Calla’s crimson gaze met hers in the mirror. “Do you know what this night means?”
Alora shook her head. “Only that it’s a celebration?”
A grin curved Calla’s lips. “Samhain is the Night of Ashes. The one night when the veil between worlds opens, and every demon, shade, and spirit walks free. We feast, we burn, we remember what we are.” Her voice softened, almost wistful. “It’s the one night the shadows sing with the voices of the dead. If you listen closely, you might hear them.”
Alora glanced at the wide-open windows, letting in the night breeze. There was no moon tonight, no stars, as if a veil of shadow had been cast over the sky. A hum carried on the wind, like a choir of distant voices eerily singing.
“Has your friend woken yet?” Calla asked as she pinned up a section of Alora’s hair.
She sighed. “No, Caelum still sleeps. I have left Nexus to watch over him tonight.”
The mountain had made separate rooms for him in her wing of the castle. After much deliberation, Alora had chosen not to give him a door.
Perhaps it was a bit hypocritical, but she had to, because she feared he would wander the dangerous castle, or something would wanderin. Now she understood Rune a little more.
Karag Dûr would watch over him.
“There,” Calla announced, turning her to face the mirror. “Now you look like our Shadow Queen.”
Her crown, no longer bone and onyx, was wrought of gold filigree shaped like curling horns. A collar of gilded dragonwings framed her throat, and the gold bodice, woven in patterns of roses and thorns, clung to her curves over sheer black silk. Gold cuffs shimmered on her wrists, and her cape flowed behind her like smoke given form. Her skirt draped in layered black veils, slit high to bare the length of her thighs, each movement a whisper of silk and shadow that promised far more than it revealed.
For a breath, Alora didn’t recognize the woman in the glass. She looked powerful.
Dangerous.
The faintly glowing markings on her arms, neck, and legs were fully revealed as though the gown was designed with that intention. Rune had never allowed her to be paraded before his court, not since her coronation, always keeping her separate on her side of the castle. Tonight, that changed. Now that her power was visible, his decision to bring her amidst them seemed deliberate. Whether to prove she could defend herself or to display what washis.
Something stirred in her chest, deep and instinctive, the faint hum of a bond awakening. She felt him before he appeared.
Rune emerged in a plume of shadow, and the instant his eyes fell on her they smoldered with low flame. “You look like sin itself.”
And for once there was no mockery in his tone.
She bit her lip, admiring him too. He was dressed in ceremonial armor like liquid night, crimson cape draped over his shoulders. A crown of shadow flickered on his head, his eyes glowing faintly under the dim torchlight. Shadows licked along his shoulders like a living cloak. He looked every inch the god he was. Beautiful, terrible, and utterly wicked.
His mouth hitched with a sly smile.
Alora narrowed her eyes. “Are you prying into my mind again?”
Rune’s mouth curved. “I hear what you let slip through, songbird.” He drew her closer, his breath a ghost against her ear. “Why would I pry, when your thoughts seek me out so willingly? Especially in your dreams.”
A flush pooled in her cheeks. Well, she had suspected he could read her mind before and yesterday she’d somehow spoken to him, mind to mind. After everything, she had been too distracted to realize it until now. But her dreams were so vivid, especially last night. Her thighs clenched at the reminder.
Rune glanced at Calla. The Harbinger bowed and vanished in a wisp of smoke.
He circled her, a smirk playing on his lips. “My mind is open to you too, Alora. You need only reach for it.”
Could it be that simple? What would she find in the mind of a god?
Inhaling a breath, Alora reached out through the tether humming in her veins. She sensed his warmth first, then his scent of smoke and amber.
Rune’s presence surfaced in her mind immediately. And she felt he was both pleased and surprised by how easily she did it.Well done.
A current swept down her spine at the sound of his voice in her mind.How can we mind speak like this now?
Because we are bonded, Alora.Rune took her hand, his thumb grazing her ring.
She remembered then the day she accepted it, she had felt something sink into her soul.Is that the soul-binding?
