Page 122 of On Brutal Thrones

I nod because I don't trust my voice. Then, because I can't help myself, I lift her hands and press my lips against her knuckles. My wife. Not quite yet. But almost.

I release her and step backward, taking my place beside Thorian again.

“Talon.”

For once, he doesn't make a joke.

He steps closer to her and stops before Nyx.

There's something strange about watching him take the same path I just did. Talon is usually all sharp smiles and careless words, as if nothing in this world can reach deeply enough to hurt him. But when he takes Nyx's hands, his fingers close around hers with such care that my chest tightens all over again.

He stares down at their joined hands for several seconds.

Then he looks into her eyes. “I promise to be yours, Nyx. I promise to love you when you’re afraid, when you’re angry, and when you can’t see the good in yourself. Even if you look at me and see a monster, I’ll never look at you and see anything less than the woman I love.”

Nyx's jaw tightens.

She grips his hands harder. “And I promise to be yours, Talon. I promise to love you even if you lose control again, and you become the very thing you’re afraid you are.”

Talon flinches, barely, but I see it. His lips part, and I know what he wants to say. I would never.

I wanted to say it too. That's the beauty of the vow. Neither person expects the worst thing to happen. You're not giving each other permission to cause pain. You're looking at the ugliest possibility you can imagine and saying that even there, at the very bottom of everything, some part of my love will remain.

Talon seems to understand that too. He doesn't argue. He just brings Nyx's hand to his mouth and presses a kiss against her fingers.

My throat tightens. Talon. Kissing her hand. Without saying one stupid thing afterward.

I might actually start sobbing.

He steps back into place beside me, and our shoulders brush, but neither of us says anything.

Then Thorian walks forward.

The sight of him approaching Nyx does something entirely different to my chest. He looks enormous in the firelight, broad shoulders cutting through the darkness, his expression solemn. But Nyx doesn't look small when he reaches her.

She looks like his equal.

His partner.

Thorian takes both of her hands in his. For several seconds, he simply stares at her. The fire pops beside him. A spark rises near them and disappears.

“I promise to be yours, Nyx,” he finally says, his deep voice carrying through the night. “I promise to love you even when circumstances force you to choose something other than me.”

My chest aches. Of course that's his. After everything Valtor offered tonight, after Thorian told us to leave him behind because he thought our happiness mattered more than his life, that's the worst thing he can imagine.

Being left behind, and loving her anyway.

Nyx's eyes fill with tears, but she doesn't look away from him.

“Thorian, I promise to be yours. I promise to love you even when the world gives me every reason to let you go.”

Thorian's hands tighten around hers.

“I'll love you through drought and famine and the very shaking of the earth.”

Her voice breaks, and Thorian closes his eyes for a moment. When he opens them again, there's a shine in them I've never seen before.

Nyx squeezes his hands before releasing them.