“That’s… unusual.”
“Not for me.I need to work it out of my body, and I’ll be the same as ever before.”
“Itbeing the iron.”
He met her gaze, challenging her.“The magic.”
She made a purring sound, her gaze feasting on his shoulders.Some small part of him had been worried she’d be disgusted by this shape.The men she’d grown up with were lean and willowy.Muscles meant work, and work was something commoners did.
When she did not object to his use of the wordmagic, he said, “A good bout of exercise will expend the extra energy.”A good bout of sex would do the same but with much more satisfaction.He groaned.Rock hard.“I have to leave, Diana.But come here.Let me give you something.”He still had the rings in his fist.
She grabbed a fairy orb he’d given her and held it close to his face.“Your eyes are… glowing.Perhaps itismagic.”
He shoved aside the prick of irritation.Of course it was magic.Her sort wouldn’t listen to reason, insisted their paltry illusions were the only true source of power.“Think whatever pleases you but give me your hand.”
She did, without a hint of hesitation.Her willing trust like a dagger between the ribs.Had he earned that trust?Likely not.
But still he took her hand, rotated it palm up, then spilled the rings into it.
She pinched them between thumb and forefinger and held them close to the fairy orb.“These are supposed to wait for tomorrow, Temple.”
She’d run from her first scheduled wedding.He couldn’t have her running from this one.“I made them.They’re special.We won’t exchange them tomorrow.Has to be now.Alone.”
“Why?”
“Tradition.”
“Ah.One of those secret alchemist things.”
“Just so.Now.I’ll put one ring on you, and you put the other on me.You have to say something when you do it.”
“What do I say?”
“Whatever comes into your head to say.Everything about binding is particular to the couple being bound.”
“Binding?”The rings fell to floor as her hand recoiled to tremble against the safety of her belly.
He picked them up.“Yes.”
“You said nothing about a… binding.What is it?Besides an old alchemist tradition.”
“But that’s what it is.A silly name for an old thing.Come, little mouse.Give me your hand.The ring won’t hurt you.It’s a bit like the summoning stones.But while the stones can be used by anyone, these two rings are tuned to us, connecting us.”
Slowly, her arm uncurled from her body and slipped into his.“I suppose tomorrow will see me bound well enough.No use refusing this.”
“Precisely.”He took her hand and took a breath.Then he slid the ring on her finger, holding her gaze.“My body is yours.Your protection and your pleasure.”
Her chest rose with a shocked inhalation as the ring hit home and began to glow.He held her hand in both of his, and all the colors of the opal circled them, tethered them, bound them together.She began to speak, but he put his ring in her palm.
No words now but the right ones.
Her turn.
Her throat bobbed with a long swallow, and her hand shook as she picked up the larger ring.His palms were suddenly sweaty, and his heart pounded in his ears.The strands of opal light had receded, but still her ring glowed with a faint pearlescence.As did the inside of his ring.
She held his hand with the lightest touch and inspected the inner circle of light before she set the ring at his finger.She chewed her bottom lip as she considered.He wanted to tell her not to think, to let her heart guide her, but this silence could not be punctured until she chose the words to act as needle.No puncture then.But a sewing.
A binding.
