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her bed wrapped in each other’s arms.
His arms tightened around her as they came fully back into awareness. Neither of them said anything for a moment, just breathing in and out as their heartbeats moved in sync. The rhythm a peaceful sound in the quiet night.
His mouth finally found the words to break the quiet of the room, yet his head still spun, as he found himself stumbling through his words, unsure of himself.
“Was that real?” he whispered as if speaking too loudly might break the joyous feeling in the
room. As if it would bring them back to a reality that did not include being bonded to each other. He was surprised at how much he needed what happened to be real, that he was forever hers and she forever his.
She pulled his left arm out and stretched hers next to it, the soulbond mark there just as it had been in the dream.
Yes, it was real, they were bound. All the anxiety left him in a rush, his heart feeling a wholeness he could never even fathom was possible.
“It was. It is,” she whispered in just as much awe.
He felt a sudden wave of self-consciousness about how she might be feeling now that it was real life and not some dream. He had jumped at the chance when he knew what was laid in front of them, yet she had hesitated and that made him feel like maybe he had rushed her.
Maybe that was why she was so ready to do it, the fact that they thought they were dreaming. His heartbeat picked up, and he swallowed to ask the question on his tongue, having to lick his dry lips.
Why was he so nervous? They were already bound to each other, but yet, if this was something she did not want, what would he do?
If it read her intention in the dream, but here… he wasn’t sure he was strong enough to handle
her rejection, especially after everything he had come to terms with since he first came to the Underworld.
Perhaps he had jumped the gun in his excitement to find himself again, a happier and less depressed version of himself at least. He had a tendency in the past to push a little too quickly into things. To jump without thinking.
“Persephone,” he breathed, and she turned her head to look up at him, her fingers tightening
around his.
“I know what you’re thinking, and you are wrong. I meant it there just as I do here. I am as happy to be yours as you are mine.” She leaned in and pressed a kiss to his soulbond mark.
This woman still loved him even though he wore his wrong decisions on his darkened soul. The memories of his sins preserved as scars on his soul but no longer his body, memories he did not care to see, but was finally beginning to accept.
He had made mistakes, but those choices led him to this woman. A woman he could not imagine living without.
The pain was worth the reward.
They left the world to its own reveries as they spent the last hours of the night in bed. They laid in each other’s arms while they talked between kisses and love making. Laughing and enjoying each other’s company before the world knocked at the door and demanded to be let in.
By early morning, they knew they had to face the day, much as they wished they could just remain in bed. The afterglow of their bond gave them the feeling of floating on air. Something they knew would run its natural course as they would eventually find a love that was less chaotic, steadier, but just as strong, if not strengthened by time.
They were starving, but it was still early enough that the Reevkas were not yet moving about. They dressed themselves to preserve some modesty in case some shadows lingered about, and she grabbed his hand to take him to fill their stomachs. After their night of bonding and lovemaking, they were finally ravenous for something besides just each other.
They walked into the large kitchen, knowing the cooks always left plenty of food from their daily meals and preparation in case Persephone came home late from the office. Settling on cheese and crackers, she grabbed his hand and pulled him into a shadow jump to her office at Cerberus Financial. The large windows of her office looking out over the city center of Halcyon. The glowing lights twinkling like stars.
She smiled at him as they found themselves seated on the couch in her office, enjoying their snacks while the rest of the world slept.
“I have a ton of questions,” Devon started, putting some cheese on a cracker, and feeding it to Persephone. “One is how has no one ever done that ritual before?”
It seemed surreal that they were bonded. That he was forever her mate.
“My mother told me it was possible, but no, no one had ever been chosen for it,” she responded after swallowing her bite of food. “Many years ago, Hecate wanted to try doing an earthbound version of it. We had a couple here who fell in love working the palace grounds. The souls who work in the Underworld have their own city and live right outside the palace walls, which I will have to take you to sometime.
“Anyway, this couple was in love, but it is not like marriages are well known in the Underworld, and the souls did not remember their human cultures. Hecate created this spell, using words similar to human vows but not quite, to bind their souls. It did not work, because as it turned out, the man was not sure of their union. Days before they performed the spell, he met the blacksmith and was unable to get him out of his head. After the spell failed, he knew he wasn’t for her,” she finished.
Devon raised his eyebrows. “So, you never actually saw it work?”
