Chapter 40
the first sunrise of winter
“Talvi, do you still have my ring?” Annika asked when she came into the kitchen the next day. He was putting the finishing touches on the little fairy house furniture.
“Oh right…I’m having it cleaned for you,” he said as he scratched his head. “I’ll give it back soon, I promise.”
“I know you’re lying. You didn’t lose it, did you? You know it’s not the ring that I’m attached to. It’s what’s wrapped around it that I’m more concerned about,” she frowned. He looked up at her and set down the small paintbrush.
“Sit down, we need to talk,” he said, his tired eyes glancing around. Neither he or Finn had come to bed last night, and it looked like they hadn’t slept a wink either. The boys were playing outside with Justinian and Nikola, and the others were gathered around the fire, too far away to hear what he had to say. Annika sat beside him and waited expectantly for her answer.
“Do you trust me?” he asked finally.
“Yeah.”
“Do you love me?”
“Of course!”
“Do you really want to marry me? What if it’s sooner than you expected?” he asked. Annika wasn’t sure where the conversation was going to end up.
“I haven’t really considered a date yet. I hate planning things. I’m a big procrastinator,” she admitted.
“Really? Hmmm.”
“Why? What’s going on?”
“Well…um…what if…” He bit his lip and took a deep breath. “How do you feel about getting married at sunrise?” Annika’s face melted. She thought outdoor weddings were so romantic, let alone one at sunrise with an early summer breeze and fresh flowers in bloom all around.
“That sounds so dreamy! When do you want to do it?”
“At sunrise,” he repeated.
“You mean, like tomorrow morning?” she squeaked. He nodded, and Annika felt a panic setting in. “I…oh god…that soon? I thought, well, I thought I would have more time!” Her mouth grew very dry as a dim restaurant scene from months and months ago flashed into her head. The entire staff of the restaurant surrounding her table. A blue box from Tiffany’s sitting on that table. Plane tickets to Hawaii that departed in less than a week, sitting next to that blue box on the table. Danny’s expression as he delivered his heartfelt proposal, and then Danny’s face as she delivered her heartbreaking decline. She began to feel nauseous, but Talvi reached up and smoothed her hair to try and calm her nerves. He took a deep breath, and let it out slowly before he spoke.
“Annika, I would give you all the time in the world if I could. I told you I didn’t care when or how we were married,” he said gently. “I know it’s very sudden, but there are other circumstances that put the timing out of my hands.”
“It wouldn’t have anything to do with that walk you took with Finn, would it? Or why neither of you came to bed last night? Or why you’ve been acting so weird about the fairies being gone?”
“It has everything to do with all of that,” he said with his blue green eyes twinkling, but his confidence wasn’t as pervasive as usual. “I can’t really explain it just yet, but I promise I’ll tell you very soon.”
“Like, tomorrow morning?”
“Yes.”
“So, what am I supposed to do?” she asked. Her nausea had faded a little, but her heart and her thoughts were racing a mile a minute.
“Leave everything to me. All you have to do is trust me and show up. And you might want to dress warmly before you go to sleep tonight, so you don’t have to bother with dressing in the dark tomorrow. But,” he smiled to himself, “you’ll have to borrow a wool skirt from Dardis. You mustn’t wear pants, and especially no knickers,” he instructed, and picked up his paintbrush to finish his project.
That night, Annika couldn’t sleep. Her nerves had been building up all day, and she felt her hand shake more than a few times as she gave the boys haircuts. Luckily, they didn’t seem the type to mind her unsteady hand. When Finn had sat down for a trim, he turned to her, holding her trembling wrist in his large soft hands.
“It’s alright Annika, you can trust us,” he said in his rich, deep voice. “Have I ever let you down?” he asked. She shook her head. “You’re such a strong person; don’t be afraid. If you love him as much as I know you do, you have nothing to fear.” He held her close and she felt her anxiety absorb into him. “Please don’t cut too much off. Hilda is very fond of my curls.”
Now she was lying next to his brother, unable to close her eyes. They had dressed and nestled under their blankets before anyone else had come up for bed, and no one except Finn had a clue what they were up to. Annika was afraid to look in Talvi’s eyes. She didn’t doubt that she loved him, and she didn’t doubt that he loved her just as much. But she couldn’t shake the nervousness completely. It was all happening so fast. She felt Talvi’s hand rest on her face and his thumb stroking her cheek tenderly, then saw his face in front of hers. In the dark, his eyes barely glittered, but she could feel the tip of his nose brush her own as he stared into her soul.
I can’t sleep, can you? she asked him silently.
No, he blinked, replying so no one could hear them. The harder I try, the more elusive it becomes. Are you nervous?
Yeah, a little. I’m sorry. I can’t help it.
Don’t be sorry. I would be much more concerned if you weren’t nervous at all. I am too, but I know everything will be all right in the end.
What will happen in the end? I don’t understand.
All the answers will reveal themselves when the time is right. I promise. You know I keep my word.
She was overwhelmed by a sensation of freedom, as though a great weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. She could feel in that moment how much he truly loved her. She reached out her hand and traced the lines of his eyebrows, down his straight nose, exploring his face with her fingertips. She wanted to know every line, every rise of the cheekbone and hollow of the jaw, along with the delicate angle of his softly pointed ears. She looked at him with wonder, amazed to feel the most spiritually sublime of emotions wash over her. It left her saturated in the deepest of loves like the wet sand on the edge of the sea. But the thing that amazed her most was the intense connection, the frequency they shared which spoke to her, telling her that he indeed, at this very moment was feeling the exact same thing.
“Annika, get up. It’s time.”
The forest was still dark, but after twenty minutes of riding they came to a little meadow. There was a large glowing circle on the ground, and as Ghassan came to a halt, Annika saw it consisted of dozens of burning white candles, with a pile of pillows in the center. The fairies were waiting for them outside the circle. Talvi and Annika dismounted and he took her hand as they stepped over the candles and into the center of the circle.
“I’m so nervous,” Dardis said as her periwinkle wings fluttered in excitement. “I’ve never married anyone before.”
“Is that why you and Chivanni disappeared?” Annika asked. The blue-haired fairy nodded her head enthusiastically.
“Yes. Right after Talvi apologized to me for calling me that horrible name, he told me he wanted to marry you,” she said happily. “We had to look all over to find the nearest fairies to teach us how to do it properly.”
“If those trolls hadn’t scared them all off, it definitely would have made them a lot easier to find,” Chivanni sighed, and smoothed his long bangs to one side of his face. “It’s a good thing we found them when we did.” Dardis motioned for them to kneel down on the pillows facing each other as she had them hold out their left hands. In their right hands, Chivanni placed a ring that shined brightly. They were identical rings, except for their size. They were thin and delicate, with intricate silver designs running along the circumference of the band.
“I promised I would return your ring,” Talvi said with a smile. “I think these are much prettier, don’t you?”
“This is what you did with
it?” she gasped. “Where’s the diamond?”
“The diamond couldn’t be used,” Chivanni said proudly. “It’s too pure and too hard of a substance for magic to alter. But the platinum melted quite nicely, after we got the fire hot enough. Do you like your ring?”
“It’s gorgeous…” Annika sighed, examining it closer in the flickering firelight. Chivanni appeared satisfied with her response and let Dardis step close to them.
“Because this hand is nearest to your hearts, this shall be the hand that will show the world your love for one another,” she said, sniffling a little. “This shall be the hand that wears the ring, the hand that sheds the blood, the hand that binds you together as you consecrate your union with each other.” Annika’s heart thumped wildly as Talvi slipped her ring onto her finger, and then she did the same to him. She looked into his eyes, and she realized that this was the very moment he’d seen when they had first kissed. Goose bumps flashed over her entire body, even though she was dressed warmly enough.
“Annika?” Chivanni said nervously. She looked over at him and saw he was holding Talvi’s knife, offering it to her on his palms. She’d never looked at it closely before. The blade was inscribed with strange writing and the handle looked to be carved from ebony. She picked it up carefully and Talvi turned his palm upwards, holding it out to her.
“Don’t be afraid,” Talvi told her. “But press as deeply as you can. You won’t hurt me.” She felt her stomach jump about as she pressed hard into his hand. The blade was razor sharp, and it cut deeper than she had intended. He flinched, but his eyes remained fixated on hers. Blood was gathering in his left palm as he took the knife in his right and quickly cut into her left hand, making her cry out as her blood rushed to the surface. Chivanni collected the knife while Dardis held up their hands and pressed the bleeding wounds together. Talvi’s fingers folded in between Annika’s tightly as Dardis wound a thick white cord around their hands and knotted it again and again. Annika could feel the rings clinking together lightly. Talvi shuddered, and when he blinked, tears fell down his cheeks.
“The reason you and I are here at this day and time is because three hundred years ago my parents received a prophecy. It was Dragana’s great-grandmother who them that the first male twin to be born to them would be married on the same day as his creation to a girl from a distant land; a very unusual girl, one with the blood of a samodiva running in her veins.
She told mother that we’d been conceived at dawn on the first day of winter, and that I should be called such, so that I never forgot my destiny. Talvi means winter. As for Anatolius,” he smiled softly at her, “I know you think it’s amusing, but it means sunrise. It’s a good thing that Finn is so observant about the solstice and Yule, because I had no idea that it was already so late in the year. Time has flown so quickly since you came into my life, and I honestly think everything happens for a reason, Annika. Everything.
I used to believe that love was trite, that it would make me weak, and I’ve tried to avoid it for so long. If I had been the marrying type, I might’ve ended up with the wrong elf a long time ago. I wouldn’t have known you existed. If you hadn’t come to visit your uncle, I never would have seen you that day in Sofia. If the Pazachi hadn’t altered the portals, you might have returned home without me ever finding you again. And of all the unicorns in the land, why would Nadira have come to you and surrendered an indestructible hair of hers?”
“Nadira?”
“Yes, the only black unicorn known to exist.”
“But Sariel said she was pure white,” Annika replied.
“She used to be,” he said knowingly. “Every other unicorn is as white as the driven snow, but Nadira is black with silver hair. When she rescued your greatest grandmother, she absorbed her darkest pain. It altered her physical appearance forever.”
“Nadira gave me the hair as a gift…and when I asked her how I could repay her, she told me to use it when the time was right,” Annika said with amazement.
“I really cannot think of a better time, Annika. Can you?” He pushed back the hood of his cloak. “Look at our rings.” At that very moment the sun’s first rays of light struck out over the horizon, flooding the sky with an onslaught of orange and bright pink. It seemed the sun had never burned so brightly as it did that morning of the winter solstice. Annika’s eyes were watering from the intense light, but she blinked until she could see the rings closer. She squinted, recognizing the tiniest shapes inside of the band. It was fairy writing.
“Do you recognize what it says?” he whispered.
“Yes!” she gasped. They were the glyphs he had written in the dirt so long ago. They were the words he had said to her the first time they kissed. “Mo reis to comp anya vlatzee.” Talvi nodded and both of the fairies wept out loud.
“This way, even when you’ve gone home, our love can cross any meadow…no matter how large, no matter how far apart we are. Do you recognize what I had Dardis and Chivanni use to make the characters? It’s that strand of Nadira’s hair. Our rings are one and the same, created from the same metal, from the same strand of hair, forged by the same hands. Everything was used to make them, except the diamond, which was too hard to break. There will never be another ring like ours made.” Annika started to cry and he held her against his chest.
“But I don’t want you to be across the meadow,” she cried into his cloak. “I want you next to me. I want you right here!”
“I will be, I promise,” he replied as his own tears ran down his chin, falling on her face. “No matter where I am or where you are, as long as you’re touching your ring, you’re touching me.” She reached into his hair with her free hand and kissed him with all the love in her heart. She was moved to a higher state of consciousness, elevated by a higher emotion, transcending space and time as they kissed. His soft, warm lips brushed away her tears as he lay her gently down on the pillows, squeezing her left hand tightly in his. Her body immediately responded to his knees nudging hers apart as he carefully rested his chest on hers. His weight on her felt delicious, and erased the fear of him ever leaving her. Their combined blood was still trickling down their elbows, dripping on her clothes. She moved her arm to lick some of it off her arm. It tasted smoky, rich, and magical. She kissed him again and he reached his cold hand into her cloak, warming his fingers against her thighs before sliding them up farther. She could feel his breath warm up her cold nose.
“Alright you two…” Chivanni said in a choked up voice. Dardis was crying softly beside him. “This is the part where you make it official.” Annika’s eyes snapped open in shock.
“What?” She looked at Talvi, whose fingers remained in place.
“Oh, I knew there was something I was neglecting to tell you,” he said, trying his best not to grin.
“Tradition states that there must be two fairies who witness it, but I think we can count on you to consummate your marriage,” Dardis wiped her eyes and winked. “We’ll be on the other side of the hill waiting to untie you. And take all the time you need.” They shrank to their tiny size and disappeared. Annika let out a sigh of relief when Talvi caressed her again, but her emotions had already stimulated her body to the point where his touch would set her on fire at any second.
“Stop,” she whispered. He looked terrified that she might back down after coming so far. “If we’re going to do this, I want it to be perfect.” He looked relieved, but slightly confused.
“Well, if my hand wasn’t tied up, it would be perfect. I’m a bit restricted in what I can do, but I’ll make it up to you on the honeymoon,” he snickered. She shook her head.
“No, I have to feel it at the exact same time that you do,” she insisted. He looked at her apologetically.
“What’s wrong?” she asked as she fumbled with one hand to unbutton his pants. “It’s definitely not the cold.” He smiled in relief.
“No, but I…I don’t know how long I can last. I’m a bit overwhelmed.”
“Me too,” she murmured.
She was oblivious to the freezing air that surrounded them, the trees rustling overhead, the piercing bright light of the sunrise, the candles flickering around them. She barely noticed him drape his cloak over their bodies before pushing up her skirts, until she felt his hot skin come into contact with her own. The love and lust in his eyes was all she could see; their wounds bleeding into each other was all she could feel. It burned and stung, but he only gripped her hand tighter. She gasped with both relief and revived hunger as his body entered hers, driving his hard flesh deep into her over and over.
“Annika…tell me when,” he sighed. She nodded as she felt her climax threatening to strike. “Now?”
“No…wait.”
His hips rocked slower against hers, grinding at an exquisite pace, delaying the inevitable as long as he could.
“How about now?” he breathed heavily. His eyes were almost shut.
“Just a little more,” she begged.
“Like this?” he asked, pushing harder into her.
“Yes! Now!” Her body began to tremble and he thrust even deeper, his cry of relief sounding like music to her. She moaned out at first in her own pleasure, but then it morphed into a scream of terrible pain. A blistering agony filled her that made the original knife wound in her hand seem like a pinprick. At the same time there was a horrible tearing noise that ripped through the sky, and she was blinded by an enormous lavender light. The place where their hands were joined was searing. The excruciating pain was rapidly traveling up her arm, creeping towards her shoulder, towards her heart. Another gut wrenching wave hit her again, originating deep inside her body where he was still nestled against her womb. The two sources of the pain tore through her body until they joined together under her ribcage. She felt as though the very blood in her veins was on fire.
“What have you done to me?” she screamed. She could smell burnt flesh, and even though she tried to pull her left hand away, it was of no use. Dardis had tied so many knots that it was impossible. Talvi couldn’t let her go even as she begged and shrieked in his ear to do so. She fought against him with her other hand, but he held it down. Her cries echoed for miles through the trees with her pain. When they finally faded along with her suffering, she opened her eyes and looked up to see three faces peering over her. Talvi, Dardis, and Chivanni stared down at her with awestruck expressions.
“You were there the whole time?” she gasped, feeling humiliated and violated. Thankfully, Talvi’s cloak still covered them both. She was still trying to catch her breath through her tears.
“Tradition is tradition for a reason,” Dardis said seriously. “We had to stay in case something like this happened.”
“What did you do to me?” she sobbed, glaring at Talvi. The fairies looked at each other with wide eyes.
“I’m sorry Annika…I didn’t know it would hurt you like that,” he apologized. He let her right hand go and brushed her tears away. “Are you still in pain?”
“Get off of me! Get out of me!” she demanded, trying feebly to push him off with her free hand, but he was just too much for her to take on successfully. Her blood was still tingling. Her whole body was filled with the effervescent sensations, like her blood had been infused with white-hot champagne. “What have you done to me?”
“To be honest, we don’t really know yet,” Dardis admitted. “We’ve never combined so much magic before.”
“How can you not know? I thought this was fairy magic!”
“Oh, it was definitely fairy magic,” Chivanni said, putting his hand on his hip. “But it was also elf magic. And samodiva magic. And unicorn magic. And love.”
“You call that love?” she asked, facing up to look Talvi in the eyes. “If you loved me, you wouldn’t have done this to me!” He looked more sorrowful than she could have ever imagined him capable of being.
“It’s because I love you that I did this to you,” he said. “Can’t you see that? Can’t you see what I’ve done? Dardis, free our hands.”
Dardis carefully untied the knots, unwinding the blood-stained cord from their hands. Annika jerked her hand away and managed to pull her skirts down and push Talvi off of her. She wasted no time getting back on her feet, and took off running.
She ran for the longest time, darting in between the trees with the ease of a deer, surprised she wasn’t out of breath yet. She was expecting to be wheezing and coughing by this point, but now her lungs only served to fill themselves with the cold, clean air. The sun had risen high enough to light up the forest, and she was overcome by the intensity of all the colors around her. She felt like she’d been wearing a pair of glasses that made the world dull and muddy her whole life, and suddenly they were gone. The sky had never looked so blue, and the tree trunks weren’t merely brown, but she could see flecks of blue, green, yellow and orange in them, as if they were painted by a billion tiny artist brushes. Her blood pumped through her body, still tingling a little, making every muscle in her body feel electrically charged. The scents in the air were so strong that she could almost taste them. She stopped and turned around, and found herself alone.
There were little sounds of scampering and fluttering all about her, but it was only the noises of small woodland creatures. Birds were singing above her, and the bare branches swaying in the breeze caught her ears. The noise was filling her head, as though it had been amplified a dozen times. A dull pain formed in her chest, in her heart, sending her to her knees, then quickly subsided as it diffused throughout her arteries and veins. She couldn’t make sense of what had just happened. One moment Talvi was making love to her, and the next he had given her such pain. She wiped her tear streaked face with her hands and stared at what she saw. There, on her left palm, ran a bright pink line where it had been cut so deeply less than a half hour earlier.
The scent of a horse caught on the wind and played at her nose, along with fruit trees and cinnamon. She knew that scent. It was Talvi’s scent. She heard the rumble of hooves, and before she could get up, he was standing at her side along with Dardis and Chivanni.
“It worked!” Chivanni gasped as he looked over her shoulder. “I can’t believe it!”
“What worked?” she whispered. Dardis reached for her hand and pointed at the scar, which seemed to be less bright. Annika’s demeanor swiftly changed from angry humiliation to curiosity.
“He gave you his blood, Annika! One quarter of the blood in his veins is human, and it must have reacted upon contact with yours. Here’s the proof!” squeaked Dardis, shaking Annika’s healed hand. Talvi fell to his knees in front of her, clutching her in his arms.
“Ambrose, his father…Talvi’s grandfather…” Annika stumbled, wide eyed.
“He was a human,” Dardis reminded her. “The combination of samodiva, elf, and human blood you both share, along with Nadira’s mysterious power has joined you with him for the rest of your lives.”
“Look at your ring, Annika. Look at mine. Do you see what’s happened?” Talvi sat back on his heels and held his hand up in front of her, and she saw both of the rings glittering brightly, still warm. That was what had burned her skin. There was something strange about the fairy writing inside of it. She tried to twist it around to look underneath, but it only stung and burned her, pulling the skin with it.
“The ring is fused to my finger!” she breathed in amazement. The silver threads had indeed embedded themselves into her flesh. He nodded and looked at her with large eyes. She glanced up at Dardis and Chivanni.
“Is it over then? Is it finished?” she asked, and the fairies nodded. “I don’t mean to be rude at all, but can you give us a few minutes alone? For real, this time.” They nodded again and flew back in the direction they had come from. She turned to Talvi.
“Please, understand I didn’t want to hurt you,” he pleaded. “I was afraid you would change your mind if I told you how much it might hurt. I didn’t know it would be so overwhelming for you. I’m sorry it hurt, but I’m not sorry I did it. I love you, Annika. I thought this is what y
ou wanted…to be with me always. Nothing between us is over or finished; this is merely the beginning of you and I.” She cradled his face in her hand and he placed his hand on top of hers.
“You made me immortal to be with you?” she whispered. He gave a little shrug.
“Well, as much as I’ll ever be,” he said. She looked at her hand again; the scar on her palm was almost white.
“This is going to take some time to get used to,” she said softly, unable to comprehend the new life that lay ahead of her. He laughed and wiped the tears off his face one last time, helping her to her feet.
“I said I would love to give you all the time in the world. I hope you like your wedding present.”