Through my dulled senses, a flurry of noises pounds against the barrier cocooning us. Screams of torment, cries of frustration, magic fighting against magic. But I drown it all out.
There is only Graylen.
“Lu.”His drowsy voice crawls into my mind, curling against my thoughts as if to hide away from the world there. If this were any other time, I’d let him. But we don’t have long now.
“I can get this thing out of you,”I say quickly, praying to Eurydice that this works.
“Get out of here,” he snarls aloud, his voice a little stronger as his knees tremble to hold him up. His voice rumbles against my mouth as I drink from him, but I can feel his body beginning to weaken. “While you still can.”
“No,”I hiss into his mind.“Just listen to me. I can save you—but I can’t do it alone.”
The creature holding him captive fights against my chains of shadows, but it’s no use—not with the new surge of magic pulsing through me.
“Anything,”he agrees before he even knows what I need from him.
My head rushes with the power that surges in my veins, and I feel his body begin to shake. I rip my mouth away from his neck, my eyes widening as his eyes droop.
“Fuck—stay with me, baby,” I choke out.
I have to get this monster out of him. Now.
Into his mind, I rush out,“Bond with me.”
With bated breath, I await his answer. I don’t need to elaborate—don’t need to explain what I mean bybond. He knows it. I know it. I think I’ve known it for a while now, but I’ve been too afraid to admit it. Too afraid to bind him with a future as uncertain as mine.
But this is Graylen. A man who’d walk into fire for me—a man who crossed realms to find me. I never thought I was worthy of an undying love like that, but now I know just how wrong I was.
Because I’d do the same for him. Time and time again, I’d travel any distance, through any realm, in every lifetime, just to be his.
“Bond with me,”I say again. And though it doesn’t need to be said, I say it anyway.“Tell me what to do to bind my soul to yours, because every second that goes by without it means Icould lose you. And this life is nothing if I don’t have you by my side, Graylen.”
His name barely has time to enter his mind before he says,“Yes.”My breath catches as his eyes meet mine, a brief moment of clarity flickering in them.“This isn’t the way I imagined it would go.”
He doesn’t question me, doesn’t bring up that a bond hasn’t been formed since the war ended and the magic was corrupted throughout the empire.
My throat tightens as my resolve strengthens.“We’ve never done things the conventional way. Why start now?”A tear slips down my cheek.“Show me what to do.”
I hold my breath, hoping he knows more about this than I do. Ellerry didn’t tell me how the bonding ceremony works, just that the pull had gone silent.
“Follow my lead,”he murmurs quickly.
My shoulders relax, even as my lips stay sealed to his neck.
“Are you certain your soul mirrors my own?”he begins.
I pause, the question hitting me square in the chest.
I’ve been afraid of being seen as just a wife or a body to produce children for a man. Watching women be treated like objects, expected to exist only to meet men’s needs because they’re too lazy to meet them themselves, was never something I wanted for my own life.
But this is Graylen.
The man who’s foughtalongsideme every step of the way.
The man who gave himself over to Vidaris to save me—as furious as I was that he did that, I know his intentions were based on his love for me. He doesn’t expect me to be someone I’m not, and he doesn’t push me to conform to any image of what a woman should be.
Graylen lets me be myself, and he loves me for it.
My fingers tighten around his shoulders as I reply,“I’m certain.”
