Chapter 145: Say Yes

CHRONABEL -

Before her eyes, Maddy's fur and scales along his Jabberwocky body break and explode out from him before falling on the bricks at his feet.

In between Bella's hands was Maddy's face, grinning back, and she found that she couldn't help but match his smile.

Not waiting, he pulled her against him and the bars and pressed his mouth to hers. It was warm and soft and everything she could remember and more.

That was until he pulled his hands away and ripped his mouth from hers as a guttural scream tore from his throat as he grabbed at his head.

"Maddy?!" Bella screamed. "What's wrong?"

When he didn't answer and instead knelt down into a crouch, she swung her gaze to Kai. "I undid the curse. He shouldn't be having any pain!"

Kai looked back at her with empathy before saying, "There's always pain in a Pure Soul's birth. It will pass, but it will be difficult. His bones must break and regrow, and his skin and Soul must undergo a complete change." He nodded at the still screaming Maddy. "This isn't the curse, it's the Spirit Goddess turning him into a Cheshire."

His words weren't said in a harsh tone, but at the moment, she had a hard time not allowing anger to rise.

As a goddess of Time, her emotions had to be held in check. The slightest action from her could level an entire forest, or wipe an entire village from Time itself.

It was the entire reason she'd cursed Maddy in the first place. If a goddess can love, then a goddess has the potential to destroy.

"No... fear..." Maddy rasped.

She turned to him as her fist clenched the bars until her knuckles turned white.

"How can you think of me when you're in pain like this!?"

"No... fear." He repeated.

She fought to keep her emotions in check as she watched him writhe on the floor. She could hear his muscles crunch and break and see his skin slough off until soft blue fur regrew in its place.

Hair-tipped ears shoved out between his hair as his human-like ears fell to the ground in a bloody plop.

His head and body reared back as a tail pushed out from his backside, long and slim, before it hung unmoving behind him.

Even though she knew with precise accuracy how long it truly was, it felt like the moment stretched on for days before Maddy stopped screaming and lifted gingerly to a standing position.

His breaths came in heavy and fast, causing his shoulders to rise and fall with every heave.

He finally lifted his head, and his eyes met hers, and Bella felt like her heart stopped.

He was beautiful.

His coat was the same green velvet she remembered, frayed at the cuffs and singed along the hem. Somehow, during the transition, a top landed on his head. It sat crooked with one side crumpled as if it had been crushed and then lovingly reshaped.

He was much taller than before, standing nearly a foot over her. His large shoulders were wide, and his torso tapered down to a thin waist. Large hands with sharp claws tipping the ends reached up to cup her face.

At her perusal, his grin stretched wide. Almost too wide, and was crescent-sharp and gleaming in the fading light.

His eyes were no longer a deep brown, but instead were a glowing green, and they flicked between her eyes as if they were trying to find something.

His ears, which were soft, tufted, and striped in charcoal and silver, twitched forward when she breathed a shaky breath. His shoulders still heaved with each breath and she felt his breath blow past her face.

A long tail, ringed and restless, flicked behind him as if it had a mind of its own, and she couldn't stop the laugh that came from it.

Bella’s heart slammed against her ribs so hard she thought it might break free.

The cage of invisible chains that had held him for so long shimmered once, then faded entirely as Kai lifted his hand.

Blue smoke curled from his fingertips, faint now, barely a whisper of power left after the day’s toll. Bella could see Kai's exhaustion, and she appreciated the fact that he was giving her what was left of his magick for the day.

The air around the cage cleared, and the faint violet glow that had bound it dissolved into nothing.

Suddenly, the door's latch vanished, and it opened slightly. She took a step back, and Maddy shoved the door the rest of the way open, but didn't move.

In the silence they stared at each other for just a brief, yet forever-long moment.

His tail flicked once more, slow and uncertain. His ears angled forward, listening, and his green eyes, slitted and luminous, fixed on her face.

Bella’s throat closed, and she couldn't breathe past the sudden terror that tried to claw up from her stomach.

What if the curse had taken more than his form? What if the love they had carried through every mad tea party and every broken clock was one-sided now?

What if he looked at her and saw only the woman who had failed to save him sooner? What if he simply turned, tail high, and vanished into the mists like every other Cheshire who had ever wandered away?

She felt the question rise before she could stop it. "Do you…?” Her voice cracked. She tried again, softer. “Do you still love me?”

The words hung between them and Maddy’s ears flattened for a heartbeat, and his tail stilled.

Then she saw something shift in his eyes. It was something achingly familiar, and her heart clenched.

He moved then. Not with caution or trepidation.

One moment he stood in the doorway of the cage; the next his arms were around her waist, lifting her clean off the ground as though she weighed nothing.

She gasped at the movement, as her hands flew to his shoulders to steady herself before his mouth was on hers.

The kiss wasn't gentle either. It was desperate and hungry and tasted like the sweetest tea she'd ever had. A grin pressed against her lips when she moaned into his mouth.

Her fingers knotted in his coat as she pulled him closer so that there was no space between them. Just their bodies pressed against each other.

When he finally set her down, her feet barely touched the ground before he cupped her face in both hands. His thumbs brushed away the tears she hadn’t realized were falling.

“Marry me,” he asked, and it sent her heart into overdrive.

His voice was rough, and layered with a new Cheshire purr, but the words were clear as the sky above them.

Bella stared up at him. Her heart was now hammering so loudly she was sure he could hear it.

“Marry you?” she echoed, half-laugh and half-sob.

“I’ve spent lifetimes mad for you,” he said. “Say yes, Bella. Marry me. Let me spend every impossible forever with you.”

“Yes, Maddy... Yes”

His grin stretched impossibly wider, and he kissed her again.