“It’s not the fucking magic.”
“It is. I—”
He wrapped his hands around my waist and lifted me into his arms. I didn’t resist as he carried me across the hall, kicked open his door, and took me into his chambers. When he lowered me onto the bed, I could scarcely breathe from the intensity in his eyes.
“What’s going on?” I whispered, gazing up at him.
“Fenella.” He shifted to lean on his side, facing me. “While you were helping Toryn with the Great Hall, she brought Val’s clippings to me. She’s been studying them during our travels. She said we needed to take a look at them ourselves.”
Val’s clippings. I’d forgotten all about them, too consumed by everything else going on. Fenella had been shuffling through them in Gailfean, but she’d never mentioned anything about their contents.
“All right,” I said slowly, watching Kalen pull a few folded scraps from his pocket. He passed me a handful of clippings and started flipping through some himself. “Any idea what this is about?”
“I think it has something to do with us,” he said, his voice rough and his eyes bright. “We’re experiencing something far beyond what’s normal for a marriage bond, and Fenella noticed it. I can sense everything you feel, love. And I know you get the same thing from me.”
Silence fell upon us as we read through Val’s clippings. Only the shuffle of paper broke the tension. I carefully read each scrap, searching for anything that might have grabbed Fenella’s attention. Most of it seemed useless.
One of the clippings said that four hundred years ago, mortals from Talaven had been spotted creeping around Sunport and asking if anyone wanted a prized blade forged in the Iron Mountains. It had a spot in the hilt for a special gemstone. That sounded a lot like the Mortal Blade to me, but as intriguing as the story was, it wouldn’t help us now.
But then my eyes landed on the words that shifted the very fabric of my world.
An ancient prophecy must be fulfilled, the clipping said.Two broken souls will be bound by powerful magic. Mates, blessed by the stars. They will find each other when one calls for help. The other will have no choice but to answer.
A tremor went through me.
“Kalen,” I whispered, passing the clipping to him. Val had seen this and suspected it was important, but she hadn’t truly understood. She didn’t know I'd pleaded for help in my dreams, begging for someone to save the mortals of Teine.
“This is it,” he said as his eyes scanned the paper. “This is what Fenella found. We’re bound by far more than just our vows to each other. We always have been.”
“But I don’t understand.” My heart pounded as I tried to make sense of his words. “I thought the ancient prophecy was about the return of the gods. The mortals have that information, not us. So what in the name of light isthis?”
“I think it’s all one and the same, and Val found a piece of it in Endir’s library.”
“But…”
“You called for me, love.” He leaned in and murmured against my skin. “All those months ago, you were in Teine and I was in Endir, and I heard your voice in my dreams.”
“I thought you only answered because of Oberon,” I whispered. “You wanted to use me to get to him.”
“Yes. And no.” He pulled back, and there was something in his eyes. Something feral and electric. “No one has ever called for me in a dream. Or if they have, I haven’t heard them. You were able to speak to me in a way that no one has before. And I felt this…tug. An irresistible urge to answer.”
“But that would mean…”
“Val’s clipping is right.”
The stars had aligned and brought us into existence at the same time. I came four hundred years later, of course, but still. We were here,alive, at the same time.
I gazed into his eyes. “I still don’t understand how this has anything to do with the return of the gods.”
“Perhaps it has to do with your power and mine.” He took my hand in his. “But regardless of all that, I feel it deeply, Tessa. You are made of the same stuff I am. You are my reflection, my star. Back in Gailfean, when Sirius had his hands on you, I felt more than just the rage of a fae protective of his wife. I wanted to tear a hole in the very fabric of the universe. You are my soulmate in every sense of the word. At long last, I have found you.”
I trembled, basking in the intensity of his heated gaze. Memories of his past words echoed in my mind, words from when we’d been stuck inside that Itchen castle while the storms had raged beyond the walls. I could still hear his voice in my head when he’d said them.
Mates are a forever thing. It is a bond that cannot be broken. It transcends even death. I do not want anything less than the deepest connection I could ever find. I want—no, Ineed—someone whose soul matches mine.
“All this time,” I whispered up at him, “you’ve believed you had a soulmate out there somewhere.”
“No, just hoped.” His thumb caressed my cheek, and I did not think to stop him from touching my skin this time. “And my hopes have been answered. Because you are here, and you are mine.”
