The Commander squeezed my hands gently as I stared into his gaze, candlelight fracturing there until it felt like an endless abyss of stars staring back at me.
“I vow to love you, to keep you safe, to give you freedom and to respect you. I give myself to you,” the Commander vowed, voice growing thicker with each word. He reached up, brushing away a tear that had slipped down my cheek with his thumb as he leaned close. “You can choose your own,” he murmured, “or repeat mine.”
“Princess Lyra, give your vows to your bonded,” Cerilla’s said, voice echoing around us.
My heart lodged in my throat, the butterflies in my stomach making it hard not to move.
“I vow to love you. To trust you. To choose you. And I vow to save you. I give myself to you.”
I gasped, eyes widening as a mixture of grief and anger drowned me through the bond.
“Take it back,” the Commander hissed, eyes wide and panicked.
“No,” I said softly.
“Turn your palms over,” Cerilla instructed, moving on with the ceremony despite the Commander’s distress.
Cerilla summoned a dagger from thin air and took the Commander’s hand from mine. Without hesitation, she sliced her brother’s palm open while chanting in the Fae language.
“This blood oath will bind your vows, if they are not upheld, you both will die.”
My heart pulsed widely in my chest as I stared at the blue blood welling in his palm.
If I failed to save him, I would die alongside him. I held his gaze, refusing to look away as I raised my chin and let him feel my sheer determination through the bond.
I offered Cerilla my hand and she took it in her sweaty palm. The tip of the blade trembled against the soft skin of my palm before she slowly sliced open my skin. I gritted my teeth but refused to flinch. Instead of pressing my hand to his to seal the bargain, she let the knife linger against my hand for a moment too long, dark eyes shining with tears.
“I am sorry,” Cerilla whispered, low enough that only I could hear.
“Cerilla—”
Her hand shot out. Magic slammed into the Commander, tearing him from my grasp as he flew backwards.
Pure panic tore up my spine as I reached for my power—only to find it gone. In its place was a familiar floral scent that overwhelmed my senses.
Forty-Five
Betrayal
“I’m sorry.”
Cerilla’s words echoed through my head as time seemed to slow.
“Cerilla!” the Commander roared. “What the fuck are you doing?” He thrashed against a cage made of her shimmering magic.
Before I could register what was happening, Cerilla tipped my hand. My blood spilled onto the silver symbol at our feet, and it drank it in as if starved.
A symbol of thesun.How had I not noticed that before?
I tried to rip my hand from her grasp, but that overwhelming floral scent was making me weak.
She chanted in a language I didn’t understand, the words ancient and bone-chilling.
Power exploded from the symbol in a rippling wave of wrongness.
The bystanders screamed, scattering away like frightened mice. The symbol glowed a deep, hellish red that crawled out across the granite like veins bursting beneath skin.
The Commander’s roar shook the ground as shadows exploded outward with each animalistic thrash against the cage. “No!”he snarled, slamming himself against the barrier.
