Page 54 of The Reaping Rose

I wonder what she thinks of the fact that we had no choice in our souls being bound. Does she resent our mating bond because of it?

“No.” She glances up, answering my internal fears.

“I see you’re getting better at reading my thoughts.”

“Only when you push them through to me.” She shrugs, the most beautiful light shining in her silver eyes.

One glance and she nearly brings me to my knees. I can hardly resist reaching out to her. But for her sake, I stay put. Sunlight breaks through the canopy overhead, bathing her in light. The blue in her hair is richer than it was in the Ley Court. Bright with magic.

“What about you?” Her eyebrows pinch, and a slight crack in her voice snaps me from my thoughts.

“What about me?”

“It’s not like you had a choice in the matter either. The fates do as they wish. Do you resent our bond?”

“Not for a second.” My magic reaches for her now, no longer able to resist as I cup her face in my hands. “Do you know what I was before you?”

“A prisoner?” A smile plays at the corner of her mouth. The tease is a greater relief than any kiss because it’s a hint of the fire inside her. A spark that’s been dimming lately.

“I was nothing.” My thumb brushes over her freckles. “Living centuries with this emptiness inside me, desperate to be filled by anything—anyone. I spent centuries wondering why I continued to bother when all the fates bring is pain and suffering. I was nothing before you, Starfire. How could I ever resent the life you brought to my heart? Is that what’s been bothering you? Thinking I don’t want this?”

“No. Not exactly.” She gnaws at the inside of her cheek. “I’ve seen the way Aurora looks at you. She watches you when you aren’t paying attention. It made me wonder if maybe I came between something that started before you were locked in the prison. Did she think—was she supposed to be your queen—but then our mating bond changed that? I need to know what I’m dealing with here, Wilder. And I know it makes me sound insecure and jealous⁠—”

“It makes you my mate.” I cup her face, daring to get close enough to breathe in her torturous scent. “Do you think I haven’t wanted to carve the eyes from every male who’s looked your way since that first gathering at the palace? Slice off any hand that’s touched you in your entire life?”

“You do?” Her eyebrows pinch.

“Gods yes. You make me a jealous wreck.”

“I’ve never been like this. Never been with anyone longer than a night or two. Never cared about anything other than surviving. But with us…” She trails off, her gaze falling so I lift her chin.

“It scares me too.”

Without reading her thoughts, I know that’s what she’s thinking because the sight of her terrifies me. Knowing there is no end to what I’d do for Elorie could mean the destruction of all we know, and I wouldn’t care.

“It’s so sudden,” she says, blinking up at me. “But it’s also… not. It’s like I’ve always known you, beyond when we spoke on the island. It’s like I knew you were a part of me before I knew you existed. It’s like my soul understands something, but my mind is catching up.”

“Then let it. Take all the time you need.” I tuck her hair behind her ear. “I’ve waited nearly six hundred years for you. What’s a few more days?”

The smile that cracks in the corner of her mouth is a beautiful sight. My lips ache to kiss her. My body burns with the need to be near her. How I manage to hold myself back is a pure iron willpower.

“And Aurora?” Worry pinches her face.

“Aurora has been part of the court for many centuries. Since before the Collision. My mother took her in after a… difficult upbringing. She fed her promises of more, and with nothing else to cling to, Aurora clung to that. To me.”

“Were you and she ever more than just friends?”

“We tried.” I hate the bitterness that shoots through the thread, but I promised I wouldn’t lie to Elorie. “We tried for the Crown. For the kingdom. For my mother’s sake. But that was long before the realms collided. Long before you. It was brief, and it was nothing.”

“She doesn’t seem over it for something that happened so long ago.”

“Time is strange for the Fae. It’s relative to what we are. Aurora and I have been friends for centuries now, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t grieve what we could have been should things have been different. She clings to the kingdom. The Crown. She clings to the idea my mother promised her, even if she and I have long since had a different understanding of what that is.” I step closer, relieved when Elorie doesn’t step back. “You didn’t come between anything, I promise. There was nothing meaningful before you. I was nothing before you.”

Elorie places her hand over my heart, and I swear my pulse reaches for her. “There was nothing before you either, Wilder. I think that’s why I wasn’t ready for this. But I’m trying.”

“I know, Starfire.” I kiss the back of her hand, and she smiles, less hesitant.

Elorie glances at Selia’s grieving pillar, slowly gazing around the graveyard.