"Oh, yes, please."
He stood, wrapping her in a blanket and lifting her into his arms. She rested her hands around his neck and clung to him, her heart beating against his. He kissed the top of her head and carried her out of the room. At the end of the corridor a door stood open, letting the winter sun pour in. At the doorway he paused and looked down at her. “My heart can rest easy again seeing you in the sunlight.” He bent to kiss her mouth, his love and spirit infusing her entire body.
He carried her outside, across a courtyard and toward a pool of water contained in a circle of stones. Sitting on the narrow ledge surrounding it, he settled her into his lap, tucking her trailing nightgown and the blanket away from the water's edge.
"It was here, at this very poolside, over a hundred years ago and in the time of the battle, that the elder known as Amelia made her prediction about you, my love."
Maerose looked at the pool in wonder.
"It was her staff that we carried,” he continued. “It was handed down from generation to generation, growing in power and love. It was her magic that helped to bring you home."
"And you?” She smiled up at him. He never spoke of himself in such grand terms, only others.
He gave a soft laugh. “You have this man's heart tethered to you, what else could I do?"
She reached for a kiss, savoring the feeling of him against her.
"Look here.” He pointed out the source, where the water trickled down through an old wall, through pebbles stacked at its base and into the pool, feeding it. “This water comes from the hills at the furthest reach of Edren. The same source has fed the whole of Edren for many hundreds of years. Except for The Strangeling, which remained dry for the past century. Now the river flows there, too. The land grows vital again, rich in living things."
He dipped his hand into the pool, trailing his fingers through the water, causing ripples to cross it. She dipped her fingers beside his, the crisp, cold water delicious against her hand. She felt him focus his power, and within the shifting waters of the pool she saw an image of a beautiful place, a land where creatures could thrive and the earth grew fertile, the trees alive once more.
"It will take time,” he said, “but when summer truly arrives the land is now ready to receive her properly. You have given The Strangeling forest back to Edren."
"I have dreamed of it, many times, but I would dearly love to see it that way."
"You shall, you made it live again. It is only just that we return to welcome the summer gift you gave."
"Bron, you led me. You had the power. I was your channel. We did it together."
"You knew instinctively what the entwined act of faith and love was, when it was needed."
She chuckled softly. “You glorify me unjustly, my love. My reasons were much more selfish than that. I could not bear to lose you."
"It was the ultimate sacrifice."
"Please tell me that I won't have to repeat the act each time we reach Samhain."
His eyes twinkled. “No, although we might have to mark the occasion somehow."
"Oh, I can think of an appropriate way to mark the occasion.” Her hands roamed over his broad chest, sighing as she melted in his arms, her body pounding in response to the need that flooded from him.
"That sounds fair,” he responded, his voice hoarse, his body growing taut with desire.
"Can I ask you to make a sacrifice for me, though?"
"Anything,” he murmured against her throat, where he was planting gentle kisses.
"Will you give up your hermit life, take a wife, and rear a family?"
"On one condition."
"Condition?"
"Just one. That the wife is you.” And when he kissed her, he planted the image of their union in her mind, and Maerose returned it tenfold, her heart soaring alongside his.
THE END
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