a very good idea,” she said, and pulled my mouth back to hers.
Chapter Nineteen
Rose
It felt strange walking out between the trees of Aunt Ginny’s estate under the pale light of the waning moon. So different from the first consort ceremony I’d orchestrated. All the fears that had been hanging over me then, all the need for secrecy—that was gone.
I still had fears, but they were new ones. And this time I walked together with my consorts and the man I’d soon also be consorted to. This time there was no uncertainty about what they’d say, how they’d respond to the idea. The only unknown was whether the great Spark, the light of all our lives, would let me accept another partner.
Gabriel walked next to me, his hand around mine. When we reached the clearing, I paused. The pleasantly cool night breeze rustled through the leaves overhead and licked over the simple dress I’d chosen, carrying the smell of wildflowers from the garden.
The other guys came to a stop around us, watching me in the near darkness. Anticipation hung in the air so thickly I could almost taste it, tart and electric on my tongue.
All that preparation, and I still wasn’t completely sure where to start.
Gabriel gave my hand a gentle tug, turning me toward him. He bent his head so his forehead grazed mine. His voice came out low but steady.
“I want this. I want you. I don’t have a single doubt about that. In case you needed to hear it again.”