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Shadows infiltrated my veins, crawling up my neck and cheeks like filthy parasites. “I might just—”
“You both heard what Marla said.” Asker stepped between us, his voice gruff, throwing his hands up in an appeasing manner. “The girl was resolute to find her gift. The way I see it, she will not follow either one of you, so how about we redirect our attention to another pressing issue? Taradur will reach Tidestone soon. Lady Cecilia has been promised a wedding. In the wake of recent… events, well, she questions your sincerity, my prince, of standing by your word.”
“Exactly,” Sebian all but snorted. “I’ll go to Tidestone. Malyr has a wedding to attend, just like heplannedit.”
“That was before Lady Galantia revealed as his fated mate,” Asker pointed out. “Now that she has been found, the entire court is aware that this could change everything. A bonded deathweaver pair—”
“We don’t know if she evenisa deathweaver,” I said, though her white shadows trapped inside the salt pendant could have easily gone ignored all this time. “I only ever prayed for one thing at the shrine of the Winged Keep, as you know. Given the fate our goddess has dealt me, the least she can do is grant this one thing to me.”
Interesting, how I suddenly talked as if I would indeed make Galantia my bondmate…
“I can count on one hand the few bonded deathweavers that were recorded to have been fated to a Raven with a different gift,” Asker said. “Regardless, once bonded, Malyr, you might gain power unequaled byanyalliance.”
My muscles tensed, old promises and new desires warring at my core. Of course, I’d always known I might meet myanoaley. It was fated, after all. And then I would send her far away, I’d promised myself, to live on a fine estate on the island of Lanai, with guards to keep her safe and servants to look after her every need.
But that was before…
Before I’d had her blood on my lips, her scars between my teeth, her throat in my clasp, her moans in my ear, her reddened ass beneath my palm, her tongue gliding along my blade, her cunt tightening around my cock in pleasure and pain. It was before she’d spent cold winter mornings on my lap at my desk, the both of us wrapped in a blanket, practicing her gods-awful handwriting.
That was before I fell in love with her…
“Should you go back on your word,” Asker said, “Taradur might as well join forces with Brisden and march straight into Deepmarsh with him.”
Yes, that was a potential problem. But what would Taradur gain by siding with the kingdom of Dranada once more? Deepmarsh was… well, wet. Hanneling Hold? A speck on the map. Even if I went back on my word, there had to be something I could offer instead? But what?
“The way I see it, you have two options, my prince.” Asker paused. “Marry the Taradur girl posthaste, to ensure, in a combined effort of her forces and Marla’s vision, our victory at Tidestone.”
“And the second option?”
“Find a way to pacify House Taradur so they will not abandon us in this attack.” He bore his eyes into me. “Then fly to Tidestone. Return the girl her bird. Do whatever it takes to let youranoasbond.”
Bond Galantia. The sound of it alone soothed something deep within me, momentarily dulling the ache of our burdened fate.
“You can’t be serious,” Sebian groaned. “Hasn’t she suffered him enough?”
Yes. Quite so.
The way I had scarred her, choked her, smacked her, struck her, and bit her made it all the more evident; each morally corrupted misdeed a reason why I’d stopped searching for my mate to begin with. I could never reconcile hurting myanoaleyfor my pleasure, neither could I stop liking the things I liked. My roughness was whipped into me, the desire to cause pain instead of receiving it scarred into the very fabric of my being.
Mmm, what to do?
Bonding with her would break a promise I’d once given to myself and her. But was that truly worse than breaking a promise I’d given to Father, Mother, Harlen, Naya… every Raven who had suffered because of me?
If I was a good man—a decent mate, if only once—I would reject Galantia so she may find happiness with Sebian. Bonding her would be cruel, forever tying her to the Raven prince, who had shattered her downright viciously. But then again, wasn’t I already all those things in her eyes? If anything, claiming her would cradle her in the reliable certainty of what a bastard I was.
Besides, who argued fate?
“Cancel the wedding and let the Taradurs be my problem.” I rose and strode toward my personal rooms. “I want every Raven with a gift suitable for war ready to depart east come morning, so they may merge with Taradur’s forces. I want my crown by summer.”
For that, I needed to bond.
ChapterEight
Sebian
Present day, Deepmarsh Castle
“Do whatever it takes to let youranoasbond?” I’d heard my fair share of shit advice in my life, but that one left me gaping at Asker. “You do understand that his definition of ‘whatever it takes’ might very well be to strangle her with his shadows until she gives in, right?”
