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“That’s how it worked, roughly. It was a very old and very ancient ritual. Someone very powerful was present. She blessed us, in her way. I’m not sure it would have worked otherwise. It’s not how Siabra usually marry, you know.”
“And so you married me under compulsion.” The words tumbled out. “You were forced into it as much as I was.”
I felt him stiffen. “What do you mean?”
“You could only save me by doing what you did. And you refused to let me die. You were too...I don’t know, too fucking honorable to do that, I guess. So you bound yourself to me. You bound us together.”
“I never said that.”
“Yes,” I insisted. “You did. On the battlements, the day that Rychel left. When I came back from the Blood Rise. You said you had done what you did to save my life. Those were your words.”
He was quiet for a moment. “Two things can be true, Morgan.”
My heart sped up a little.
I felt him sigh. “I didn’t save your life because it was honorable. If it had been someone else lying there... Well, I would have done all I could have. But the mating ritual? I’m not sure I would have,could havegone that far. But with you? I didn’t hesitate.”
“Why?” I whispered.
“Because I would not not let you go.” His voice was as dark and forbidding as a starless night’s sky. “And if giving you part of me—or hell, if giving you all of me would keep you in this world, then that’s what I was prepared to do. You were lying there, dying, Morgan. And even before I’d spoken the words, I knew.”
“Knew what?”
“Knew you were already my mate.” He paused, as if his throat had closed up a little. “And I wasn’t about to let you die. I was going to do whatever it took, give whatever I had to.”
“And so you did.”
There was silence.
“How could you have known?” I asked finally. “How could you have known I was your mate?”
His grip on me tightened again. “Do you really want me to say the words? Is that what this is about?”
I said nothing, simply waited.
His lips tickled my ear.
“There are no limits to my love for you, Morgan. When Myntra and Eskira and every place in Aercanum have crumbled into oblivion and the universe itself dissolves into nothing, my heart will still beat for you.”
There was silence.
Then I let out a deep breath. “Draven Venator, you bought my life with your blood. You made me your mate.”
I felt him tensing up as I spoke, already assuming the worst.
“You redeemed my life with your own, but you could never take my heart. Love... Love must be freely given.”
Draven’s body felt like a rock, a wall of armor around me.
A wall that would shatter with a single wrong word.
“But my heart was already yours. When I lay dying in Meridium, you were all I could think about. I knew you would come for me. I had no doubt.”
I twisted slightly to see his eyes. They were deep and full of something I thought might be hope. “Did I ever tell you that?”
Mutely, he shook his head.
I turned back, looking off into the trees. “I know you would burn the world to the ground and lay it at my feet if I told you it would make me happy.”
