Chapter 149

Theodore’s POV

My carriage had dropped me off at the border at 9am as instructed. I waited by the road with a suitcase and my backpack, on edge. If the wrong person found me before Violet showed up…

A black sedan approached, slowing as it neared me. When it got close enough, I recognized my mate’s beautiful eyes staring back at me through the windshield, and I let out a heavy breath.

I dropped my backpack as she pulled off the road and leapt out of the car. We rushed to each other, and I picked her up to wrap her legs around me. A shower of wildflowers cascaded over us as if they were raining from the sky.

I laughed into our kiss before pulling away to watch the flowers fall around us. “So you have… flower power?”

But she didn’t roll her eyes as expected. In fact, she looked a little bashful in my arms as she shrugged one shoulder. “I think my subconscious associates them with you.”

I examined the flowers once more. “From outside our cabin?”

She inhaled sharply, a smile tugging at her lips. “You called it our cabin.”

I only kissed her in response.

Eventually, to my dismay, she pulled away from me. “Come on, Alpha Nightshade. We have a long drive ahead of us.”

Her wink that followed was laced with naughty promises.

We threw my bags in the trunk, and I climbed into the passenger seat. Violet pulled us back onto the road. “It’s fueled by emotion, isn’t it?”

Not following, I looked to her to clarify.

“My magic.”

Ah. “Aren’t you the one with a degree in magic?”

There was the eye roll I was looking for. “Magical engineering, smart ass. And yes, I’m aware generally that to access one’s magic, you’re supposed to feel for it in your emotions, but it never occurred to me that intense emotions might trigger the magic.”

I closed my eyes in understanding. “That’s why you lost control at the ball. You were angry because of what Lucas said?”

Violet turned off the road toward the border onto a dirt road. I guessed Owen’s infrastructure ended here.

“I was sad to see you with Eva instead of me, I was pissed to see her all over you, pissed at myself for putting you in that position with her. And honestly, still a little heartbroken at what Lucas did… and what I let him do.”

I reached across the center console, and she mimicked me, interlacing our fingers. By the Goddess, I would never again take for granted the simple pleasure of holding her hand.

“And I’m feeling everything more intensely thanks to my pregnancy hormones, so that impacts it, too.”

Of course. I hadn’t even thought about that.

“By the way,” she squeezed my hand, “see that line up ahead where the barren dirt all around us suddenly turns into a lush, tropical forest?”

“Yeah…” I stared ahead, amazed by the drastic change in landscape that quite literally drew a line out in front of us.

“That’s where magic starts back up again. You’ll probably feel the difference once we cross over, so don’t freak out when you feel it.”

I caressed the top of her hand with my thumb. “Noted. Hey, speaking of your pregnancy symptoms, how are they?”

She blew out a breath. “They’re better than when I vomited all over Owen’s dining room table.”

I laughed at the image.

“I still get a little dizzy and nauseous from time to time. Auntie says the symptoms will be gone in a week or two. She’s meeting us at the village to help us get settled and to give me and the baby another check-up.”

I untangled our fingers, reaching to splay mine across her belly. My eyes stung with tears. “I’ve hardly had time to marvel at this miracle.”

Violet rested her hand over mine and smiled. I looked her over in awe, noticing that her breasts were a little swollen. She looked healthy and supple.

I noticed a cord around her neck. I pulled my hand from her stomach to reach for it, pulling out my mother’s token that she had restrung on a sturdy black cord.

“For the next ten days, I wanted this back where it belonged,” she smiled. Her love for me raced down the bond, moving me speechless. I opened my mouth, not even knowing what to say, when I was slammed into my seat.

“Violet?” I reached for her, but she was driving like nothing had happened.

“Sorry,” she winced, “that was the magical barrier. I forget it feels more intense the first time. Welcome to Henosis.”

“Henosis?”

Violet sighed. “King Owen doesn’t deign to refer to it by its name, so on the other side of the border we only refer to it as ‘outside the border’, but the locals call it Henosis.”

I steadied myself in my seat as I peered out the window at the surrounding lushness. Ferns and trees in all shades of green opened their leaves out toward the sky and the earth and the dirt road that barely carved through what was less a forest and more of a jungle.

“Amazing,” I mumbled.

Violet seemed to hold back, allowing me to take this new land in silently. I was in awe.

Eventually though, she spoke up. “Theo, we need to talk about something.”

I dreaded what was behind her tone, and I tried to lighten the mood. “Like where you’d like me to start kissing you as I disrobe you once we get wherever we’re going.”

Violet groaned like she would in fact much rather discuss that.

“Like whether or not you would actually be willing to take the crown.”

Well, that certainly killed the mood.

It was one of our conversations that had been interrupted in the cabin a couple weeks ago. I had thought about it on and off since then, and I knew my answer.

“I would do it to keep our family safe,” I said, reaching once more for her hand.

She squeezed mine as our fingers threaded together. “I hate the idea of asking you to make that kind of sacrifice. You’d be so good at it; may I ask why you don’t want it?”

That’s the part I hadn’t fully figured out yet. “I don’t know. I’m always avoided the spotlight.”

She rubbed her thumb along mine. “Will you think about it? If we can understand what part of the role doesn’t appeal to you, maybe we can work around it somehow.”

I took a deep breath as my chest constricted. “Yeah, I’ll think about it.”

“Ideally, if you could think about it on this trip, that would be helpful. Whether or not we decide you will be the one to replace Owen, we need a plan. Even if that plan involves finding someone else for the job.”

I nodded as a small village came into view.

“I bought us time with this trip and the divorce, but Eva is growing impatient. I probably only have a couple weeks, maybe a month, before she starts calling my bluff.”

Violet squeezed my hand and said nothing.

“Don’t feel guilty, please.” I leaned over the console to kiss her on the cheek. “I’d rather it be me than you.”

The look she gave me told me she’d rather it be her than me.

“By the way,” I pivoted as a memory from last night’s ball popped into my mind, “do Eva and Nora know each other? It kind of seemed last night like they do.”

Violet slowed the car, turning into a parking spot. “I don’t know, but I hope you’re ready to meet a whole lot of my family.”