The tear that slid down my cheek wasn’t a sad one.
She had sacrificed her life to protect me. And I hoped that, wherever she was, she would get to live a better one now.
Malakai picked up the rope and drew our attention back to the table. “It’s time.”
Chapter 45
TRISTAN
Inever really had a lot of good in my life.
Perhaps it just wasn’t a luxury I could afford.
Though, I did grow up with the love of my mother, found in every corner of my castle, woven into every book left behind, and breathed to life through every single daisy that grew along the rotten soil I lived on. But, even with the knowledge of what she had done in my name—the war she waged, the curse she cast upon their successors—I still had to live with the reminder of the love I lost the day I was born.
I spent my entire life avoiding my own reflection, even created a mask to hide behind—the poison my father unknowinglyleft with me. Every episode, every spasm and pain I felt as it continued to spread, left my mind bitter and my soul even weaker.
Love.
What reallyislove?
Is it a choice? Is it something given to you? Could you materialize it and hold it in the palm of your hand?
Is something trulyrealif you can’t see it?
Even with Malakai and Mara at my side for so many years, something had burrowed inside of my chest, leaving a hollow, empty loneliness that nothing seemed to fill.
That was… untilshehappened. Until I heard her cries in my own dreams and found a purpose in my life. Morrigan was that purpose. Every single one of those nightmares gave me something to strive for—herhappiness.
Maybe putting the weight of my world on someone else wasn’t healthy, but it saved me in a time that I didn’t know Ineededsaving. Just the few interactions with her over the years dulled most of the pain from my father’s power lingering inside of me.
I wasn’t sure if it was love. But when she slammed into me in my bedroom, and I got to reallyseeher eyes for the first time, it felt like the world crashed at my feet. I was a child again, my heart fluttering like I had been running for miles. And when she kissed me? I realized in that moment that there was no end to this world, or the next, that I wouldn’t go to in order to protect her.
And as I stood before her, those same striking blue eyes hid a blazing fire behind them, and I realized that I was never meant to protect her, because she neverneededmy protection.
Here she was,a mortal, risking everything and more… forme.
It will work,I thought to myself.It has to work.
She looked up at me then, and I realized that she hadheardme. Instead of responding, she slipped her hand into mine, the soft warm skin in perfectcontrast to my own. The single gesture was enough to calm the bout of nerves that had my darkness stirring.
“Alright,” Mal said with a nervousness in his voice that only I could recognize. “First, we’ll bind you both. Hold out your left hands toward each other.”
None of this was actually necessary. We could have gone straight to the blood sharing, and the ritual would have been completed. But I wanted this. I wanted Morrigan to know that this wasn’t about the light. It wasn’t about the bond. This was my confession to her.
That there was nothing that could change the fact that I was utterly, remarkably, and hopelessly in love with her. Even if I couldn’t find the words to say it yet.
Morrigan went first, and I met her halfway. Before our hands actually touched, Malakai placed the obsidian between us and squeezed our palms together. The sharp edges dug into my skin, and I pressed my lips together at the instant pain that flushed across my palm. I could see the slight flinch in her eyes as she felt it too, but she kept her composure.
“The left hand represents a direct link to our hearts. With the obsidian between you both, you hold the life of the other in the palm of your hand.” Malakai began wrapping the thick rope around our hands, tightening it with each loop so that the obsidian pushed harder into our skin. “Repeat after me:Cor meum, vita mea, mors mea.”
We both repeated it in unison: “Cor meum, vita mea, mors mea.”
As if called to her, my shadows slowly crept down my arm, pouring from my markings until they wrapped around Morrigan’s hand. In response, Morrigan’s veins began to glow, and a single flame slipped over my hand, the tendril licking at my skin without burning it.
“Una anima,” Malakai whispered.
Again, Morrigan and I repeated it together: “Una anima.”
