The Offering (The Pledge 3)

Blinking, even though I understood, I nodded. “Does Max know you’re going?”

Xander looked past my shoulder, smiling at someone behind me. “I already told him.”

I felt Max’s hand on my shoulder then, squeezing it reassuringly. “I told him you’d cry,” he accused, but there was no admonishment. His voice was soft and filled with tenderness.

I nudged him with my elbow. “I’m not crying,” I lied, blinking harder.

Max’s lips grazed the sensitive skin of my ear, sending a shiver everywhere over my skin. Now, however, he could no longer see my reaction to his touch. It was mine and mine alone.

The glow had vanished, along with Sabara.

Max kissed my cheek, too, and that was when I felt it. The moisture on my cheek, making it clear that just because I no longer shone didn’t mean he couldn’t read me. “Of course you’re not.”

Xander watched us, a wistful smile finding his lips. “I’ll miss you. Both of you,” he said. “But it’ll be easier now. The new communication ports will make it easy to stay in contact.” His eyes crinkled. “No more waiting days for envoys to deliver messages. What a strange new world.”

I didn’t mention that the last time I’d received a message from Astonia, it had been a box that had contained his hand. And I didn’t tell him I’d be happy to never see another messenger in my lifetime.

“A wonderful new world,” I breathed.

It was Sage who had made it all possible, sending teams of her own engineers and technicians to help us install a complex system and the necessary power sources to keep it running. I couldn’t believe how quickly it had been connected, but the tests, up to this point, had far exceeded my wildest dreams. Of course, I suspected she’d had ulterior motives for outfitting us with such elaborate equipment so soon after our return, and she and Xander had used it far more than anyone else in the palace.

Now, however, they would no longer need such sophisticated technology to converse. Xander would be making a new home for himself in Astonia.

“We’ll miss you, too,” Max said, and I felt the weight of his arm tightening around my waist as he watched his brother turn to leave.

“Wait!” I called out, stopping Xander before he could go. “You should be here for this.”

My heart fluttered, and I was suddenly grateful for the fact that my emotions were no longer visible. If they had been, Max would have seen a million fireworks bursting beneath my skin, revealing my nerves as I slipped my hand into my pocket. My fingers moved over the linked metal of the chain, and my mind raced over the scenario I’d replayed in my head a hundred times already.

And then I glanced up and met Max’s steely gaze, and everything inside me went still. Every explosion went silent, every beat of my pulse settled.

I wanted this.

Removing my hand from my pocket once more, I reached my hand out to him, my fingers curled in a ball. “I think it’s time you give this to me. Properly.”

Max looked at me, his eyebrows knitting together as he studied my outstretched hand curiously. “What is it?” he asked, even as his hand moved over to meet mine.

I opened my fingers and dropped the pendant into his waiting palm. The chain bloomed outward, like petals opening around a sapphire eye.

He blinked uncertainly as he looked up at me. “Are you . . .” He hesitated, his voice filled with restrained hope. “Are you absolutely sure, Charlie?”

My heart swelled and my face broke, the grin I could no longer contain spreading wide. “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life,” I answered. “I’m ready. I want you to be my husband—my king—Max.”

I’d imagined so many scenarios, yet in not one of them had I imagined Max dropping to his knee as he took my hand and pledged his fealty to me all over again.

Yet that was what he did, his fingers closing around mine as the pendant was pressed between our palms, warm against my skin.

“I promise,” he began, his words unwavering as his eyes reached all the way to mine, “to protect you, Charlie, for as long as I live. I will love you with everything I have. And I will stand by your side for an eternity.”

I bit back my own emotion as I watched his gray eyes glisten, and then he stood and unclasped the necklace.

I watched with breathless anticipation as he slid it around my neck and the meaning of the stone settled over my chest. When he clasped it this time, I knew what it meant. It was a promise—a vow.

Max and I were engaged.

And then he kissed me, the way I’d envisioned he would. But so, so much better.

When at last he released me . . . when my head stopped spinning, as did the world beneath my feet . . . and Max’s hand slipped around mine to steady me, I heard Xander’s voice and remembered he’d been standing there all along.

“Welcome to the family,” he said.