The air around me shifted as though the world had drawn in a deep breath and held it. Heat threaded through my veins, piercing and undeniable. And I knew it was the bond stirring.
The mating bond.
She was here.
I could always sense her, but this was different.
This feeling hummed beneath my skin and pulsed over my body.
My stride faltered without my consent. One step shortened. Then another. The noise of the hall dimmed as instinct took over, turning me toward the grand doors below. And just as my gaze locked on the entrance, the doors began to open.
Light spilled across the floor, silver and pale as moonlight.
Elariya stepped through it, a vision to behold.
For a moment, the hall forgot how to breathe.
The music faltered, the melody stretching thin and slow as though even the musicians had forgotten their place in the song. Conversation thinned to a murmur, then to nothing at all.Goblets hovered midway to lips. And the Kings of Vaelthorne — beings who had seen centuries of power — went still.
Her gown caught the torchlight and fractured it. The bodice curved like carved ice with delicate silver filigree climbing upward toward her throat. Her hair was gathered high, exposing the elegant line of her neck and the quiet strength in her posture.
She did not hesitate.
She did not falter.
My mage stood there and looked like a queen.
My queen.
The thought snapped the bond tighter.
Heat surged through me, sudden and merciless, desire crashing through my control before I could contain it. The bond demanded closeness, demanded contact, demandedher.
The need rose fast and consuming, drowning reason beneath instinct and I couldn’t help myself.
I didn’t want to.
I wanted to touch her and taste her and bury myself so deep inside her I forgot my own name.
Across the hall, her gaze found mine.
The bond ignited.
There would be no resistance tonight.
Chapter 44
Elariya
“When we Burned For Each Other”
The ballroom rose around me in layers of silver and gold, a display of opulence and impossible beauty.
I’d seen places like this in the mortal realm, but nothing came close to the beauty surrounding me.
Flames burned steady in their sconces, gilding the hall in molten light. Flowers I had no names for bloomed in arrangements that defied gravity, their petals luminous as frost. The marble beneath my feet shimmered faintly, as though lit from somewhere deep within the stone. The air carried the scent of spiced wine and something sweeter, wild and unfamiliar.
It should have stolen my breath.
