Chapter Two

Icelyn looked at Malcolm for a beat, waiting for the impact of what he had just said to really sink in and process through her confused, tangled thoughts.

“What did you say?” she finally asked.

“You can marry me,” Malcolm said. “If we get married, I will be a part of your family, I will be able to release your grandfather from exile.”

Icelyn took an involuntary step back, needing more space around her even though she wasn’t entirely sure why. Her breath felt like it wasn’t getting all the way into her lungs and her vision was swirling in front of her as she tried to let everything wash over her and straighten in her mind.

“Marry you?” she asked again. “That’s your solution?” she looked at the other two men, waiting for one of them to say something, to add to the conversation so that she could better understand what he was saying. “You think that we should get married? Just like that?”

Malcolm stepped up to her and reached forward to take her hands in his. He brought them up to his mouth and touched a kiss to the backs of her fingers. He stared into her eyes, holding her gaze with an intensity that nearly took her breath away and made it impossible for her to look away.

“I would be honored to be a part of your family,” he said, “and to give of myself the way that they have.”

Though the other men standing in the room were staring at them expectantly, Malcolm spoke to her as if they were the only two people who could hear his words. She knew that he was speaking to her from his heart, expressing what had already existed within him even before he was told by the other men that this was the only way that they could rescue Casimir from where he waited, where he had been waiting for her entire life. Despite this, Icelyn hesitated. As much as she wanted to trust him, to know that he was speaking purely and with the most tender of intentions, she still felt like there was a wall between them. The wall was crafted from years of being alone and knowing not to trust anyone, not to ever believe the words that can between the lips of someone who her parents hadn’t personally introduced her to or whose name she hadn’t heard them say. Though she had still been so young when they had died, she had strong, specific memories of them, and it was only their words that she could use to guide her as she got older. Someone had hurt them. Someone had betrayed them. And she believed that if she kept herself surrounded by their words, shrouded by the warnings that they had given her even when they didn’t know that they were, she would be as protected as possible.

Malcolm drew her closer to him with a gentle tug of her hands and touched his forehead against hers. As soon as she felt the contact, she took a step back, pulling her hands from his and shaking her head.

“What is it?” Malcolm asked.

“All my life I’ve been controlled by what happened to my family. I’ve spent every day of my entire existence with the burden of who they were and what they went through hanging over me. I haven’t been able to do anything or make any decision without wondering who is watching me and if one day I might end up like them. Now all of you want to turn my marriage into an act of war.”

“Even if it is an act of war, why is that anything to be embarrassed or upset about? It is the strongest and most powerful act of rebellion to love in the face of horror and stand together in the face of danger.”

“Love?” Icelyn asked softly.

Malcolm nodded and took a cautious step toward her again.

“I love you with everything that is in me. I know that I have only known you such a short time, but that doesn’t matter to me. I don’t believe like I need to know you for any longer to know what I feel for you and what I know that I will feel for you every day for the rest of my life. I want to grow and learn and face that life with you by my side.”

Icelyn felt like the wall that had existed around her since the day that her parents died crumbled and she saw the world around her clearly for the first time. Her vision sharpened, and her thoughts clarified. Malcolm’s words had reached a part of her that she didn’t even know existed, a part of her that seemed like it had been waiting always to hear exactly what he had just said. But that was only one part. He couldn’t be responsible for all of it. He couldn’t be the only one who was reaching out and hoping that she would be there. Instead, Icelyn knew that she had to make just as much of a move, show just as much determination, awareness, and purposefulness. She took a step toward him, closing the space completely and finally putting the defenses behind her, making her at once vulnerable and the most protected that she had ever been.

“I love you,” she said. “I can’t explain it and I don’t understand it, but that is how I know that it’s right and exactly what I have been needing for my entire life. I am afraid of what this might mean, but I am more afraid of what it would mean to live my life without you. If this is an act of war, then I am more than willing to offer my service to you, to my family, and to my planet. I would be honored to marry you.”

Malcolm reached forward and wrapped his arms around her, sweeping her up against him so that he could tuck his head into the curve of her neck and shoulder. She looped her arms around his neck and held him close, feeling emotion swelling through her until it reached every part of her. She felt as though life and warmth were spreading through her to the tips of her fingers. This was everything that she ever could have wanted, and she knew that even if this was so rushed, so hurried from the moment that she first met him, that it was absolutely right and exactly where she was meant to be.