The temperature in the room seemed to drop several degrees. My mouth fell open at the same time the color drained from Thayden’s skin.
“What!” Thayden snapped, throwing a fist into the table.
“Let me explain it to you in smaller words. Elariya, her inheritance and claims, and her family and all that is bound to her name belong to me." His lips curved into something that might have been a smile on a less dangerous face.
Thayden was about to respond but Prince Maelor stopped him with a hand on his arm.
"You stand in mortal lands. You cannot override our crown,” he balked.
“There is no clause within the Soul Laws that restricts jurisdiction by realm, soil, or crown," Wolfe informed him, revealing another door.A loophole.“And as I am heir to Galaythia’s throne. I can seize whatever I desire.”
“And is this what you desire, Prince Nightblade?” Mattieu spoke for the first time. “The girl and her lands and her family?”
“Yes,” Wolfe replied, and then he finally looked at me.
Those eyes found mine and the world faded, narrowing to this moment between us.
Gods.The girl and her lands and her family.
He found a way. He found a way to protect us all.
“Why?” Prince Maelor demanded. “What interest do you have in our lands and a half human, half mage girl?”
“The lands of the South are highly coveted. It has always been in my blood to conquer. Why wouldn’t I want land in themortal realm?” He smirked. “I will appoint Elariya’s family as overseers of the land. The land and her family will fall under my jurisdiction. And the girl… my business with the girl is still my own.”
If we fell under his jurisdiction, no other law could touch us. So, Thayden’s threats were…
Empty.
He couldn’t do a godsdamn thing to us.
Prince Maelor’s face darkened, the fury in him sharpening into calculation. “The laws of the mortal lands must still be respected,” he said,
The judges’ merged gaze swept the table. “A lawful soul-claim supersedes all competing claims across realms,” they intoned. “It is for Prince Nightblade to state his resolution.”
“But Elariya Grayson was pledged to be wed this day,” Prince Maelor contended. I wasn’t sure if his efforts were for me—because of his ties to Thayden—or because he genuinely didn’t want Wolfe to have such claims over land in the mortal realm. Either way, he was thoroughly enraged. “The stipulations of her inheritance demand marriage before any transfer.”
“If your crown demands a marriage,” Wolfe spoke up, “then it will have one.” His mouth curved, slow and dangerous. “To me. Elariya will marry me.Today.”
My heart stopped.
Not fluttered. Not raced.
Stopped.
I stood there frozen.
Marriage.
Marriage to Wolfe.
Not Thayden.
Wolfe Nightblade.
I remembered when he spoke of it that night on the beach. I’d been shocked then too.
But this was different. It was real.
