Solas looked down at me with a smile so gentle my worries frayed at the edges. It was like he understood every fear twisting inside me.
“You will love the ceremony,” he assured. “The Commander will guide you through every step.” He bumped his shoulder lightly against mine.
I tried to let his words settle the frantic storm in my chest. But doubt pricked at the edges of my thoughts like thorns.
The bond thrummed faintly, a distant calling, a pull towards where he waited. Nothing but hope and love bled through the thread that connected us.
We turned a corner, and the corridor opened into another—this one shorter and lined with tall archedwindows that allowed moonlight to spill across the floor like liquid silver.
We walked through it and I marvelled at the sheer beauty that dared to exist in such a simple space.
The carved doors at the end of the hallway opened as if sensing our arrival and the sight stole the breath from my lungs.
The ballroom was a wonder of granite and starlight. Half the roof was open to the night air, an enormous carved frame that revealed the night sky in all its glory. Stars glittered overhead, reflected in the polished obsidian floor until it looked like we were suspended between two heavens.
On the far side of the room, floor-to-ceiling glass panels overlooked the sleeping town far below. Thousands of lights flickered across the dark landscape. Soft, distant, shimmering. They looked almost as far away and unreachable as the stars above. Candles hovered mid-air, drifting like glowing petals on the breeze and making silver runes shimmer across the walls. At the centre of the room stood the Commander with his back to me, a candle-lined aisle stretching towards him and opening into a circle of flames that held the crowd at bay.
I ignored the hundreds of onlookers, not wanting to find my father or the priest amongst them.
A string ensemble began to play a soft romantic song that weaved through the air as Solas led me to the beginning of the aisle. But it was the Commander’s voice that brought tears to my eyes. He sang, the deep timbre of his voice weaving around the strings in an enchanting pull. It carried through the vast, starlit chamber like a secret the world itself leant in to hear. While I didn’t understand the words, it felt like a song made forme. Like a melody for the damned.
“Go to him,” Solas said as we stood at entrance to the aisle. But I was already moving.
The Commander stood tall in a fitted black suit that looked carved onto his body, the sharp lines of the jacket framing the brutal strength of him. He turned towards me and I lost all breath in my lungs. His black hair had been smoothed back except for a single curl falling loose over his forehead, as if even his appearance refused complete obedience. His clean-shaven jawline was devastatingly sharp without his stubble. But it was his expression, and the emotions flaring through the silver thread between us, that dissolved my last flicker of doubt. I may have agreed to marry him for the sake of Kingdoms, but Gods… my heart had never felt so impossibly full.
His shadows reacted, erupting outward in a ripple before crawling over his legs. Gasps rose from the Fae gathered along the edges of the ballroom. Even the candles flickered, as if his darkness threatened to extinguish all light.
I reached the end of the aisle as his song ended, and he took two slow, measured steps towards me, eyes never leaving mine.
“Lyra,” he whispered. Just my name, but the way he said it made my knees weaken and my heart swell behind my ribs.
“You are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen,” he said, voice thick with emotion. “It feels like I am drowning every time I look at you. I cannot breathe—and yet I will gladly give up every breath I have to be your husband.”
The world swayed around me, narrowing to nothing buthim. I gathered my shaking breath and took his outstretched hands like a lifeline.
“I won’t let you drown,” I whispered back to him.
The bond hummed between our touching marks, warmand steady. His voice dropped to a low rumble meant only for me, “I have been waiting an eternity to see you walk towards me like this.”
Shadows caressed his skin without burrowing in and I hoped he had taken enough blood from me earlier to sedate them.
The ceremony circle glowed beneath our feet, soft, silvery light that pulsed like a heartbeat.
Solas, Riven, Caelum and Aldric stepped over the threshold of candles, standing within the circle.
“It is Fae tradition to have those dearest to us in the circle of Amarta,” the Commander explained quietly.
He had included Riven and Aldric for me, and my heart swelled with something tender and pure. I had never been surrounded by so much love.
The musicians drifted into silence and the candles stilled.
Cerilla glided down the aisle, her obsidian gown floating behind her, studded with tiny crystals that mirrored the night sky above. Her raven hair was loose around her in perfect curls that bounced as she walked towards us with a serene smile.
She nodded towards Riven as she stopped in front of our joined hands.
“Tonight, we join the Fae and Mortal Kingdoms through marriage to fight against the Seven Hells!” The crowd cheered around us, clapping and yelling out praise. The Commander held both my hands in his as we faced each other.
“A union between two souls requires many things, but as our tradition demands, that is decided by the individual.” Cerilla’s voice echoed through the hall with an eerie pulse. “Brother, state your vows to your bonded.”
