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The sound that cracks out of me is a mix between a snort and a scoff as I lead her over to the sacred tree.
“Okay,” she says, grip tight. “What now?”
“First, we perform a vow of breath.” I turn so we’re standing face to face. “It’s a symbolic sharing of our life forces. All you have to do is breathe in my breath, and I will do the same.”
I slant my mouth over hers and exhale, aching to close the gap and kiss her. She inhales softly, then mimics me, exhaling sweetness into my mouth. We repeat this a few more times until I’m certain that if her breath caresses my skin one more time, I might give in to my most primal urge and fuck her right here.
Forcing myself to pull back, pulse scorching, I say, “Next are our vows.” I hold her gaze as steadily as I can. “Normally, the bride goes first.”
She nods. “And I just… say anything?”
“Preferably something from the heart,” Arkyn shouts, and the others laugh.
She tosses him a glare that lacks bite and turns her attention back to me.
“Riven, I—”
“Stop,” I blurt. “I want to be the first to say it, to tell you… I love you.” Only she says the words at the same time, igniting another bout of laughter amongst the crowd. “You couldn’t let me have that?”
“You have me. Isn’t that enough?” she teases.
“More than anything.” I lean down and kiss her, hands tightening on her waist. “Now, begin your vows.”
“There are so many quiet truths I could confess to you that express just how much I love you,” she says softly. “But none of them will mean as much to you as this.” She unwinds the vine necklace from around her throat and wraps it around my wrist. “You are mine, Riven Thaelon, mine and only mine.”
She stares up at me expectantly, and I know there’s nothing I can say that will mean as much to her as what I’m about to do.
I retrieve my dagger—that somehow found its way back onto my hip—and slice through the vine she used to tether us. Her brow wrinkles in confusion as I prick my finger with the tip of the blade and trace a rune on the inside of her wrist.
Sharp and jagged around the edges, but soft and smooth in the center.
The shape of us, our souls, intertwined.
I prick her finger and draw the same shape on my own skin with her blood.
The runes flicker and seep into our skin, and in their wake is a single permanent mark.
She traces the faint silver scar. “What does it mean?”
“It means as long as we have each other, we are home.”
Her eyes shine with unshed tears.
“Now,” I say, clearing my throat. “We name our union. Something secret, never shared or spoken aloud. A word used to seal the magic into our matrimony.”
I expect her to want to ponder it, to think long and hard about her suggestion.
I already know mine, though.
Knew it from the very first day I asked her to come up with a secret code.
A word with meaning to just the two of us.
Her grin is magnetic as she leans in, whispering in my ear, “Nightshade.”
Chapter 45
GWYN
