“I was just going to say it’s about time they figured it out,” Lyria mumbled. “Iamcapable of keeping quiet, you know.”
A small tremble rolled beneath the temple and caused loose stone to crumble and dust to rain down.
“Eurydice is here,” Daimon whispered.
The group crowded against the small opening, eager to try and see Eurydice. It wasn’t often they were able to see the Goddess of the Moon. Evelina was squished into the middle, with Daimon on one side, her sister on the other, and a reluctant Keir in the back.
Every brush of Daimon’s shoulder against hers set her skin aflame. She hated it. She hated that she loved it.
Lyria gasped and said, “Maliena and Neve don’t know Annora is doing this, do they?”
“You have to keep this to yourself, Lyria, please,” Evelina whispered quickly. “Just until they decide to tell everyone. It’s too late to be stopped now.”
Lyria shuddered and shuffled closer to Keir. He stiffened and kept his eyes fixed ahead.
“And what if they’re choosing wrong?” Lyria pressed. “What of the empire if it’s a mistake?”
Evelina’s anger rose to the surface, but she fought to keep it at bay. She trusted Annora had made the right decision—besides, it was stillhermistake to make.
“Whatofthe empire? We don’t know how long the empire can fight the rebellion—or what will even be left of the empire once it’s done,” Evelina said bitterly. “At least one of us deserves some semblance of happiness.”
Evelina turned back to Annora and Aldric, ignoring her sister’s frustrated sigh and the weight of Daimon’s stare. Instead, she watched as the Sacred handed a small blade to Aldric.
“You deserve happiness too, Evie,” Lyria said softly.
The words hit Evelina deep in the chest, piercing a tender place in her heart. Her eyes darted to Daimon, but he was pressed as far away as the small space would allow, his eyes firmly fixed ahead as if he hadn’t heard their conversation.
It was an odd thing to have someone she once called her closest friend now feel so foreign to her.
She cleared her throat, setting her attention on the ceremony.
“Are you so certain that her soul mirrors your own?” The Sacred spoke to the couple in a voice that did not belong to her. It sounded like a hundred fae speaking at once. It sent a chill sliding down Evelina’s spine knowing that meant the goddess was here. She wondered if Eurydice knew she was watching.
“I’m certain, Goddess,” Aldric said confidently, his voice strong and unwavering.
Eurydice turned to Annora and said, “And you are so certain that your souls are merely the same, just cleaved in two the moment they were conceived?”
“I’m certain, Goddess.” Annora beamed, reciting the vow back.
“If you do not share a soul, the ritual will expose your false hope.”The Sacred’s head tilted to the side, puppeteered by Eurydice. “And you understand that you can only make this declaration once—even if you are wrong—forever to be separated from your true mate by falsely choosing another? You are so confident in this decision?”
Annora and Aldric turned to each other, their gazes wide and their hands clasped tight. Aldric nodded his head and Annora smiled.
“We’re certain, Goddess,” the two vowed in unison.
“Then only the blood willingly given beneath the moon will tell,” Eurydice said and raised both of her arms. “Both of you are to cut down the length of your palm and let the blood fall to the ground. The scar of the bonded will remain.”
Aldric made the cut first, not even flinching asthe blade sliced his skin open—a ferrum blade to stop the fae healing process from immediately closing the wound, just like the one Evelina had used to cut her palm to open the tunnels. He handed the blade to Annora and she took a deep breath. She made the same cut across her palm until the blood welled to the surface of her skin. Both of them extended their arms and squeezed their hands into fists.
“The blood will make known if you are truly mates,” Eurydice said as the blood trickled onto the stone. “If the blood seeks the other’s out and becomes one on the sacred grounds, then you will know. But if it does not, and instead flows parallel to each other, then you have chosen poorly.”
Annora and Aldric looked so unequivocally in love, so deeply intertwined with each other. Even with the hint of accusation in Eurydice’s words, their gazes didn’t falter from each other.
Evelina held her breath as the blood on the ground began to move. Her hand started to shake—something it tended to do when she couldn’t hide her nerves. But it was dark enough in the tunnel that no one would see.
The separate streams of blood got closer to each other but started to slow down, not quite touching. Evelina felt her tremors increase, fear that her friend could be jeopardizing her true mate overwhelming her. She loved Aldric and how kind he was to Annora, but what if they were wrong?
From the corner of her eye, she could see Daimon lean toward her, his gaze still set on the ceremony. Her body froze when she could feel the heat of his body warm her shoulder. Her heart began to beat wildly as she remembered the ways he used to be there for her. She hadn’t been this close to him in so long, hadn’t remembered the smell of frost and cedar that wrapped around him.
