A Deal with the Elf King (Married to Magic, #1)(2)
I force laughter. I wish I could pretend like he’s joking. “What has gotten into you? We can’t just leave. I have obligations here—and so do you, for that matter. Who will mend bones, stop fevers, and ensure the Weakness is kept at bay if I leave?” Though there’s little even I can do on that last one. The Weakness has been a withering sickness plaguing Capton’s people. It beats my attempts to combat it at every turn.
“Our work is what we do, not who we are. Nothing traps us here. We’re not like the old ones in town who are only kept alive by the Fade River. We can leave. We’ll make it out.”
“Even if that were true, the elves are coming today. I have to get my work done before the town hall; I can’t let everyone down. Mister Abbot needs his tea and Emma needs her strengthening potion or her heart—”
“Luella, we have to leave.” Luke walks over and leans against the counter with both elbows. His voice drops to a hush as he glances upstairs.
“They’re not awake yet,” I say of my parents. Their room is above my shop and it’s been quiet for the two hours I’ve been up working.
“The Keepers still haven’t found the Human Queen. The magic in the line has been fading for some time.” They say that the power of the Human Queen is passed from one queen to the next when the former queen dies. No one knows what would happen if there wasn’t a Human Queen to be taken. It’d be unprecedented. “Some of my fellow Keepers think that maybe she just isn’t here at all. Maybe the magic ran out. Which is all the more reason to get out while we can.”
Since the treaty between the elves and humans was signed three millennia ago, there has been a Human Queen selected from Capton every hundred years like clockwork. Finding her was never hard; she’s the only human with magic, after all. But this time, not one young woman of Capton has mended something with a thought, or made plants grow from barren earth, or had animals swear their allegiance to her.
Now, it’s been one hundred and one years since the last Human Queen was chosen, and the town is suffering because of it.
“If she’s not here then I especially can’t leave. The Weakness is spreading through the town. People are dying as young as one hundred and ten. I have to do what I can to stop it.” And if there is a war to come, healers will be needed more than ever. But I can’t bring myself to say that. I can hardly think it.
“If there is no queen, you can do nothing to stop it. The town’s connection with the Fade is dying and people will die with it. Their lifespans reduced to nothing more than those beyond our island.” Luke grabs my hands. “The elves are coming, and I had a terrible dream about it. Please, let’s leave now.”
“Luke,” I say gently, reaching forward to caress the shadow of gold across his chin. The constant stubble is new. I can’t tell if he’s growing a beard, or just keeping it closely cropped. Either way, I think I like it. “You look like you haven’t slept. And you’ve been under a tremendous amount of stress with a long day ahead. Let me make a strengthening brew for you and then something for you to take tonight to help you sleep.”
“I haven’t slept because I have been preparing for us to leave before war breaks out.” Luke pushes away from the counter and ducks underneath the thoroughfare. I’m cornered—counter on one side, shelves of herbs on the other, Luke before me, no exit behind. “I want to take you away. I want to keep you safe.”
“Luke,” I say gingerly, pleading. I want to pretend like he’s joking but I can tell he’s deathly serious. “I can’t just leave.”
“Yes you can, of course you can.” The tone of his voice gives me pause. The way he’s looking at me now leaves me breathless. I have to remind myself to breathe. “I want to take you away and spend time with you, and only you, Luella. Surely, you know…I’ve loved you for a long time.”
I open and close my mouth, several times. Yes, I knew. And I love him too. I love him enough that I dreamed of this moment. But in my dreams I was wearing something nicer than my work smock and I didn’t stink of lavender oil.
His expression falls in the wake of my silence. “Oh, I see… And here I thought that you might—”
“I love you too.” As soon as I get the words out, sensation returns. Tingling vanishes from my toes. My whole body bursts with laughter. “I’ve loved you since I was a child.”
“Then run away with me, Luella.” Luke grabs my hands. His thumbs run over my knuckles.
My soul is soaring over the roof. Yet my feet are rooted deep in the land of the people I’ve vowed to serve.
“You know I can’t,” I whisper.
“But you love me.”
“I do.”
“Then let’s go.” He tugs at my hands.
“I can’t.” I’m unbudging. His expression falls into something I don’t recognize. “I want to, Luke. I wish I could go with you. But I can’t just leave. This town has invested so much in me; I must be here when they need me.”
The people of Capton paid for my years at academy when my parents could not afford them. They bought me room and board. They supported me at every turn with the hard-earned and scraped-together change at the bottoms of their pockets.
“Besides,” I continue, softer. “If the Human Queen isn’t found, and the council can’t sort things with the elves, there’s nowhere we could run. All of humanity is doomed at that point. I would rather stay here with our people and face whatever may come.”