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His stare was lost to a spot on the ground between us, dark brows furrowed as he frowned, trying to make sense of his own words. “I am not worthy of such a thing, but I cannot help it.”
Something cold and wet kissed upon my skin. I looked up at the dark clouds that swelled over the night sky like a blanket. Droplets of silver rain fell down over us.
“Who told you such a thing?” I asked. It was my turn to reach for Faenir, who gathered me willingly into his arms. “Let me be the one to tell you how wrong you are, Faenir. Are you truly blind not to see how surrounded you are by love? Do you not see it in Myrinn’s admiration for you? Have I not proven to you enough how deserving you are of love?”
Faenir cradled my head to his chest, his hands working in calming circles across my wet hair as the rain fell harder and faster upon us.“I took you from your life because of my selfish and desperate need to feel your touch. Every day, I feel nothing but the burden of guilt for my actions. I do not deserve your love, Arlo.”
“Stop it, Faenir,” I said, rain and tears blending into one. “I love you. Do you hear me? I love you.”
“Say it again,” Faenir repeated my previous statement beneath the thundering of a brewing storm. Lightning sparked across the sky. A deep rumbling echoed throughout the blanket of clouds as though encouraging the weather to worsen. Still, we did not move from beneath it.
“I love you,” I screamed in chorus with the thunder.
Faenir gathered my face in his hands and crashed his lips upon mine. The kiss was deep and urgent. It was a wave of wordless emotion that gathered me up and covered me. I drowned willingly to it.
“I am not deserving of you, Arlo,” Faenir said as he pulled back. “I know it is just to let you leave me, but my soul screams for me to beg you to stay. Our time is limited, I recognise that, but I do not wish for you to go without knowing you will always have a place with me. I will carve out an eternity just for you to be with me.”
The lie was the easiest for me to tell, because it was not entirely false, but simply lacking the details that I should have provided him. “I will never leave you, Faenir.”
His golden eyes widened. I reached for the strands of wet, dark hair that had plastered across his face and moved them so I could see every inch of his expression. The sharp edges of his jaw, the heart-shaped bow atop his lips. All of him.
“I do not understand, Arlo… help me make sense.”
I swallowed the sadness in hopes he believed every word I had to say. “Bond with me.”
“Do not say such a thing.”
I took his wet face in my hands to ensure he could not look away. “Bond with me. Do so and I will stay by your side willingly. Show me you want me and do it.”
He blinked away rain that fell before his eyes. “If we do this, then it will not bode well.”
“Because it will solidify your right to take the throne and become King? Do it. Take what is rightfully yours, take me and the crown and you can have me forever.”
This was the mark I was to leave on the world. If Myrinn was right, Claria was growing weak. Faenir was the only one strong enough to protect Tithe and keep the wall surrounding my home, my Auriol, strong and secure from the evil beyond it.
Faenir deserved his destiny and if I was to die, then it would be knowing I could ensure Auriol’s protection.Deep in the shadowed parts of my mind, I recognised it was my way of keeping my parents’ promise.
“I would destroy this world if it meant you would stay by my side.”
“Faenir.” I cleared a droplet from his sharpened cheek. I could not tell if it was rain or a tear that cooled across my thumb and ran down my wrist. “Do this and I will always be with you. Do it for me, but more so… do it for you.” Again, I spoke aloud my half lie. I would always be with Faenir, perhaps not physically, but like the spirits that dwelled within the Styx behind us, I would never be far from him.
Faenir pressed his head to mine and closed his eyes in contemplation. I allowed him the silence as the rumbling storm crashed above us, sky flashing with forks of blue-white shards of jagged light.When he opened his eyes again, they were void of sadness but brimming with confidence. “Arlo, it would be my honour to Bond with you.”
I smiled into his kiss, gripping the back of his neck and holding him to me. His wet hair tangled in my fingers as we lost ourselves to one another. Time could have stopped completely as I gave into the relief of his agreement to my request.
“What next?” I asked, my chest full of warmth, as though it would burst with relief.
“If we are to Bond, it must be agreed by Claria.”
The bubble popped as soon as he spoke. “She will never agree.”
“I know,” Faenir replied, lips brushing over mine. “There is, dare I admit, another way.”
I looked up through clumped, wet lashes at the determination that oozed from Faenir. “How?”
“We take the throne from her. With the support of Myrinn and my family, it will be enough for the right of succession to fall tous.”
I exhaled deeply, feeling the hammering of my heart shudder within the confines of my chest. “You mean to kill her?”
