I turned to the king, eyes wide. I turned my body towards him fully, looking up into his bright blue eyes, my shoulders trembling despite the warm heat of the island suns.
“What are you saying, Tassarion?”
“You don’t have the right to manipulate yourself into believing something false without giving me the chance to say or prove otherwise.”
“Okay,” I whispered aloud. “No more assumptions.”
The barrier I kept firmly placed around my seven hearts broke. Crumbled. Disintegrated. I never thought I would experience this kind of attraction. Let alonelove. Of the truest kind. Not just to be desired, but to be seen. Understood. Known for the truth of who you are and to be chosen, anyway. Not with the king of an island in outright rebellion against the Empyrean, no less.
“Tassarion... what does this mean?” My voice was small. Shaken. This was all so new for me, and I didn’t know what to do with all the colliding emotions warring for dominance in the center of my hearts.
“It means Zuriathelle was right. Our wingmate bond isveryreal.” Tassarion took my hands in his. He released a few souls from his palms. The diaphanous beings immediately floated to me, cooing, before they curled into my body as if wanting a hug. They were small and ghostly and ethereal, and my hearts swelled with love and goodness for them. I felt them in my hearts. In my own soul. In my spirit. I felt them the same way I felt Tassarion. Like he was ever-present. “Andthisis real, too.”
I looked up into Tassarion’s eyes. Then I smirked at him.
“So what I’m hearing is, you’re stuck with me.”
Tassarion grinned wide, making my seven hearts skip three beats.
“Ineverylifetime, I’m stuck on you like monkeys on bananas.”
I exploded with laughter, my voice ringing like bells in the open air.
Then Tassarion bowed over me, his eyes lingering on my lips. They were dark. Ravenous. I hitched a breath. Then the Monster King seized my face in his hands and kissed me with a hunger, a passion, that stole the air from my lungs and left me shaking. I melted into my king, wrapping my arms around his neck. His wings curled around our heated bodies, blocking the view of the onlooking gargoyles, giving us privacy. Tassarion kissed me slow, deliberate. My pulse skipped as I drank his passion. His need.
Blackfire exploded in my blood like firesparks.
Souls slipped out of Tassarion, tugging at our skin.
Tassarion branded my mouth with his. He slipped a hand beneath the short hem of my swimwear. I burned beneath his touch. I let out a soft moan at the feel of his calluses pressing into my skin. My hands were in his hair, gripping his braids as I straddled him, pressing our bodies together. The king devoured me. His mouth claimed me like a beautiful catastrophe. He was reverence and ruin, and he marked me by tongue and breath until I was left shaking in his arms, forever undone.
I pulled away first, my chest tight from lack of air.
Tassarion held onto me, his body completely relaxed in my embrace. He was quiet, also fighting to breathe in air.
“I love you, mi Nahomie Emélie.”
Tassarion spoke in a whisper down our bond, yet my mind rang as if the confession were crashing cymbals. Blackfiredanced beneath my skin, drawing me evermore to the king. A giddiness filled me, and I broke out into a fit of giggles.
“That’s Nahomie Emélie Everthorn to you.”
Tassarion jerked back, gaping at me with wide eyes. Pearls of steel blue glimmered with the sheen of fresh tears. His throat bobbed as he leaned down, eyes brimming with shock.
“Say it again,”he whispered.
“What? Nahomie EmélieEverthorn?”
I batted my lashes. I said my newly accepted family name with pride. I would always be a Namarielle. Afifiof the Seraphim who’d ruled for longer than an Age with honor and truth. But I was an Everthorn now. Names among islanders mattered. They had meaning. They held weight. It was time I claimed mine and stepped into my rightful place as bride. Mate. Queen.
“Say it again,” Tassarion whispered aloud, tears trailing down his velvet cheeks.
I lifted a hand to his face and caressed him.
“I said, that’s Nahomie Emélie Everthorn, RoièssaandPhantimèssa of Mortevain Island, toyou.” I paused, letting the weight of my words, of my declaration, sink in. “And I love you. Inexplicably. Irrevocably. For all eternity.”
Tassarion crushed his lips against mine.
I tumbled backwards. Slid across the sand. My arms were around Tassarion’s neck before our bodies sank into the beach floor. We kissed like starved souls. He was my sanctuary. My home. Our wingmate bond erupted in a golden rain. Resplendent light bathed my soul. An endless rush of souls poured into my body. Blackfire left me in waves, racing across the bond into Tassarion. I wrapped my legs around his waist, dragging my nails down his skin. Tassarion groaned against my mouth, biting my bottom lip. An explosion in the distance yanked us out of the moment.
