“Because I clearly told you I didn’t do one-nighters or relationships.”
The way he tipped his head and offered such an understanding look threatened to make her weep. “Dinna be afraid, mo chridhe. This is real. Fated. When time began, and our souls were born, the jealous gods and goddesses splintered them in two, but we found each other, over and over, through each and every lifetime and reclaimed our precious bond.” He pressed a tender kiss to her forehead. “We have found each other again now and will be better for it. I promise.”
He scooped her up into his arms and rose from the floor with impressive ease. “To the bed, aye? I apologize for the floor.” He helped her slide under the covers, then stepped back and shed his jacket, tunic, kilt, and boots.
Unable and unwilling to look away, she feasted on his nakedness like a starving dog offered a banquet. “The floor served us well. I’ve never…” Would it sound lame if she told him she’d never enjoyed such satisfying sex before? “It was perfect—especially since you weren’t particularly happy with my plan to escape.”
“I was not.” He climbed into bed with her and pulled her close. “Ye must never leave Wraith Tower without me by yer side. This Scotland is far more dangerous than yers.”
Worry stabbed at her again. “That’s why I was trying to leave.” She pressed closer, ravenous for the feel of his warm flesh against hers. She touched his face, trailing a fingertip along a silvery scar on his cheek, one she’d somehow not noticed before. “I’ve never depended on anyone but myself. It just wasn’t safe to do so.”
“It is safe now,” he said with a sadness that worried her even more. He brushed a fingertip along her temple. “My heart breaks at the fear and doubt in yer eyes. My soul will not rest until that fear and doubt leave ye.”
“This place…the voice in my head…and now us.” She hitched in a deep breath to keep from spiraling into renewed hysteria. Here she was in bed with a man who had just taken her to delicious oblivion and back, and she was panicking about the other stuff. What in the world was wrong with her? She should be firing on all cylinders for round two. Her body was ready. Why wasn’t her mind? “I think I’m crazy, Mathison. All this stuff has me so terrified and confused, when all I should concentrate on is you. Here. Now. And yet, I insist on worrying. What in the world is wrong with me?”
“There is nothing wrong with ye, mo chridhe.” He tucked her to his side and cradled her closer. “There is much pulling at ye from every direction. Ye are a shifter raised in a world that lost its connection to the ancient ways of magic long ago. Yer wolf has never taken form out of fear for yer well-being. Ye still grieve for the child ye lost, the only precious one ye ever truly trusted and loved.” He idly trailed his hand up and down her arm, then pressed a kiss to her forehead. “And now here ye are, fated to the soul of the dark Wraith, the cursed one of the Ninth Realm, and we’ve yet to bond. Therefore, yer soul pulls at ye in a way ye dinna understand.”
“But we did bond.” She lifted her head, confused. Had it not been good for him, too? He’d seemed to enjoy it.
“We joined physically, and quite wonderfully, I might add, but we’ve yet to meld our souls by speaking the binding oath.”
“Would that untie the uneasy knot I always feel right here?” She touched her sternum. The aching was worse. It was as if she were about to split in two.
He rolled them and kissed the spot between her breasts where it hurt the most. “That is yer soul crying out to join with mine.”
“Is that why I feel like I know you?” She wrapped her arms around him and held on tight. All the feelings, all her fears, were about to overwhelm her. “How I know at an almost cellular level that you’d never hurt me.”
He gifted her with a smile that eased her mind and filled her with hope. “Aye, my heart. That is exactly why. Yer soul recognizes mine as mine recognizes yers.”
Still leery but unable to turn back, the churning within her increased to the point where she almost couldn’t breathe. “The binding oath—is it like a marriage vow?” She feared the M word for good reason.
“’Tis stronger. Once we are bound as we were in the beginning, nothing can tear us asunder except death—and even then, death will not conquer us because we will find each other in each life thereafter.” He kissed her again on the breastbone, then pressed his forehead against her. “Yer heart beats for mine. I hear it. Yer soul reaches for me.”
Cradling him against her chest, she closed her eyes and nearly lost herself to the maelstrom within her. Dare she really do this? Her heart screamed ‘yes’, and she found it impossible to ignore. “Where do we have to go? Is there an officiant here at the Tower?”
“We need nothing but each other, mo chridhe.” He lifted his head and locked eyes with her. “Do ye trust me?”
“Yes.” And she meant it even though she’d never trusted anyone other than her daughter. “I trust you.”
“Then repeat after me: Heart of my heart, soul of my soul.”
“Heart of my heart. Soul of my soul.” The rushing pound of her blood through her veins made it impossible to speak above a breathy whisper.
Mathison took her hand and placed it on his chest. “We reunite, to never let go.”
“We reunite, to never let go.”
He brushed the lightest of kisses across her mouth. “Blood of my blood, bone of my bone.”
After a deep, shuddering breath, she repeated, “Blood of my blood, bone of my bone.” The emotional storm beneath her sternum hammered harder.
With her hand in his, he held on tight. “We two are now one. Our halves are now whole.”
“We two are now one. Our halves are now whole.”
“For the good of all, with harm to none, so let it be spoken, so let it be done. So mote it be.”
Struggling to catch her breath, gasping as hard as if she’d run a race, Calia cried out the words over the roaring in her ears, “For the good of all, with harm to none, so let it be spoken, so let it be done.” As soon as she uttered, “So mote it be,” the room exploded in a cloud of blinding white light, and all sound ceased. She couldn’t even hear the roar of her hammering heart or the whoosh of air whenever she pulled in a breath. Weightless and floating, the warmth of the light embraced her, reassuring her that all had finally been made right.
