I wrapped my arms around his neck. Pulled him down. Felt the feathers along his jaw scrape against my cheek, foreign and perfect.
“Don’t stop,” I gasped. “Please don’t stop.”
“Never.” His mouth found my throat. Teeth scraped against my pulse. “You’re mine now. Mine forever.”
The magic built. Higher. Hotter. I could feel it reaching a crescendo, could feel the transformation hovering just out of reach. One more push. One more…
My eyes rolled back.
Darkness flooded my vision. Complete, absolute darkness. Not the absence of light but the presence of nothingness. I could see through it. See beyond it. See the space between worlds where the ravens traveled, where death-speakers walked, where the Raven Spirit waited and watched.
And then the darkness receded.
Color returned. But it was different. Richer. Deeper. I could see shades I’d never seen before, spectrums that didn’t exist for human eyes. The candlelight was no longer just gold, it was gold and crimson and violet, layered and complex.
I looked at Cador above me.
“Your eyes,” he said. Awe in his voice. “Olwen, your eyes?—”
I came apart.
The orgasm ripped through me, but it wasn’t just pleasure. It was transformation. Completion. Every cell in my body singing the same note, every nerve firing.
I cried out, a sound that echoed off the bones, that joined with the ravens’ calls from above, that became part of the music of the Realm.
Cador followed. His body went rigid above me, wings flaring wide, and I felt his release deep inside. Felt the magic seal. Felt the bond snap into place, permanent, unbreakable, eternal.
We stayed locked together, breathing hard, while the magic settled.
The candles burned lower. Morveth’s chanting faded to silence. And in the quiet, I heard a new sound.
Purring.
I turned my head. Lowen lay at the edge of the polished stone.
Changed.
Muscle filled the spaces where there had been only bone. His fur, patchy and thin before, now covered him in a sleek coat of smoke and silver. Not pure white, but storm-colored, like clouds before lightning.
And his eyes…Still that witch-light green, but brighter now. Alive. Where his ribs had shown through, faint darker markings traced the bone patterns beneath, like shadows that refused to fade completely.
He was whole. But he remembered what he’d been.
“The bond anchored him too,” Cador said. His voice was returning to normal, the resonance fading.
“Everything death-touched within range of the ritual. The magic couldn’t tell the difference between you and him. It fixed you both.”
I reached out. Lowen padded forward, pressed his solid, warm body against my hand. I felt his heartbeat beneath his fur, his life, real and present and no longer borrowed.
“It’s done,” Morveth said. She stood at the edge of the circle, her filmed eyes reflecting candlelight. “The bond is sealed. Rise, Death-Blessed. Rise, Queen of Ravens.”
Cador pulled back. Helped me sit up. His wings were still manifested, still wrapped loosely around us both, but his skin was lightening. The storm color fading back to pale, plumage melting back into skin.
“Look at me,” Cador said.
I met his eyes. He was searching my face, cataloguing changes, looking for what the ritual had done.
“Violet,” he said. “Your eyes are violet now. Like amethyst. Like twilight.” He traced my cheekbone with his thumb. “You’re beautiful.”
