Valynda’s eyes widened at the unexpected invitation. “Seriously?”
He ignored the shocked gasps and stares of the crew that surrounded them, and in particular the scowl on Bane’s face. And the gape on Bane’s sister’s face. “Time you met them.”
Masaka scoffed indignantly. “What are you thinking, man? Have you lost your rum-loving mind? You can’t take her with us!”
“Why not?”
“She doesn’t belong in Vilokan. No one will welcome her. They’ll throw a fit if you bring her there!”
Nibo ignored her anger. He’d never been more sure of anything. “Vala is welcomed wherever I am. And she belongs at me side.”
“She’shuman!” Masaka sneered the word as if it were the worst sort of insult. Because to them it was.
Not long ago, he’d have agreed.
But not now. Nibo pulled Valynda to his side. “She’s me wife.”
Valynda gasped.
So did the crew.
Cursing, Masaka refused to hear it. “Spiritually. And she’s not your only one.”
The hurt those words wrought on Valynda’s face cut through him and made him want to beat Masaka for her cruelty.
“I’ll have no disrespect from you.” Nibo turned toward Valynda and pulled the ring he’d given her so long ago from her finger, ready to complete the ceremony that he’d begun that night on the beach. “I should have done this a long time ago.”
He cupped her chin with his warm fingers and smiled down at her. “Will you have me, Vala? Faults and all? To keep for yourself, knowing what a surly, selfish bastard I am?”
Valynda was completely stunned by the last thing she expected. “You’re not japing?”
“Not about this.” He glanced to Bane. “Marry us, Captain?”
“Aye, I will.”
Masaka’s eyes turned bloodred. “You re-accept that ring, human, and you’ve no idea what gates will open.”
Circe had told her that she needed to make a choice in her life. She didn’t want to serve the Malachai and be his general. While the world had never done much for her, she wasn’t up to ending it out of simple spite. There was still plenty of good in it.
Still …
She glanced to the captain and the other members of the crew, then down to the mark on her arm. “I’m not a free woman, Xuri.” She owed them her service until she finished earning back her commitment to Thorn. She had to continue this fight against the Mavromino forces. Not just because of her mark.
Because it was the right thing to do.
Because the Deadmen were her family and she couldn’t abandon them.
He inclined his head to her. “We’ll worry about that later.” That was forever his lackadaisical nature. Take the world in stride.
It had never been hers.
But …
Today, she would refuse to look ahead. “Then, aye. I’ll have you for every day I’m allowed.”
He kissed her, then nipped his own wrist until he drew a bit of blood so that he could coat the silver band in it. Whispering words she couldn’t quite understand, he slid the band onto her finger then licked the blood clean. “We are bound together, my Vala. Forever. With this, you can now not only summon me, but cross through the gates between this world and Vilokan.”
“Ah, bloody hell!” Masaka threw dirt at both of them, which caused Hinder to give a low whistle and Sancha to suck her breath in sharply. “Have you any idea of what you’ve done?”
