Chapter Forty-five

Volencia threw her arms around him, kissing him deeply. Her whole body shaking with excitement. When she broke away, she didn’t stop kissing him, trailing along his jaw, cheeks, and nose. Damion laughed. “I hope that means yes?”

“No.” She laughed, still kissing him.

His hands went to her shoulders, and he pulled away from her slightly, his eyes wide with worry. “What do you mean no? Your actions and words don’t match.”

Volencia reached out to smooth the worry lines that formed on his brow. “Well, even though I said I didn’t mind, how can I be sure you won’t regret breaking tradition? We haven’t been blessed by the gods yet.”

Damion’s eyes narrowed at her, “That wasn’t very nice of you, love.”

Volencia giggled, pushing a strand of hair behind his ear. “I’m sorry, in all seriousness, I love you, and of course I’ll—”

Damion covered her mouth with his hand. “Oh no you don’t. You gave me your answer. We’ll have to wait until a unicorn appears now.”

She pulled at his hand, “I’m sorry, I was only kidding.”

He gave her a rueful smile, “I’m not. It is tradition after all. But what will you do if one doesn’t show up?”

“Come back here every day until one does.” She pouted. “Or just convince you that it doesn’t really matter.”

Volencia started to try to climb off him, but he caught her in his arms. “Love,” his hands and lips worked her over, intoxicating her senses as his fingers roamed, “We’ve got to leave soon, but before we do, why don’t you look back and see how truly blessed we are?”

Twisting in his lap, she eagerly turned to see a herd of unicorns lapping at the water and prancing through the flowers. “Damion!” She squealed, unable to get out of his lap fast enough, “There must be twenty of them!”

In her scrambling, Damion caught a knee to his ribs, “Careful,” and her foot caught on his knee. She pitched forward toward the pond. Screaming as the water swallowed her. “Volencia!” Dropping the necklace near the box, Damion jumped into the water after her, but when she resurfaced, she was laughing. “You okay?” He asked swimming over to her.

“Yeah, I suppose that’s one way to cool off.” She splashed at him. The unicorns were prancing, stomping their hooves, and whinnying as if joining in the laughter. “There must be twenty of them here.”

“Actually,” He said, his hand wrapping around her waist and pulling her close, “There’s twenty-two.” A few of the unicorns jumped into the water, joining them and moved around the two elves gracefully. “Acorn was actually the first to come to the area. Trey and I came upon him as he was trying to give birth. Their species were made to balance the world after Necron’s monsters started rampaging, but like the monsters, they couldn’t mate or give birth. So, he needed our help. With my magic and Trey’s support, we assisted each of them. Helping a unicorn give birth has been one of the most unpleasant things I’ve had to do, but it’s very rewarding after.”

Volencia wrapped her arms around his neck, letting him keep her afloat. “See, those aren’t the actions of someone who will simply allow the downfall of the world because it’s unbalanced. The Queen of the Dark Hive was wrong about you.”

He smiled at her, lifting her up and out of the water further. “You think so?”

“Absolutely.” She wrapped her legs around his waist, “Can you get me out? I’m cold and my dress is feeling too heavy.”

“Of course.”

“Is it okay if I try to touch one? They’re so beautiful.”

“They won’t mind.” Damion swam over to a smaller ledge where she would have less of a hard time climbing out. “There aren’t any banks here, so you’ll have to climb out, I’ll boost you from behind if you need me to.” The rocks kept rolling under her feet, or breaking away in her hand. She slipped backward into Damion a few times, but she became embarrassed as he pulled himself up behind her, holding her body up with his own. Despite the cold water, she could feel his body harden against her, “Come on, a few more steps…”

“I can’t… my dress is all twisted.” She clung to him, worried she was about to go down.

“Alright, this is going to be a bit awkward.” He chuckled, putting his hand between her thighs and lifting her left leg up further. Soon her shoulder blades were pressed against his chest, and he was holding her legs out in front of him. He got a part of the way up before, twisting around and landing on his backside, “Ooof.”

“Are you okay?” She asked, squirming trying to turn around.

“Wait…” his hands grabbed her waist, “Put your legs on either side of mine, I’m going to lift us up backward.”

“Thank goodness you asked me to be your wife, otherwise think about how inappropriate this would be.” She let her hand glide up his thigh, squeezing him gently reaching as far up as she could without actually grabbing his crotch. He froze, inhaling quickly. His breath was hot on her back.

“Well, I don’t think we’re technically engaged yet. I asked, but you didn’t ever actually say yes, nor did you take my gift. So, we’re both being very inappropriate.”

“I just wanted to make sure I got a nice feel just like you did.” She said quietly, shivering. She was cold and excited. He started moving again, his arms pushing them up the incline of the pond backward. When he made it to the grass, he left his legs dangling over the side and laid back completely. “Also, next time, you should try here.” She lifted his hands, placing them over her breasts. “I can’t tell you how much I wish our clothes weren’t in the way right now.”

Damion’s eyes went dark, he bit his lip, which she knew meant he was trying to make sure he maintained control of himself. Her fingers coxed his into messaging her, and her thumbs caressed her nipples. “Volencia…” his voice was rough, his hips jerked against her. “Behave… I’d rather we actually be engaged before we get too close.” Though he didn’t bother to pull his hands away from her. “Besides, we’re running out of time here. It’s going to be dark soon, so we can only stay for a few more minutes.” He sat up, kissing her neck.

“You have to actually let me go if you want me to get off you.” He mumbled something, but she could only giggle at him. “I’m getting up now.” His hands slid away, but he closed his eyes, just laying there a moment as she went over to the unicorns. A few minutes later, she heard him sigh behind her.

“You can talk to them through the mind if you’d like.” When she turned to look at him, his face was bright red and he seemed to be avoiding looking at her. “You have to give them permission, and they you. You need to project your thoughts toward them, much like forming and speaking words and projecting them toward someone who’s further away.” He said. “Would you like to do it with me first?”

“Yes, please.” She bounced as he reached a finger toward her forehead. The unicorn he called Acorn crawled out of the pool and came to stand beside her. He traced a rune on her forehead, closing his eyes, and pressing his own to her until they were skin to skin.

“Repeat after me, I’m yours, heart, mind, and soul.”

Without hesitation, she chanted, “I am yours, heart, mind, and soul.”

*There.* Damion said, *can you hear me? She nodded. Now, think of something you want to say to me, and push it out from your thoughts to mine.*

*What kind of spell requires words like that? What if I wanted to be able to speak with someone and I don’t want to say that I belong to them?*

Damion laughed, caressing her cheek. *That wasn’t part of the spell, I just wanted to hear you say it.*

Pushing his chest gently, he laughed, *Will we need to do that with all the unicorns?*

Volencia shivered as he kept speaking into her mind. The way his words echoed was enough to make her head hurt, not to mention it felt like her brain was being pulled through a pond full of seaweed that kept tangling her thoughts up. *That won’t be necessary. The unicorns can create their own connection by touching their horn to you.*

*You said it will be different?* She was nervous. She already wasn’t too fond of this form of communication.

*Yes. They communicate a lot through feelings. It can become pretty overwhelming fast. I’ll be able to tell if that happens for you now though and can help protect you against it.* Volencia chewed her lip, unsure if she should continue with this.

“I’m scared.” She whispered as the unicorn, called Acorn, nuzzled her arm.

“We know.” Damion’s fingers ran through Acorn’s mane. “Acorn promises there’s nothing to be afraid of. Also remember, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.”

Volencia ran her fingers over Acorn’s neck. The unicorns were more the size of ponies verses horses, though not as stocky. Most of their bodies were slender and sleek. A few of them had larger bellies. There was a group of five foals playing in a grove of long grass filled with lavender shoots taller than them.

“But I trust you.” She looked away from him, blushing.

Damion frowned, “I know you do. But Volencia, that doesn’t mean you have to do everything I ask of you. You can trust my judgement and still not want to do it. If I told you to jump in the pool again, because it’s safe, doesn’t mean you want to do it. If you say no, I know it doesn’t mean you don’t trust me.”

“I want to…” Volencia hugged Acorn, who whinnied happily, “I just don’t like the way if feels.”

Damion nodded, “I didn’t like it before I really learned to control it either. We can practice and come back later if you’d prefer. It helps once you can contain the noise. Otherwise, it can echo a lot, Trey used to screech into my head just to irritate me.”

“He sounds like he was an obnoxious kid.” She laughed, rubbing her hand across Acorn’s neck. “They’re so soft.”

“We both were.” Damion shrugged.

“Is it okay to wait? Acorn and the others won’t be upset?”

“Of course not. Look how happy they are. They want me to tell you they’re excited to see you again and they eagerly await the moment when you can all share your thoughts comfortably.” The foals started to prance around them, nuzzling against Acorn and then the elves.

“Thank you for being willing to wait.” Volencia smiled, going to her knees to be closer to the foals.

Damion met her on that level, looking up into the sky. “It’s about time we all head home anyway.” The third gretemp of the day was upon them, turning the horizon a deep violet color.

Volencia nodded, admiring the sunset between the trees. “I would love to go home with you.”

When her eyes met his, he gave her a smile that almost showed to dimples. He held out the beautiful wooden box a second time. “Be my wife?”

“Yes.” She smiled; he was everything she had ever wanted.

Clasping the necklace around her throat, Damion pulled her to him, kissing her deeply. “Thank you, you’ve just made me the happiest elf in all of Rhelia.”

“I think I might be able to give you a run for that… You’ve done the same for me after all.”