“That simple.” She smiled, and it was like watching the sun rise. “Congratulations, husband. You’re now married to a fae according to the oldest laws of the Wild.”
“Hm. Our weddings are so much more ostentatious. We could save so much money just kissing under a tree.” He hid the strange emotions that roiled in him beneath his humor.
Husband. She had never called him that before.
Husband.
The simple word sent shivers through him that had nothing to do with politics or strategy and everything to do with the woman in his arms. His wife. His partner. His equal in all the ways that mattered.
But something else struck him. He hummed. “However, it is remarkably similar to how vampires are made,” he observed, running his thumb along her lower lip. “The blood sharing, the binding of essences. You drink of me, and I drink of you.”
“Typical vampires. Always borrowing from your betters.” Chuckling, she rinsed the goblet and the dagger in the mirror-like pond, muttering another prayer in fae as she did. Packing away the objects into the box, and the box into her bag, they both seemed reluctant to leave. “I?—”
Something shifted in the air around them. Something bitter and strange stung his nose. He sat back, instantly alarmed. He wasn’t the only one. Nadi went for the dagger in her boot and quickly rose to her feet. He did the same, scanning the room for danger.
But whatever was wrong, it wasn’t anything he could attack.
The room…suddenly began to die.
The vines above them, with their glimmering, beautiful leaves, shriveled and withered as though killed by some unnatural frost in fast-forward. Nadi gasped in horror as the branches fell from the ceiling and dropped, desiccated and lifeless, to the rock floor.
The vine-tree itself was not immune either, curling into itself. The sound of its decay was like insects crunching and cracking beneath a boot. It simply wasted away before their eyes.
“Wh—” Nadi put her hands over her mouth. “No…”
Raziel could only stare in confusion. “Perhaps our kind…are not meant to wed. Perhaps the Wild does not take kindly to a vampire and a fae becoming one.”
He wasn’t surprised to see tears in her eyes. “I just wanted…onething. One thing to beours?—”
That made his heart crack. Reaching out, he pulled her into his arms in the dim, fading purple glow of the dead and dying vines. “We have each other. And that is all that matters. I don’t need your vines to approve of us.”
“I don’t understand…”
“Neither do I. But look on the bright side.” He huffed a half-hearted laugh at the look she shot at him. “You’ve convinced me there’s some magic in this silly ritual, after all.”
“Shut up, Raziel.” But she was fighting back the barest hint of a smile. He’d cheered her up with that, even just a little bit. “We should get back. The others will be expecting us. Traditionally, there would be a feast on our return. We’re meant to bring a kill for a roast. Fuck if I know if that’s what they’ll expect.” She sighed. “But there won’t be one, either way.”
“In a moment.” He tightened his arms around her, reluctant to let her go. “Let me enjoy being a married man for just a little longer.”
She laughed, the sound echoing off the cavern walls like music. “You sound like you’re about to die.”
“I might.” The question slipped out before he could stop it, carrying all his fears about their uncertain future.
“Well, you can’t.” She pulled back to look at him again. “You think I’d trust anyone else to help me rule an empire? I’m not going to do this withKalo,I might stab him in the leg.”
The casual way she said it—as if world domination were just another item on their to-do list—made him laugh despite himself. That was why he loved her. That was why she was perfect for him. Anyone else would have been horrified by his ambitions.
Ifshewas, she hid it well.
“Come on,” she said, finally stepping out of his embrace. “Time to go face reality.”
Raziel found himself taking one last look at the withered tree.
They had a raid to execute. And he had no idea how it would go.
Whatever the tree meant. Whatever it symbolized for their future…he didn’t know.
If they still had a future at all.
