The Tolvare King stands proudly with his bond-mates at his side. Oberyn Tolvare is the Core of a Bond with Aerin’s mother, Esalin, as a romantic bond-mate, and Fyton, a platonic bond-mate and the head of the Valtara Royal Guard. All full-magic creatures have bond-mates, a Core who centers the Bond Group with usually two or more creatures as their bond-mates. Bond-mates can be romantic or platonic but inevitably become the creatures valued most in one’s life. A bond-mate is also someone you can create the strongest magical bonds with, should you choose to become bonded-mates.
Though, bonded-mates are generally a thing of the past. Creating a magical link between two creatures allowing them to share magic is a recipe for disaster in a society that values individual magic above everything. Still, bond-mates are revered and respected relationships.
On either side of her parents’ Bond Group stand her siblings, Aerin one step apart from them—a clear divide between the five golden Tolvare’s and the one dressed in black and green. Aerinstands out like a sore thumb and tomorrow, when these images are splashed across all Novhelm, Father will be livid.
Aerin doesn’t feel excitement at the prospect of profoundly angering her father, as her mind is elsewhere and working fast. Plans she’s been curating for eight years start swirling in her mind, ones she’d given up on. Aerin’s giddy, yet wary, at the prospect.
Blood contracts are illegal for many reasons, but one of them is that they tend to have minds of their own. Is the contract broken? Or is it simply fading? Redesigning, renegotiating with itself? It’s impossible to know. Forged in their blood, the written word is long gone, faded to nothing but the magic that binds her. The only way for Aerin to know its terms now is to test them. And the first test is one she can perform right now.
As the camera’s fall Aerin slips into the crowd. Bruin is still looking to corner her again, but the betrayal sits hot, wild, and painful in her chest. Bruin is the last creature she wants to see right now.
As Aerin weaves her way around the room, she looks for one creature in particular. The prospect of getting what she wants feels too unbelievable to be true, the pain of her loss eight years ago still violent in her body.
After signing the contract, Aerin stood at the top of the stairs leading down the beach, pounding on an invisible wall that prevented her from reaching a male who means the world to her. All she wanted was to scream that she’s sorry. But not even a single word could cross her lips. Phone messages didn’t go through. Calls failed.
When Aerin realized everything and everyone she’d given up by signing that contract, she’d been more than heartbroken. She’d been shattered. In the time after, remade into something that contained an age-old rage, one that rolls and boils and consumes her.
Spotting the head of long auburn hair, Aerin makes her way towards him. Standing at the dessert table with a drink in hand, he’s making large gestures as he tells a story.
Closing the distance with long sure strides, Aerin steadies herself. It’s been years since she’s seen him up close. All that time compresses to a blink of an eye as she nears. He is exactly as she remembers him. Beautiful. Larger than life. A diamond in a sea of coal.
Theoden Marrow, the consort Prince of Serine, stands with his back to her. He’s thick in the shoulders and narrow in the waist, his body perfectly sculpted for all the swimming he does as a Mer. His tailored Serine military uniform hugs his shoulders and thighs in mouth-watering ways. His hair falls in waves down his back, pulled into braids speckled with seashells and lengths of green seaweed along the sides of his head, emphasizing the planes of his tanned face. His boyish charm is undeniable. The grin on his face makes Aerin’s heart pound, a weight lifting off her chest.
Theo pauses, as if sensing her. He casually brings his drink to his lips, scanning the room. When his green eyes land on her, Aerin’s heart stops, stutters in her chest, and then takes off again at a gallop. His eyes flare as he lowers his drink, devouring her with his gaze as she closes the space between them. Her skin tingles, anticipation pounding through her.
Stopping before him, Aerin takes in his glowing skin and the sudden softness she finds in the hard planes of his face as he looks at her.
Aerin’s gaze holds his green eyes. Her body may remember all the times he’s caressed her with deft fingers and supple lips, but her mind most prominently remembers standing before him just like this, sobbing when the words wouldn’t form. Shattering when she realized the gravity of what she’d given up.
Aerin doesn’t deserve his forgiveness. But she knows he’ll give it to her anyways.
Please. Please. Please.
She begs the Gods she doesn’t believe in.
Aerin opens her mouth. For the first time in eight years, the words she longs to say pass over her lips and form in the air between them.
Those words change everything.
11
THEODEN
One minute, Theoden is regaling a story of his youth. The next, he feels her near. Like the planet he orbits, Theo can always sense Aerin Tolvare.
Trying to hide the massive grin that adorns his face, he takes a sip of his drink, eyes automatically scanning the room for her. Theo is often forced to watch her from afar, as if behind a pane of glass, never quite able to reach out and touch her. Today, when he lays eyes on her, she’s dressed in his house colors, closing the distance between them. His heart pounds against his ribcage.
Aerin stops her approach close enough to touch for the first time in years. Her golden eyes glow, framed by thick, dark lashes. The curse of being as long lived as they are, is that eight years felt both impossibly long and like the blink of an eye. Every moment they’ve ever shared floods into his head.
Theo has known a thousand versions of her. Has loved every one.
Swallowing, Theo swears his heart is going to pound right out of his chest, fall onto the floor and flop around like a fish. He has led armies and fought against deep sea creatures, yet one Princess is enough to bring him to his knees.
Aerin opens her gorgeous mouth, only slightly, and Theo holds his breath. The noise around him fades until there is nothing, no one, but Aerin.
“Hello, Theo.”
Her voice melts him.
