Something in his tone sent warning bells pealing through her mind, but the dais rattled and Lunara had to grab him to keep her balance.
She saw his horns first as they cleared the top step. Gold and ivory twisted and knotted themselves together into a crown befitting the highest royalty. How appropriate it was, then, that a king’s visage followed after them.
If Brand was impressive in his‘greater’form, then Lyriat was something else entirely. She hadn’t known it was possible for him to become even more magnetic, commanding awe as he cleared the steps and headed straight towards them.
He absolutely towered over her and Magnus, easily larger than Brand by several feet when he was raging. The telltale markings of his change had manifested in thick bands of pulsing light around his calves, forearms, and neck—the perfect match to the pearly stone circlets at his biceps.
All of his other markings, the ones she would’ve expected to grace his olive skin, had been reserved for the massive set of membranous wings hanging from his muscled back.
They were so covered in the glowing whorls, they looked to be made of pure sunlight, rather than the fathomless pitch beneath the markings. Wicked, bony talons tipped the peaks and ends, dragging across the wooden planks in jarring opposition to the silent, graceful steps of his feet.
As she stared, transfixed by their king, a reverent hush fell over the entirety of the crowd below, their faces turned to the Sacred Sisters above.
Lyriat passed by her with a wink and moved to the back of the platform as Magnus whispered in her ear, “Now might be the time you’d want to use that spyglass, witchling.”
Heart pounding in her throat when she finally reached it, she had to blink a few times for her eyes to focus—that same heart stopping when they finally did.
Brand was there at the other end, power in every solid inch of him. Hedda and Faldir flanked him on either side, matching dual-bladed battle axes planted in the ground, their hands folded and resting on the pommels
A gargantuan horn curved from Brand’s mouth to rest on the hard earth at his feet where he stood in front of the Solyr Prism. Sunlight and shadows moved around him, pouring over his body as he pressed his lips to the mouthpiece.
Velvety and rumbling, a low note tumbled down through the morning air, as if to sayThe sunstar comes—no less quiet for the distance.
The crowd gently surged as their feet began to pound rhythmically into the ground, their bodies swaying with the movement.
Then came their chanting voices.
“Hoo, hoo, hoo…”they intoned together. Over and over, the deep sound like the beating of a heart, each inward breath between like blood rushing.
Nothing could have prepared her for Lyriat’s answering call.
The same note Brand had played pummeled directly behind her, the king’s horn flaring in reply. How she’d missed it there was beyond her. The boards of the dais actually rattled beneath her feet, beneath the overwhelming force of its colossal sound.We are ready,it bellowed to the sky.
She could only perceive with her watering eyes that Magnus was cackling as it whipped her hair and dress forward—there was no hope of her hearing him.
Stars and arses, she might never hear anything else again.
He was here.Sisters above, he was right in front of her.
“Tell me you’re real,” Brand rasped. “That I’ve not lost my mind and imagined you.”
Fear, sharp and gnawing, hit her.His, through the bond.
“I’m here,” she croaked, the lump in her throat aching.
Fear was replaced with a spark of wary hope.
She nodded when he knelt and sent her a questioning look, his arms wrapping around and lifting her from the platform just when the first rays of Solyrian started spilling over the mountains and making their way to the Solyr Stone. The chanted chorus reached staggering heights as she was finally pressed into the chest that was possibly her favorite place to be.
He nuzzled his face into the side of her head. “Tell me you’re staying. That you’re mine. I can’t… I don’t think I could take it if you left again after this.”
“I’m staying. I’m yours. I’m sorry.”
Joy. Unbridled, effervescent joy.
“Shhh.” His shaky sigh matched her own. “Say the prayers with me. Blessed Solyrian,” Brand breathed into her ear, the light growing and growing as she repeated him, “mark my mate especially. I am theirs as I am yours. Shine on us both, and grant us your power and protection.” He turned her fully and pressed his forehead to hers. “Brace yourself, little moon.”
She didn’t have to be told twice, not after that second horn blast. Not when she wanted to hold him so much that it hurt. Her teary eyes locked with his, the hazel depths of them glittering back as she latched onto one set of his curling horns and pulled herself tighter against him.
