Our pulses beat against each other.
“I take the Blood Oath of Bryndis,” I said, projecting my voice through the ice shield.
Mother lunged toward me, her voice muffled. “Seren, no!”
“May my soul be bound to his. I offer him my blade and my protection.”
Mother vaporized the ice dome, reaching me, and gripped my elbow, trying to pry it away. “You don’t know what you’re doing. Do not bind yourself to him.”
I met my mother’s eyes, which were pleading, begging me to stop.
But what choice do I have?
“I bind myself to his fate. I will not raise my hand to strike him, and my blood is his. Let the blood of this oath join our souls forever and let us never be separated, as Bryndis is bound to Varik.”
The last syllables left my lips, and for a moment, everything was still.
Then pain struck like a lightning bolt, tearing through my veins. Not just the sharp sting of the wound but something deeper, as though the oath was carving itself into my very being. I gasped, jerking back, but I couldn’t break the bond now. Fire licked the edges of the rune I’d carved, radiating outward, spreading through my body like molten iron. Changing me.
I clutched my arm to my chest, biting back a scream as I crumpled against my mother, who caught me by the shoulders.
“What have you done?” she whispered, her voice raw with horror.
The rune on my wrist darkened, the edges blackening like charred wood. The pain wasn’t just physical. Something deep within me—my soul, perhaps—had been ripped apart and reshaped. The pressure crushed me, hollowed me out, then filled the void with something unfamiliar and unbearably heavy. A faint, fragile presence brushed the edges of my mind—an echo of pain that wasn’t mine, a memory of something I couldn’t quite grasp … flames engulfing a building. It vanished as quickly as it came, leaving only a faint hum.
It was as though I felt the Lirien there, a thread connecting us. I wasn’t alone in my own skin anymore.
My breath came in short, ragged bursts. Ice poured through my veins now, chasing the fire, and my vision swam with spots of darkness. I gritted my teeth, but my mind raced with panic. What if this oath bound me to more than I’d intended? What if it destroyed me?
The Lirien stirred, a faint movement that pulled my focus back to him. His breathing remained shallow but steady, the wound on his neck no longer bleeding as freely. Relief and dread warred within me.
He lived.
But at what cost?
I sagged into my mother’s arms, trembling.
“Seren,” my mother whispered, her voice breaking. “You don’t understand. This oath is more than a bond. It’s a chain.”
Her words sent a fresh wave of nausea rolling through me, but I couldn’t dwell on them now. Not when Seth’s furious gaze bored into me. Mother turned toward Soroush. “You know what that oath means, Soroush. He is Viori now, if she’s claimed him. He must be healed.” The desperation in her voice unnerved me.
Time beat slowly, each second fracturing my body further.
Soroush blinked slowly, then nodded to Seth. “He is her spouse.”
His pronouncement echoed in the air like a gavel striking.
The people gathered spoke, but I barely heard them. My mind latched on to one thought, repeating like a drumbeat.
What in Nyxva did I do?
Seth swiveled toward me. “You’ll be given a marital tent, then—strictly under guard. You want a husband?” He sneered. “Fine. You can stay confined with him until the council decides your fate. But you receive no help from your family. You may have one emissary to fetch supplies, food, and water—and to drag that Lirien to the tent.”
“I will.” Ciaran’s voice cut from through the crowd. “I’ll carry him.”
Thank the gods. Ciaran would ensure no one murdered the Lirien along the way. Bending beside me, Ciaran hand rested briefly on my shoulder. “What in the Solric’s name did you just do?” he whispered.
“Buy myself some time.” I hope.
