Two minutes ago, she would never have dreamed of releasing her power without restraint, but she was finally beginning to believe him when he told her not to fear hurting him with her magic. With only the slightest hesitation, she unleashed the torrent inside her.
Dilys’s body stiffened as if electrified and his eyes flared a bright golden white. Behind him, an instant later, Kame and Kuota did the same, then the six Calbernans behind them, then the next line and the next. Her power chained through them, filling each one, then spilling over to the next.
By the time her power reached the last dozen men, she was having to forcibly push energy out to them.
“There, you see?” Dilys pulled her hands from his chest and kissed her fingertips. “Problem solved.” Behind him, his entire crew was regarding her with a dazed wonder that bordered on reverence.
After a lifetime of clinging to her fear, so certain the happiness she longed for most could never be hers, it was hard to accept that she might actually be able to love, like any other person. “It seems promising, I’ll grant you that, but I won’t have a whole ship full of Calbernans following me around the rest of my life to stop me from killing innocent people whenever my emotions get the best of me.”
“Ono.But you will always have me, and I will see to that you have a personal guard, chosen from the strongest among us, the ones who can help you the most. You can claim the happiness you hunger for. You can love with your whole heart, without fear.”
She stared at him, and the yearning rose in her heart. Could it really be that simple?
“Believe it, Gabriella,” Dilys told her. “Believe in me. I am the mate born to stand at your side.”
Her fingers traced the outline of his mouth. The lips that had teased her, courted her, challenged, and defied her; enchanted, seduced and ultimately cast aside every objection, doubt, and fear, until all that remained was need and certainty.
In the end, the decision was really no decision at all. It was simply a truth she could no longer keep denying. That he was hers, and she was his. Always.
“I do believe in you,moa akua.” And softly, for their ears alone, she Spoke the Name that had imprinted itself upon her soul. Then louder, in a clear, ringing voice that carried the length and breadth of the ship, Gabriella said, “I claim thee, Dilys Merimydion. I claim thee as mine own. For thou art mine before all others, as I am thine.”
A name he had never known but now recognized with every cell of his being suffused Dilys’s mind. He Spoke that Name in a reverent whisper, binding her soul’s resonance to his own, then raised his voice to say, “And I claim thee, Gabriella Aretta Rosadora Liliana Elaine Coruscate. For I am thine, before all others. As thou art mine.”
There were no words to describe the feeling that settled over him. It was like opening his eyes and finding all the stars of the universe suddenly there, within his reach, and realizing that nothing was impossible, that he had just become part of a divine and greater whole. He was Calbernan. He’d never truly been alone. But until now, he’d never truly been complete, either. And in that single, perfect moment of communion, he understood the true face of joy, which for him could only come at Gabriella’s side.
He closed his eyes and fell to his knees as Dilys, son of Alysaldria, became Dilys, mate of Gabriella. Tears tracked warm trails down his cheeks. He didn’t wipe them away. Some things deserved the shedding of salt.
“Dilys, my brother.” Kame reached over Dilys’s back to hand him an unsheathed dagger.
The sharing of blood and salt was purely ceremonial, Dilys realized as he dragged the sharp edge of Kame’s blade over his palm. He could not be more bound to Gabriella than he already was. She had Spoken his Name, and he had Spoken hers, and now every part of them, body and soul, belonged to each other.
Still, it was tradition. Blood and salt to seal the bond.
He rose on shaky legs and offered hislianathe knife, holding out his hand, palm up, to display its line of glistening scarlet. She sliced her own palm, and as he clasped their palms together, mingling the blood in their veins, he said, “Blood to blood and salt to salt, we are one, Gabriella Coruscate, bound before all, never to be divided.”
“We are one, Dilys Merimydion” she agreed.
And it was done. She was hisliana,his wife and mate, in Name and blood and salt. And he was herakua,bound to her forever.
His crew cheered loud and long, their eyes bright, their joy palpable. The Wintermen cheered as well, though it was clear they didn’t understand the full import of what had just taken place. To Dilys’s surprise, a bright-eyed Kame produced a fine white silkobah,heavily embroidered along the edges with golden tridents and red roses sprinkled amongst a sea of green vines and blue waves.
“Ari and Ryll started working on it back in Konumarr,” Kame said as they helped him into the delicate garment. “They gave it to me before we set sail for the Green Sea. The men and I finished it up a few days ago. Thank Numahao it will finally get some use!” He grinned and slapped Dilys on the back. “Now, my prince, let us sail the ship softly while you go tend to yourliana.Your mother will be wanting a sweet, golden-eyedMyerialanna!”
The Calbernans roared with laughter and began singing songs about mating and making babies.
“You can’t be serious,” Gabriella protested when Dilys ushered her back into the cabin and locked the door. “We just spent fourteen hours in bed.”
“Are you tired?”
“Yes!”
“Ah, well.” He tugged loose the sash of her robe and pushed the fabric from her shoulders. It slid down her body and puddled at her feet. His gaze swept over her sweetly curved body, and his body came roaring back to life, ready for a new adventure. He might just have spent the last fourteen hours engaged in a marathon of vigorous, passionate lovemaking with Gabriella, his adored, but he had yet to spend a single second making love to Gabriella, his wife.
“You can just lie back, then, and let me do all the work.”
Much, much later, Gabriella lay on the rumpled mess of Dilys’s bed, boneless, exhausted, and sated beyond all comprehension. Good gods, the man had no quit. He’d brought her to climax so many times, she’d lost count. Again and again and again, until she was a sobbing, screaming, mindless mess, clinging to him as the sensual firestorm laid waste to her. The pleasure had been so intense, so completely shattering, that even now, just the memory of it made her aching flesh ripple with tiny aftershocks.
Dilys—herakua—lay sleeping beside her, one heavy arm flung across her waist. His iridescent blueulumiwere still glowing, albeit considerably more faintly than they’d been doing during the long, passionate hours of their lovemaking. She stroked fingers through the coils of his hair and marveled at how completely at peace she felt. He had done that. He had taken every fear, worry, and wound in her soul and laid them all to rest. Her father’s madness, her fear of her terrible gifts, the horror of what the Shark had done to her, the devastating grief of losing her sisters—all had lost the power to hurt her. Because Dilys had taken the rawness of her pain and given her back such infinite, unstinting love, there was no holding on to grief, or rage, or terror. He had made himself her haven in the storm—even when was the storm was her own fears and insecurities.
