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With slow strokes, Roark teased my core with the tip of his length, nudging the crown in and out until I was practically sobbing for all of him.

This is what pulled me back. His words were slow against my spine. Felt, not heard.

“What do you mean?”

When I could not see through the darkness, this is what pulled me back. A life, a future with you.

Emotion tightened in my chest. My chin quivered. Then Roark’s fingers dug into my hips and he slammed into me.

Blood scorched in my veins. Tendrils of darkness tightened around my body, dipping into my core from the front while Roark claimed me from behind. Too much, too perfect. I panted his name. He gripped my jaw, pulled me up, and tilted my head so he could claim my mouth as he pounded into me.

I bucked my hips against his cock. He met my movements with desperate thrusts until I let out a sob of pleasure.

After a moment, he released me. I fell forward again, spreading my knees more, cries muffled in the furs of the bed. The cold sensation of his darkness rolled over my slit, my breasts, my mouth.

I shattered on a strained moan, unable to keep my head upright.

Roark’s heavy breaths heated the bare skin of my back until his length thickened and burst hot streams of his release inside me. Once we caught our breaths, Roark pulled out of me and pressed a kiss to the center of my shoulders.

He tucked me into him, cradling my head against the steady thud of his heart. For a moment, all the broken pieces of our lives felt, at long last, whole.

—

A month after the battles ended, the Draven palace was packed with visiting nobles and royals.

The council of the realms was arranged after the funeral pyres had faded. Jorvans and Myrdans returned to their lands to prepare for the meet. It was the first peace meet since King Vishon summoned lands to discuss the new melder.

This one would end much differently.

I studied my palms. Since that moment in the mirror, there were times when I imagined I could see the threads of the Wanderer’s craft, tempting me to take more, to want more. To claim it all. No one could but me. I was the one with the gift to bind all the veins of craft.

When the thoughts came, I reached for something deeper. Stronger.

More than my sealed bond, there were now strings attached to a bold Jovan prince; a gentle, vicious princess; and a boy and his mother who’d been welcomed into the clan of Dravenmoor before the sunrise after the battle.

Roark slid his arms around my waist from behind and pressed a kiss to my shoulder. His brilliant eyes met mine in the glass of the mirror. Ready?

“No. The idea of dozens of eyes on me at once is making me want to never leave our room.”

He grinned and pressed another kiss to the slope of my throat. No lines, Melder. Say the word and I’ll destroy them for making you uneasy.

I snorted a laugh. “You’re a bit of a fiend.”

Don’t seduce me, wife. We don’t have the time.

Roark led me into the corridors. We’d dressed in our fine clothes. Emi and Brynn helped me braid my hair around a jade circlet Roark found in his mother’s chamber.

As Roark’s wife, I was a Draven princess of sorts, and I had no idea what I was doing. Then again, I wasn’t so certain their prince did either. What we knew was that we had a need to agree on new orders for the lands, new treaties, new royals.

The úlfur chamber was filled. Unfettered Folk lined the room, taking in the fine stone of the walls and the iron sconces and tapestries.

Thane was already seated at the table, two Stav Guard on either side. Across from him Yrsa was seated beside Emi and the Myrdan queen.

He spoke with Emi, both looking at their palms, and the prince wore a bright grin as he flexed and extended his fingers.

Mere days after the chaos of the battles had ended, Thane grew feverish, insisting his blood was boiling. It took time, more than one healer, and a drop of his blood for Yrsa to test to realize that bone craft had taken hold in the prince.

Whatever curses had stolen craft from the royal line of Jorvandal had been destroyed after I’d taken the ancient vein to destroy Fadey. Like a dormant seed of power had burst into full bloom at long last, Thane was a bone crafter.