My stomach plummeted at the ache in his tone.
“What is it?” I asked, trying to hide my own tremble.
“I will face a trial by light against Herr Elyriane.”
I sucked in a sharp breath, fear stabbing like a blade in my gut. But I’d seen Vaeron kill without hesitation. And the male who had danced with me was far weaker, far slower. There was no way the Goddess would allow Herr Elyriane to win.
So why did I feel like the world tilted beneath my feet? Why did this bond rage inside me at the thought of harm coming to my mate?
“He believes I humiliated his house by first announcing to the whole court that I am mated to you and thereby cannot marry Dasha. Then, by Commanding and punching him.”
A muscle twitched in his jaw. He exhaled, long and low, through his nose.
“I have to throw the fight. If I don’t…” He looked away, and vines constricted my ribs as I waited for him tofinish. “If I don’t, then Stadiel will own you. We’ll never see each other again.”
That same fury from earlier slammed into me, robbing me of air. Frost encased me, like a snowstorm had blown into the room and banished the heat with it.
“What?” My voice was small, weak. My knees wobbled beneath me. “You can’t let them do that.”
Flashes of all the traumatic visions I’d had blotted out the room before me.
Death. Destruction. Decay.
“You can’t let them force me to See.”
Blood. Binding. Breaking.
“Kill me before that happens. Don’t let them make me a weapon.” Fervent fear crept into my tone. I clutched my throat, hand shaking.
Vaeron’s ice-blue eyes snapped to mine. “I will never let them have you.” Gently, he captured my wrist and brought it lower. “You are my mate. It is my greatest duty to protect you. I swear, Sylaira, I will do anything to ensure your safety.”
He kissed the backs of my hands, one by one, then flipped them over and did the same to my palms.
“Sylaira, I need you,” he rasped, voice hoarse. “You are my sacred duty. A vow I will never break. After everything tonight, I need to know…”
He trailed off, staring at me like I had the power to undo him. Like if I rejected our connection one more time, he’d become nothing more than a shell of the male who’d first hunted me.
A shuddered exhale fled me as I cupped his jaw. “If I need you too?”
47
Did I need Vaeron?
The question lingered like the fog in the forest. I desired him, without a doubt. I had for a long time. Though I wasn’t sure when it had shifted past the pull of our fated connection.
Probably every time he’d demonstrated his willingness to risk himself for me.
And now throwing a trial by light just to keep me safe? When the Goddess could strike him down for subverting Her holy order?
That was monumental.
Hate had imbued my bones from the moment our bond solidified—before, even. Yet now, seeing him cracked open like lightning through the sky, shattered what remnants of animosity still lingered in my soul.
“Yes, Vaeron.” The words quaked in my throat, and I swallowed around the thickness budding there. “Ineed you.”
The line between his brows softened. Down our bond, relief washed like a rainstorm.
“Come here,” he murmured, rising and gripping the backs of my arms. Pebbles broke out across my flesh as he guided me into his sleeping chamber. Everything blurred by in my periphery, for there was only one place I could focus.
