But with Leena as queen and me as king…
Yuna gave me a knowing look.“Together you will unite this land once again.”
Her hair fell over her face as she bowed, obscuring her lips, but her words were clear as a bell.“I bow to you, Aleksander Nocsis Feyreigner, and also to your pair bond, Leena Edenfrell. The gods have acknowledged both of you as the rightful rulers of Lendria.”She straightened and placed one hand on either of us—just above Leena’s heart and on the right side of my chest.“The people will know.”
I didn’t have time to warn Leena. I’d braced for this myself, but hadn’t expected Yuna to call upon Leena to stand beside me. Searing heat splintered from the mage’s fingertips, followed by a white-hot glow. Black spots danced across my vision. Leena cried out in pain but held her ground, fingernails digging into my hand so hard they drew blood. My pulse roared in my ears as adrenaline flooded my body. Then all at once the pain subsided, and I blinked several times to clear my vision.
Gingerly, Leena pulled back the deep cut of her collar to reveal a midnight-blue griffin emblazoned on her skin. The royal family’s crest. I didn’t have to pull back my shirt to know the very same mark now claimed a spot on my chest as proof of the gods’ blessing. It was the very thing my people would need to see in order to abandon Varek. For a moment, I held my breath and waited for Leena to meet my gaze. I prayed she was still in this with me, that the permanence of what just happened didn’t scare her from my side.
She looked up at me, eyes glassy and full of emotion, and offered me the most genuine, beautiful smile I’d ever seen. The urge to kiss her senseless rushed over me. I cupped her cheeks and slanted my mouth over hers. Tasted her breathy exhale, felt the sudden flux of heat from her body against my skin. She broke away first, resting her forehead against mine. Then, she turned her attention to Yuna.
“I know it’s forbidden, but may we have a pearl? It’s…it’s for a beast.”
“A Revmandra,”Yuna mused.“They often frequent these waters in the hopes of stealing one of these.”She removed a fist-sized pearl from the altar and handed it to myanam-cara.“No doubt this will attract one. Good luck, Leena Edenfrell, Charmer Queen of Lendria.”With that, she disappeared, and the magic that had flooded the cavern dissipated. The lichen returned to their normal, steady glow. Adrenaline abandoned me, and my shoulders sagged. I had finally completed my rites to become king. My parents would be proud. I only hoped that if they were watching over me, they understood why it’d taken me so long to accept my birthright. That in the end, this long, winding path to the throne—full of war and death, curses and oaths—was the very thing I needed to endure in order to heal our kingdom. To findher.
Leena bumped her hip against mine. “How does it feel to be king?”
I grinned. “How does it feel to be queen?”
“Am I?” She frowned and passed the pearl between her hands. “I mean, yes, to the gods. To you. But to the people? They don’t know who I am. They already know you.”
“They’ll love you. This,” I said, grazing my fingers along the edges of her griffin tattoo, “will help. And so will a ceremony to formally introduce you. All that can wait, though.”
“Please,” Calem said, standing and stretching his hands to the ceiling of the cavern. He and Ozias had been silent throughout the entire exchange with Yuna, merely watching as she bestowed our new titles. “You’re already Crown of the Council. One extra title is nothing.”
Ozias offered a sheepish but sincere smile. “You’ve been a queen in my eyes since the day I met you.”
Leena blushed. “Oz. Stop.”
“Seriously, you make the rest of us look bad.” Calem side-eyed him, and then he gave Leena a suggestive wink. “You already know how I feel about you. There’s no need for words.”
“Gods, Calem.” She rolled her eyes and then smacked him on his chest. “Do you ever stop?”
“No.”
Leena shook her head and then kneeled in front of the fire. Setting the pearl before her, she undid the pouch at her waist and extracted the glittering conch shell. Two out of the four necessary taming ingredients ready and waiting.
“Fish and seashells, right?” I asked, sitting beside her.
She nodded. Some of the light in her eyes had faded. How she must have felt, knowing she was about to attempt to tame the very creature her parents had supposedly been after. There was no way of knowing if a Revmandra had caused their deaths. Or if they’d even died at all. Still… I brushed Leena’s cheek with my knuckles, and she leaned into my touch.
“We’ll be right here with you. I promise,” I said.
She angled her head toward me and smiled. “I know.” Touching her hand to her chest, she rested her fingers over Wilheim’s emblem. “I’ll always be with you, too.”
A familiar tinge of pain sparked in my chest, but I buried it deep. We’d already witnessed what raising Gaige had done to his beasts. Leena’s life would be fleeting in comparison to mine, but I wouldn’t let that fear consume me. Not anymore. Not when we had each other. Wrapping her hand in mine, I held on tight. For now, the time we had together would have to do. And I’d protect it with every fiber of my being so that my queen could stay by my side for as long as the world would let me have her.
Eighteen
Leena
Oz, Calem, and Noc made quick work out of capturing the fish needed for taming the Revmandra. Still as statues, they stood with their boots barely in the water and called forth slim shadow blades that they sent careening into the deep. Smoky tendrils remained wrapped around their fingers, and with subtle yanks, they retrieved the speared herrings from the water. As they hunted, I scoured the shallows for an array of shells and dumped them on the shore.
“That enough?” Oz asked as he added another fish to the pile.
“Yes.” I rubbed my hands together as I eyed our haul. Reaching for a net I’d secured from Tok, I arranged the herrings, shells, Queen Jessamine’s Conch, and the pearl safely in the middle. Then, I tied it off into a makeshift sack. It, along with my presence, would act as a lure. With some spare rope, I fashioned a belt and looped the bait around my waist.
Calem plopped onto the beach beside me, kicking his feet out before him. “Good. Fishing is boring.”
