“Like what?” I whisper. He’s so close that we’re sharing breath and body heat. I can feel my pulse hammering under my skin and see the refracted flecks of light in that midnight stare. His mesmerizing scent makes me dizzy.
A finger traces over my exposed collarbones. “Like sight and sound.” He leans in to run his nose down my temple to my ear, making me shudder. “Scent, touch.” He inhales, breathing me in, and then leans back. His tongue slips out to wet his lower lip, his voice a guttural rasp as his eyes devour me. His fingertip swipes at the tear on my cheek and he brings it to his mouth. “Taste.”
My mouth dries at the hunger in his gaze. I can see his magic lashing toward me beneath his iron control of it, and I want his shadows to surround me... to consume me. I want to sink into them, intohim. It’s a dangerous desire. We are treading treacherous waters, and once we go past this point, there’ll be no returning.
I fight through the fog of lust for reason. “What are you saying?” I ask hoarsely.
“We are written.”
His eyes never leave mine. Something lances down to my bones—a coil of delicate awareness—at the oath that sounds too much like a sacred vow to ignore.
Stars above... is he... ? Are we... ?
Once more, I curse the cuffs on my wrists, impeding my magic and any ability to be sure about what is happening between us. That I’m not making a terrible mistake.
“Darrius, what if I’m not who you think I am?”
“I knowexactlywho you are.” He stares balefully at the cuffs. “And you would, too, without them.”
My heart climbs into my throat when his magic writhes over his skin as though his shadows are desperate to leap from him to me... and he’s barely holding them at bay. He drops his guard entirely, letting them unravel in a river of darkness toward me. And then the epiphany hits with the force of a desert sandstorm.
I gape as tangible memories bloom, and then I squint at him—his shape, his frame, his size, and the uniquefeelof his magic.
Magic that I’ve felt many times before.
I gasp as realization hits. “Itwasyou! All those times in my dreams? In Oryndhr. Did you come to me in my sleep?”
“Yes.”
Those dark eyes hold me captive as his quiet admission makes heat explode in my veins.
Gods, he’s seen me naked.Touchedme. I’d always felt those dreams were much too visceral to be figments of a fervid imagination, and now I have my answer. “How?” My voice is strangled.
“One of my numena is dreamwalking. It takes an immense amount of magic to cross astral planes, but I could never resist your call.”
“Mycall?”
“Your magic’s call, Starbright. I am yours as you are mine.”
The answer is there, rising out of the depths of my mind, but by the stars, I feel it in my bones, in my veins, at the core of my being.
“Because we’re soul-fated,” I whisper.
The realization is like the unveiling of a truth I have always known. It’s the reason my magic recognizes his, the reason his manticore won’t ever hurt me. Hismate.
We are linked by the fates and the stars. My mind is racing, chasing over possibilities and mulling over our past interactions.
“You knew me?” I ask.
“The stars had spoken.” The king exhales. “But I could not find you, not until I felt a glimmer when your magic ascended.”
“My mama died,” I say, connecting the timeline. “Her magic hid me from those who wished me harm. Without her life force, the protections diminished.”
He nods. “I resisted, intending to reject the bond, but then you summoned me for the first time, and I could no sooner stay away than I could stop breathing.”
Why would he want to reject the bond? Hurt fills me at that, but my cheeks burn as embarrassment is quick to follow. I knowexactlywhat moment he’s referring to.
I’d just turned twenty, and Laleh and I had celebrated with a little too much of her father’s wine. We had climbed to the roof of my family’s inn to count the stars, while lamenting my sad, solitary state and the fact that I was destined to die a virgin.
