Page 69 of Consort's Glory
Theodore didn’t fight her on the comparison. As much as no one wanted to believe orcs and elves shared enough common traits to be of the same stock, it was the truth. Genetically speaking, studies had shown that they were very, very similar.
Not that any of those genetic studies have been published, of course.
Skimming the claw of his thumb over her jaw, he answered, “Yes. It’s a hormonal change that begins when we make contact with our consorts. It rearranges things. Makes us more fertile.” He swallowed. “It’s… altering, to say the least.”
Margot’s eyes danced across his face. Some of the hard disbelief, the despair, began to leech out of her expression. He witnessed the moment it all snapped together in her mind. “And elves have been ignoring it? To try and survive?”
Theodore rubbed the pad of his thumb over the swell of her cheek. Back and forth, back and forth. My consort, safe in my arms. My family. My love.
“Yes. If you couldn’t be with a consort that was Other, you were matched with a suitable elf, preferably with good political connections. Less than two thirds of those unions have more than one child. A good portion have none at all. It can’t continue this way. We need someone to show the world we can do things differently without losing ourselves in the process.”
Comprehension dawned on Margot’s face. The high flush of arousal in her cheeks drained away. “You… you want us to be…”
“The sovereign is always the example,” he gently explained. “They lead the way. We are going to show everyone there’s a way out of this mess.”
If anyone had reason to demand change, it was Theodore. His own family had nearly been destroyed by the madness caused by a forbidden union, the unfulfilled pull.
Thaddeus II was a good man once, according to Valen. Affable and lucky to be blessed with not one, but three children with his chosen elvish partner, he was the very picture of a new elvish age, of what could be possible if they just held on. He was bloodthirsty and played a large part in launching the Great War, that terrible conflict that drew so many hard lines between the territories, but he wasn’t a monster. Not to the elves.
The dream didn’t last. Thaddeus’s decline into madness and violent paranoia began after meeting his true consort.
Kaz’s mother was a beautiful orcish woman, an architect he met by chance during a diplomatic visit to the New Zone and the UTA Congress. Their affair was passionate and bore fruit in the form of Theodore’s younger brother, but Thaddeus resisted the pull, never fully bound Kaz’s despairing mother to him when he should have. When the chemical imbalance reached a tipping point, it was far too late to stop him without bloodshed.
How many innocent people might have lived if Thaddeus felt free to be with Amira? To dissolve his political union and find happiness with his consort?
Theodore’s own mother would still be alive; not moldering in an urn in their private temple because she fought to the death for her children. At least a dozen high ranking elves would be alive. Thaddeus’s own brother would have lived to see his twins grow up into the thorns they were. Countless soldiers and even more household staff, forever unaccounted for, would have families, loves, lives.
The ripple effect of Thaddeus’s downfall, and the stain it left on his family, was still being reckoned with. It would never go away.
Margot gaped at him. “I don’t… Theodore, I really think you have the wrong woman for this. I’m not— there is a lot you don’t know—”
Theodore narrowed his eyes. “I thought the reason you were so afraid before was because you were burning out, but that’s not it, is it? There’s something else that’s holding you back.”
Gods, just the reminder that she came so close to slipping away from him and into Grim’s arms made his heart race. Theodore knew that the sight of her pale face streaked with blood would haunt him for the rest of his life.
“No, I…” Margot shook her head as much as she was able, her expression dazed. “I mean, of course I still have secrets, but that’s not— I don’t even know what I’m saying. I’m having trouble processing that this could be true.”
“It’s true,” he pressed, “and I’ll prove it to you.”
“How?”
He shrugged. “I’ll go before the Summit and all the Families and announce our union. You’ll be my consort in the eyes of everyone, not just me.”
“That won’t be enough to get them to accept it, Theodore,” she argued. “A thousand years of burying your heads in the sand won’t be undone just because you say we’re together. They could deny the union is legitimate, or, I don’t know, force you to give me up.”
“I will not give you up, so don’t even think it.” Theodore arched his brows. “What do you propose? Someone else say it?”
Margot stared at his collar pin for several seconds, her active mind whirring through the electric connection of their bond. Slowly, halting nearly every other word, she said, “If you’re serious… If you actually want to spend your life with me, then we could get married.”
Theodore blinked. “Elves don’t do that.”
“Humans do. Witches do.” Margot shook her head, as if amazed that the words were coming out of her mouth. “It would make it impossible for anyone to argue against the legitimacy of the union, and it would make my grandmother your official ally, Theodore. It would also be legally binding in every recognized territory. We could have a Gloriae marry us in the temple with witnesses to prove it, and then you could announce it at the opening of the Summit.”
Theodore gently nudged her chin, urging her to meet his eyes when he asked, “Is this what you want?”
“To marry you?” A liquid sheen gleamed in Margot’s eyes. “I want to live. I want to be loved. I want a family someday. A future. Can you promise to give me that?”
“Yes.” He pressed his lips against the silky skin of her eyelids and tasted the salt of her tears. “Yes. I am yours, Margot. I’ll give you everything you want. We’re already bonded for life, but I would give you more if I could.”
