Caelix Serpienne's Arc

Chapter 6 of 10

Caelix asked her that same night. He turned Inbella's hand over in his and said he wanted her as his mate now. She smiled and shook her head. "Not on a promise," she said. "On rings. Do it right." Caelix, who took what he wanted, found himself agreeing. He would earn the word yes the way she asked. He went to the maker of bonded metal himself. He came back with two rings that seemed to hold light inside them. One was hers, gold and silver, set with a clear stone and a small pink one beside it. One was his, a plain band that glowed faint at the edges. He set them in her palm without a word. Inbella looked at them a long time. Then she said, "Yes." The wedding filled the marble cathedral. Snake angels stood in stone along the steps. Colored light fell through the tall windows onto the guests. Inbella's whole family came, aunts and cousins with pink tails coiled on the polished floor. They watched her walk out in a white dress. Caelix waited at the top of the steps and could not make his tail hold still. Pastor Donnell led the ceremony. He was the cathedral's pastor, orange-haired and tall, and one of the few who spoke to Caelix as a friend rather than a subject. He raised his hands and warmth spread through the sacred grounds, a small magic that made the flowers around the base seem to lean in. "Give me the rings," he said. Caelix pressed the band onto Inbella's finger. His hand shook. Donnell caught his eye and grinned. "Even kings," he murmured. Inbella slid the plain band onto Caelix. She looked up at him. "There," she said. "Done your way and mine." Donnell named them mates. The family cheered. The wedding was perfect, and Caelix had won the yes he wanted. That night, in the palace bedroom behind the blue marble gate, Caelix and Inbella made their nest. He wanted an heir, and now she wanted it too. They lay together in the low light, and for the first time he did not rush her or himself. Days passed. Then Inbella found him at the throne and set something on the marble beside his fish tank. An egg. Pale, smooth, faintly warm. "Ours," she said. Caelix stared at it. The heir he had wanted since her first page sat before him, real. But Inbella did not smile. "It's cold at the edges," she said. "It shouldn't be. Not this soon." She pressed her palm to the shell. "An egg like this needs a warmer than either of us can give. I've read of one." She met his eyes. "We have to find it, or it won't hatch." Caelix had his heir. Now he could lose it.