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“Are you fully aware of what you will be facing, Galantia?” Malyr finally turned, leaning one shoulder against the shelf’s frame as his intense gaze found mine. “Your void will deepen. Your longing for my shadows will increase. The physical pull between us will be… intense.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning you can loathe me all you want,” he said, his eyes narrowing, “but you will still want to fuck me.”
A tingle pattered down my spine. “Oh.”
“The desire between bonded pairs is strong, sweetheart, especially after a fresh bonding,” Sebian added. “It’s why adrifis usually held in the fall. Gives people enough time to find their fated mate, court each other, then bond in spring. You remember what I told you about spring, right? Because this will feel damn close to that.”
All too well, given that foreboding throb between my legs. “We might be Ravens, but I don’t think that spares us the oppressive rules of royalty in this… unusual arrangement.” I looked at Malyr. “I presume there needs to be a level of discretion?”
Malyr blew out a long exhale. “Anything else would potentially endanger any… nestlings that might spring from this. If anybody ever questioned the legitimacy—”
“That won’t happen,” Sebian said. “I was careful with her so far, wasn’t I?”
I chewed on that for a moment, having to forego a child with Sebian. But then again, I’d spend nineteen years expecting no different than to push out titled babies from a man I may or may not have adored, therefore the jar was minimal. I’d once been willing to carry Malyr’s child to achieve my goal, and I saw no reason why it should be different this time.
“But can you live like this?” I asked Sebian. “You’d be my dirty secret.”
“I don’t give a shit what I am out there as long as I get to love and care for you when we’re among the people we trust,” he said with a stern certainty that caved my chest, but it all faded with his playful wink. “I do insist on it being dirty, though.” When I shoved at his shoulder, he smirked. “The more important question might be, can you handle us both?”
“I’ve done it before,” I said and looked back at Malyr. “You shattered me into a million pieces. The least you owe me is your help in putting this final piece back into me.”
Malyr stared at me for seconds or minutes. “Does this truly mean this much to you? Enough to bind your soul to me for a lifetime? For an eternity?”
I gave a resolute nod. “It is.”
Another second of silence.
Two. Three. Five.
“Tonight, when the moon stands halfway between the bay,” he finally said, “meet me where we first met.”
ChapterTwenty-Nine
Galantia
Present Day, a cliff
Istared at the reflection of a woman I barely recognized, the copper frame of my mirror glinting with the flames from the hearth across. For once, my hair hadn’t been forced into those ridiculous ringlets so fashionable at the human court. Instead, intricate braids, each about a finger long, lay tightly plaited along my scalp, the rest of my hair flowing open, wild, and unconfined.
Like a Raven’s.
Abondedone.
I breathed against the constraints of the bodice set into my gray mink dress, but all it did was provide more room for the quick beat of my heart to echo. “Why such a fuss if it’s only going to be the three of us?”
“You only bond once in your life, sweetheart.” Sitting behind me on a stool, Sebian ran his nails along my scalp, gathering that final strand that needed plaiting with slow, focused movements. “From here and on, we will keep your hair braided. Show the entire world that you are ours.”
Theirs…
My body turned sluggish under his caressing touch, calming some of the disquiet inside me. Or perhaps it was the way I thumbed the blue-ribbon bracelet on my wrist, turning the shards ofaerymelsewn onto it this way and that.
Beyond my door, Tidestone lay silent, save for the occasional footsteps of guards patrolling the way to my room on the order of Malyr, for some reason. Outside the window, the moon illuminated the gray swaths of snow. Not much longer, and it would stand halfway between the bay.
When Sebian finished the tie on the braid’s end, I reached behind me, letting my fingers seek his.
He immediately took my hand, guiding our arms down in front of me while his chest pressed warm and reassuring against my back. Tender lips pressed against the side of my neck, kissing a slow, languid path up to my ear where he whispered, “I’ll be right there with you. Yes?”
