The stone beneath me cracked, splintered. Around us, chunks of the ceiling rained down, remnants from the blast of Kalen’s power. Heart pounding, I reached for Nellie’s hand. She grabbed hold, her nails piercing my skin, but I ignored the flash of pain as we ran. A moment later, we were inside our quarters with the door barred, and the wind blasted through the hall once more. The roar of it was deafening, as if it were possessed by the very gods themselves.
* * *
Kalen paced in front of the door liked a caged animal. He’d explained he’d used his power against the wind to stop it just long enough for us to get back to our rooms, but it hadn’t worked quite as well as he’d hoped, which troubled him. His power wasn’tdampened,necessarily, not like when the god had held a choking grip on it. But something about it had felt wrong.
And so, for the last several hours, he’d paced.
I knew some of that pent-up energy was about more than just his power. It was fear for the rest of us. The wind and thunder sounded as if it could shake the very bones of this castle until the walls flattened around us. His power might be the only thing to stop it from getting inside this room, but if the rest of the castle went, there was little he could do to stop the storm from taking us, too.
“Relax, Kal,” Toryn said as he dug through a small compartment I hadn’t noticed before. A wood-paneled cubby was set into the wall just beside the armoire, and it held an array of drinks and snacks, as well as a handful of small bottles of spirits. He pulled out a bottle of dark amber liquid and held it up. “Here, this might take the edge off.”
“I do not want to take the edge off,” Kalen snapped as he continued to pace. And then his dark eyes flashed to me, where I stood very tensely beside my sister. As soon as we’d returned to the room, she’d climbed into the bed and fallen into an exhausted sleep.
Fenella cocked her head. She’d kicked off her boots, pulled a chair up beside the bed, and leaned back with her feet propped up on the mattress as she flipped through Val’s clippings. “Something strange is going on between you two. Stranger than normal, I mean. You’re acting like a man possessed.”
Kalen stopped pacing and narrowed his eyes. “We almost died out there.”
“Oh, please. We got knocked down and blown around a bit. I’d hardly say we were in any real danger.” She rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the clippings. I hadn’t had a chance to look through them yet myself. There’d been too much going on.
Kalen shifted his gaze to me, and something indescribable passed between us. It was as if his very soul reached toward me, wound itself around my heart, and tugged. My breathing went shallow as the overwhelming scent of mist and shadow invaded my senses, as if the very core of his power now flowed through my veins, our hearts pumping in rhythm—as one. And if I could feel all this—all his worry and anger andprotectiveness—what could he feel from me? Could he feel Andromeda’s power? Could he sense death?
Bottles clattered. The sound jolted through me, reminding me that we were not alone in this room.
“For the love of the moon,” Toryn said, though he was smiling. “You two made a marriage bond.”
Fenella glanced up again. “Of course they did. I’ve been able to smell it since the morning we left Endir. But it’s more than that. Look at him.”
Kalen seemed to have to force himself to look away from me. “It’s not your concern.”
“You made a marriage bond with a mortal?” Caedmon pushed away from the wall. “No offense to Tessa, but what the fuck were you thinking?”
“I was thinking,” Kalen ground out, “that I will protect her from anyone who threatens her life, including myself.”
“The fucking vow,” Caedmon shook his head. “Of course. I should have known. You brushed aside your promise to your mother so easily. I thought it was strange—you shouldn’t have been able to resist it. But now it makes sense. This is how. You made certain it wouldn’t be a threat, even though that meant tying your life to a mortal’s. You’ll be nothing but a husk when she dies in a few years.”
I shuddered. Hearing Caedmon say it out loud made it feel all that much more real. Was that what happened to fae when their spouses died? I’d heard tall tales of it over the years, but I’d never seen it for myself, not even with Oberon. Though, I supposed, his true wife had never died, not until the end.
Centuries stretched out before Kalen. He had so many years ahead of him. I wouldn’t survive my old age, and this bond meant he would be in pain for centuries.
I should never have agreed to this.
As if reading my mind, Caedmon whirled toward me with fire in his eyes. “You say you care for him. How could you do this?”
“I didn’t fully understand what I was doing,” I tried, but the words sounded hollow. “Not until now.”
He scoffed, as he rightly should have. “You agreed to a marriage bond without fully understanding it? How stupid do you have to be?”
“Caedmon,” Kalen warned. “Do not take this out on Tessa. This was my decision. My choice. I’m the one who gets to decide what kind of life I lead.”
“No, you aren’t.” Caedmon took a step closer. “You are supposed to be a king.Ourking. And we depend on you. When you made a marriage bond with Tessa, thedescendent of a god, did you stop to think about us at all? What will happen to your kingdom when she dies and you’re left bereft, like Fenella? What about your heirs?”
“Excuse me, cousin,” Fenella snapped. “Don’t you fucking speak that way about me. Or Tessa. It’s Kalen’s bloody decision who he marries.”
“There’s always been a risk with the succession,” Kalen continued evenly, though I felt the pulse of his irritation through our bond. “A risk I could die in a battle or be captured by the enemy. Niamh agreed long ago to be my heir if I have no children. If anything happens, she’ll become your queen, and she is the best person in the whole gods-damned world for it.”
The room fell into a tense silence. Only Nellie was saved from it all. She hadn’t even stirred during the argument. Kalen went back to pacing beside the bed, while Toryn helped himself to a drink and some dried meat. Fenella leaned back in her chair, scowling at Caedmon, who leaned against the wall with folded arms. There wasn’t much for any of us to do but wait.
With a sigh, I found a spot on the floor and braced my back against the wall. And then we all listened as the pounding rain, roaring thunder, and screaming wind tore down the world around us.
