Chapter21
Cyrus
Claire was no longer breathing, her body limp on the altar. Warm water flowed around her, most of it controlled by my magic, as I fought to keep her alive long enough to complete the ceremony.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this.
She should be awake and willing, not knocking at death’s door. Fuck, my betrothed should at the very leastlikeme, but we were nowhere near that level of comfort. I was just a means to an end for her. A nuisance she wanted to get rid of at her earliest opportunity.
And I couldn’t blame her for that.
Yet I wouldn’t change a thing.
Other than not taking her into the death fields.
But her training? The way she’d strengthened under my harsh treatment? That was my doing by being the enforcer she needed. The others were too soft on her, drowning the fighter inside. I provoked her to the forefront, and I hoped like hell that little warrior met me now.
“We must begin,” my father said as the priestess arrived.
“This is unprecedented,” the petite fae replied, taking in the scene before her. “We value consent as one of the highest principles.”
“With life right above it,” I told the tiny, white-haired woman. “If it’s not meant to be, her element will reject mine. Now stop delaying.”
I stroked my thumb across Claire’s frozen cheek, willing the hot springs around her to heat her blue skin. It didn’t work. Because that wasn’t what she needed.
Her elements were drowning, seeping from her body to the netherworld.
She needed an anchor.
I would be that anchor if she accepted the bond.
The priestess took her position before us, her frail hand lifting to hover over Claire’s heart. A chant began, one hummed in the old language. I closed my eyes, allowing the whispers to infiltrate my being, taking me to a place in the fae heavens where energy pulsed bright and consuming.
Claire,I breathed, searching for her spirit, willing her to come forth, to join me in the plane and allow me to give her what she required to survive.Come to me, little queen.
I clasped her hand in the ceremonial room, squeezing tight, while my soul roamed the fields in pursuit of her. She wasn’t gone yet. I could feel her life hanging in limbo, her fae half striving to hold on just a little longer as if it knew what I would offer.
And there.
Sitting by the spring, her eyes a gorgeous blue, I found her.
She played her fingers across the water, watching it form on her fingertips before floating up to the beaming sun.It’s beautiful,she marveled, oblivious to the chaos looming over her prone form.
You’re beautiful, I admitted, swallowing.Do you know why you’re here?
She shook her head, sending those alluring golden curls in waves down her exposed back. This flowy dress she wore was unlike any I’d seen her in, but I wanted to buy her hundreds just to see it again. Because she was stunning. Strong. Luminescent.
I like it here, she whispered as if the words were a secret only for me. And maybe they were.
It’s one of our most sacred places, Claire. Not even I have ever set foot here.
Why now?she wondered, her voice holding a musical quality I longed to hear from her icy lips.
The priestess guided us here for our vows.
Mmm.She looked around, her expression one of awe and expectation. The water element in her was taking over and driving her instincts, knowing the reason for all of this even while the human inside had no idea.
I need you to repeat the vows,I told her, hearing them from the priestess now.Can you do that for me?
