Page 118 of The Fifth Life of Alicia
Look at that.
It seemed like I, too, was a bit of a red flag.
“Ah, I have something for you before we go in.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small jewellery box. “It occurred to me when I saw Lady Trelawney that you don’t have an engagement ring, so I asked my father to retrieve this for me before we left the palace.”
I glanced at the box. “You don’t need to give me one.”
“I do. People will think it’s strange otherwise, given how they believe I’m madly in love with you.”
“I’m definitely getting accused of black magic at some point in my future.” I shook my head. “I thought the agreement you signed with my father stated only wedding rings would be necessary.”
“Yes, but that was when I was under the assumption that we would marry sooner rather than later. I was under the impression we would already be wed by this point. You decided otherwise, so consider this your compromise. Give me your hand.”
It wasn’t exactly the proposal of my dreams.
Then again, it wasn’t as though I’d had any say in the engagement to begin with, so what did it matter at this point?
Maybe if I did a good job as Alicia Vermillion in this life, I’d be able to negotiate a sweet gig for my next one. Complete with hopelessly romantic future husband who wouldn’t give me an engagement ring in a moving carriage after ignoring me for most of the day.
A simple ask, really.
Still, I held out my hand as he’d asked, and Kalon pulled the ring out and gently slipped it onto my finger. It was too big, and just when I was about to ask if this was a good idea, the ring glowed and shrunk down to a perfect fit.
I blinked at my hand. “Whoa.”
He raised my hand to his lips, smiling at me over the top of my fingers. “You act as if you’ve never seen magic before.”
Yeah.
No.
I hadn’t.
But I couldn’t say that, could I?
“I was surprised, that’s all.” I drew my hand from his grasp and studied the ring. There was a large pink stone in a pear cut in the middle, and three smaller, white diamonds sat on either side. “What stone is that?”
“A pink diamond.”
I choked on my own tongue. “Beg your pardon?”
His lips tugged into a smile. “A pink diamond. From the southern mines of the Nantis Kingdom, to be precise.”
Wait.
The Nantis Kingdom.
I knew that.
“Isn’t that where your mother was born?”
He nodded. “She was a princess of Nantis.”
“Oh! Is that why you have gold in your eyes?”
Kalon scratched his chin. “Yes. The Nantis Royal Family all have gold eyes. I’m not technically a prince of the kingdom despite being in the line of succession, but I’m treated as such whenever I visit because they consider me to have inherited the symbol of the family.”
“Interesting. Why aren’t you a prince?”
