And somehow, impossibly, it felt right.
“Then kiss me,” she whispered. “Kiss your wife-to-be. For real, this time.”
He didn’t need to be asked twice. His lips found hers with desperate hunger, pressing her back against the metal wall as his hands tangled in her hair. The kiss was everything their first one had been and more—claiming and tender, violent and gentle, full of promises and threats and love.
When they finally broke apart, she could see her own wonder reflected in his eyes.
“Tomorrow, then.” His voice rough with emotion. “Tomorrow we’ll be married. Again. Face to face, this time.”
“Tomorrow,” she agreed, even as her practical mind pointed out all the ways this could go wrong.
But for once, she didn’t want to listen to her practical mind. For once, she wanted to choose something for herself rather than for duty or revenge or survival.
She wanted to choosehim.
For no other reason than it washim.
Even if it damned them both in the end.
THIRTEEN
Raziel had lived for over two centuries, but he had never experienced a morning quite like this one.
Someone had fetched them a small, cracked mirror for their makeshift room. Nadi had told them of their plan for the day. He’d thought it unwise, but she rightfully made the point that it was not a secret they were capable of keeping. Others would notice them missing.
Besides, he was making a point by marrying her in truth. Both to her, to himself…and to her people. So, there he stood, in front of the hazy mirror, attempting to make himself presentable for what was either the most important day of his existence—or the most pointless one.
The distinction seemed increasingly irrelevant as more and more of his old life fell away. As he looked at the mountain he now had to climb before him to take it all back.
Behind him, Nadi moved with quiet efficiency, braiding her dark hair with the same methodical precision she used when cleaning her blades. She’d managed to procure a dress from somewhere—nothing elaborate, just a simple thing in deep green that brought out the otherworldly array of colors in hereyes. On her, it looked like something a queen might wear to her coronation.
Or her execution.
The most important, or most pointless.
“Second thoughts?” she asked without turning around, her fingers working through the intricate pattern she was weaving into her hair.
He smirked. “About which part? Marrying my fae assassin or doing it in the depths of the Wild where any number of things could kill us before we finish the ceremony?”
“Both, I suppose.”
He considered the question seriously. By any rational measure, what they were about to do was insane. He was a vampire, she was fae. Their entire relationship had been built on lies, manipulation, and a shared appetite for violence that probably said terrible things about both their souls.
Yet.
“No,” he said simply, bowing his head to kiss the top of hers. “I don’t live my life looking back. You know that.”
She turned then. The dress clung to her curves in ways that made his mouth go dry, and the intricate braids she’d woven into her hair were threaded with small glinting beads of various strange stones that caught the dim light like captured stars.
“You look…” He paused, searching for words that wouldn’t sound ridiculous. “Magnificent.”
A faint blush colored her cheeks. “You don’t look terrible yourself.”
“Hmph. I look horrendous, but thank you for the lie.” He’d done what he could with their limited resources—hair combed back, the worst of the grime scrubbed from his skin and his clothes. They had not loaned him anything fresh to wear, but they had at least let him wash what he had.
Nothing like the elaborate formalwear he’d have chosen for such an occasion under normal circumstances, but somehow it felt appropriate. This wasn’t about pageantry or politics. This was about something far more fundamental.
A knock at their door interrupted the moment. Nadi opened it to reveal Kalo Lohti, looking every inch the dangerous fae insurrectionist. His silver eyes moved between them, taking in their obvious preparations, and something painful flickered across his face before he mastered it.
