Kore thought she might catch fire, rosy cheeks burning as she peered past her husband’s shoulder on the dance floor. He took her through the steps like it was as natural as breathing; they matched each other well despite the novelty of the pair. She felt like she couldn’t look him in the eye, embarrassed by his sweet expressions. It was not that Kore was unaccustomed to being doted upon. It was simply that she’d never cared for it much. There was appeal in the way his voice stroked her skin and she found herself hyper aware in his grasp. She wondered if she’d been shameless before.<br/><br/>Still, it wasn’t lost on her that he’d offered her some form of forever. The rest of her life here? She wasn’t sure if that meant freedom, the way the fae who crossed in and out of the Realms had freedom, but it was a much larger world presented to her than anything Lumous had cared to provide. Kore smiled. “I hope so also.” She murmured.<br/><br/>Kore took a moment to realize the song had ended, entranced as she’d been in the way they had moved together across the floor. It had felt a little like they’d been dancing on the very notes drifting from the strings. Ethereal, evanescent, like a thousand memories caught in each turn. Her brilliantly green eyes were glassy in their glow when Hades brought them off the floor. The next song that played was similarly haunting, the raucous delights of the party winding toward something more suitable for the midnight hours. Couples drifted across the floor, foreheads touching and voices soft. The festivities would slip into the wee hours of the morning, this way, with attendants slowly spilling from the grand hall as they found a need for sleep or privacy.<br/><br/>Kore caught the shift in the mood, and glanced at Hades with a question in her expression. “My king?” she asked, because it did not seem he was intent on remaining for the pretty melt of their wedding party into the night. Her voice was uncertain, the tiny hitch of apprehension catching in the tail of her breath. She was as nervous as she was curious about the intimate proceedings of their marriage. Hades was not an unhandsome fae, with a loveliness that was sharp like the icy edges of winter. Kore was utterly foreign to that kind of exotic appeal, and she was equally foreign to the ways of being a bride and queen.<br/><br/>When they had made their way from the hall and toward the interior of the palace, their steps drawing them toward the king’s, and now her, bedchambers, Kore felt her heart begin to race. She had never heard a silence so loud.