But it was Harlen who answered with awe, “You’re Fatesworn.”
“What?” Jezebel asked.
Vale’s voice flashed back to me as I gripped her hands tighter. From a small room above an apothecary shop in this very city, when she’d first explained the Starsearcher commitment ceremony to me.
“We exchange vows in a ceremony,” she said. “Incense is burned, a joint reading done. Then, and only if the Fates deem it appropriate, some searchers receive commitment tattoos. Become Fatesworn. But I’ve never seen it done.”
“The Fates have to give permission?”
“They don’t choose whom you end up with—except in rare legends—and if they don’t approve, you do not have to heed their warnings for the first part of the ritual, but you can’t receive any tattoos without that recognition.”
“The Bind is all about choice, not permission.”
She shrugged. “They’re both beautiful in their own way. One about freedom, one about a promise of the stars.”
“It means,” I said, my chest tight—with nerves and anticipation and pure, undiluted disbelief, “the Fates chose us for one another.”
Eons ago, when Ambrisk wasn’t even formed and gods were building realms, the stars had promised my spirit to Vale’s. That urge that had been pushing me toward her intensified, and I finally understood what it was. My soul was stretching out, encouraged by the Fates, searching for a link to hers. A bond that would be irreversibly and irrevocably sealed. A link welded so permanently, no flame was hot enough to melt it.
Heat spread across my shoulder, skin tingling like needles pressed into it. And as Vale’s eyes snapped open, shining with tear-streaked wonder, that was it. If I hadn’t already put my entire fucking soul into her hands, I would have with that one look. The Fatesworn bond snapped between us.
She was it. She was mine. My Stargirl.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Vale
Starlight tunneledthrough my veins as Cypherion hurried me into the cozy office off the temple, the sound of his heart pounding heating every inch of my skin from head to toe. The power of becoming Fatesworn and the soul-binding tattoo appearing from the stars amplified my own magic. It cascaded through my body, alighting every sense and nerve. And as Cypherion towered over me, blue eyes deep and hungry, an insatiable need burned between us.
He’d looked at me like that the entire time we’d rushed through the end of the ceremony. Like he wanted to devour me.
And I’d looked at him like I’d let him.
I kicked my shoes off, feet sinking into the soft blue carpet as he backed me toward a worn dark-wood desk. Stars filtered in through the high windows, and every breath in the small space was consumed by him. His scent, merging with mine. His heartbeat, calling to my own. And his soul, dancing along with mine as our new Fatesworn bond burned between us.
Cypherion approached slowly, brushing my hair behind my shoulder.
“Let me see it.” His voice was husky and commanding, rolling along my bones and down to my very core. I wanted to strip my clothes off—strip his, too—but I listened, turning, and pulling down one shoulder of my dress.
His fingers brushed across the fresh tattoo, the skin tender beneath his touch. Goose bumps spread across my arms at the contact, every inch of my skin hypersensitive.
Ducking, Cypherion blew a soft breath across my shoulder. I gasped, shuddering as that sensation traveled between my legs. I ached for him, but he moved so reverently, like he wanted to carve every second of tonight into memory.
Magic pulsed incessantly through my veins, only surging stronger now that he and I were bonded. He blew another breath across my skin.
“Cypherion,” I whimpered, squeezing my thighs together.
“It’s beautiful, Stargirl,” he said, tugging me a few feet to the left so I could see our distorted reflection in the window. He spun me, gathering my hair over my shoulder so the tattoo was visible, and every brush of his fingers against my skin set me aflame with starfire.
“You’rebeautiful,” he whispered, ducking his head and kissing gently along the fresh silvered ink.
The new tattoo had appeared as the bond was given. Inked by the Fates, it incorporated my old one, a unique array of stars swirling around it. Some large and almost winking, some no more than glittering specks.
“Our own constellation,” I muttered, brushing my fingers atop his. “Like our own Fate.”
“Rewriting the old one,” he agreed, attention lingering on the part of the tattoo that had once held me a captive. This new fortune was rooted in heartbreak and love. Forged with fortitude. The story of a woman used for her magic and the man who showed her freedom. Of their friends and family and future.
Turning away from the window, I looked back up at Cypherion. And with barely a breath, his lips were on mine.
