I bit my lip, trying to keep the tears at bay. This couldn’t be happening. We’d only just realised what we could be together. I couldn’t lose him before we got the chance to enjoy it. “Isn’t there anything we can do?”
Dathal slipped his arm around me and I leant into him.
“Anything at all?” I asked, searching Lady Sarhin’s face, and then I saw it. A flicker in her eyes. “Tell me.”
She bit her lip, something I’d never ever witnessed her do. “It’s something I read in the archives. Even if you wanted to try it, I don’t know if it would work between a shifter and a fae.”
“What is it?” I asked urgently. We didn’t have time to be so fucking vague.
She glanced at Talis, obviously realising the same, because she spoke quickly. “If two fae complete the joining pact when one is near death, then one can help heal the other. There’s a risk, Axel. You’ll become almost as ill as Talis, depending on how much of your healing power he requires. It could kill you both.”
“Or it could save him,” I said, my mind already made up. I pulled his hand to my mouth and kissed his fingers. “Do it.”
“Axel…” Dathal squeezed my shoulder and I whirled to face him.
“You’d do exactly the same for Nick.”
“I would,” he said softly, gaze fierce. “I’m not trying to stop you.”
“Oh.” I swallowed thickly. “Then what?”
He leant in and rested his forehead against mine. “I love you,” he whispered. “You’re one of the bravest people I know. May the Goddess watch over you.” He kissed my head as he drew back.
“If you want to do this, it has to be now,” Lady Sarhin urged.
“We’re doing it.”
She nodded and looked to Rys. “Since Talis is unable to answer for himself, it falls to you as his alpha to make the decision. On Talis’s behalf, do you consent to him completing the fae joining pact, binding himself to Axel for the rest of their lives?”
I met Rys’s gaze, silently pleading with him to say yes.
“I think you can answer this,” he said, eyes boring into mine until I felt flayed open. “If you know in your heart that this is what he’d want, then yes. I give my permission.”
“Do it,” I said, thrusting my wrist out. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind or my heart that Talis loved me as much as I loved him, and not even deadly poison was going to rob me of the chance to tell him.
She took hold of both our wrists, eyes dropping closed, and began to recite the ancient words that would bind our life forces together forever.
It wasn’t what I’d had in mind whenever I imagined doing this with someone. The living room floor of Blake Tehlin’s cottage was a far cry from the beautiful ceremony that Dathal and Nick had in my garden, but if it gave Talis back to me, it would be the most amazing day of my life.
Magic skittered over my skin, ancient and strong, and I watched in awe as the black ink of the fae joining pact swirled over the inside of my wrist. My breath caught at the sudden warmth blossoming behind my ribs, spreading out until my fingers tingled and my toes curled. A flash of pain spiked in my arm as the ink settled, and Lady Sarhin sat back with a sigh.
“It is done.”
She laid Talis’s hand gently back onto his stomach, the matching ink on his inner arm sending a thrill of possessiveness through me.
Mine.
I reached for his hand again as a wave of dizziness swept through me. “Fuck.”
“It’s starting.” Lady Sarhin smiled sadly at me. “Hold on, Axel.” Her eyes flashed. “Cling to life with everything you have.”
Her words faded out as the room swam and I felt myself falling. The last thing I registered was familiar strong arms holding me up as the world around me went black.
TALIS
I wasaware of voices around me.
Familiar.
