We speak in sync, as if the words are already etched into our bones.
“I am yours. In truth. In blood. In shadow. In flame. Where you walk, I follow. Where you fall, I rise. Our souls, one flame. Our lives, one name. Bound until the end and beyond it. We accept the bond. We choose to lock it. To seal our fate toone another. Not because we must, but because we will. Now. Always. Even in death.”
Silence falls as our last words fade and then the worldtilts.
It feels like a lock finding its home after a lifetime of hanging open. A padlock’s tongue catching, a click so quiet I hear it in my bones. The tether surges between us. A cord of light, of heat, of truth, invisible, but undeniable. It burns through every lie we’ve told ourselves, binds every broken piece, and fuses them together with something old and wild.
It’s soul deep.
It’s eternal.
I gasp and Konstantin grits his teeth as if he’s holding back a roar. Then the power surges and slams through us.
The candles bow and a ripple breaks the air from altar to the last pew. Somewhere a baby cries once and falls silent as if soothed by something no one can name.
Konstantin looks like he just tasted a god.
I stagger, catching myself on his arms as light bursts behind my eyes. My senses spike, sharper, clearer. I can feel the thoughts before they form in his head. Can sense the pulse of his power like a second heartbeat. The cathedral groans right before a stained-glass window shatters at the top sending the shards raining down in a kaleidoscope of colorful fury.
Soldiers flinch, people let out cries of fear, and my big brother swears loudly from the front pew.
The power settles eventually, like a dust storm dying down.
I glance around at the destruction and chuckle. It’s as if the universe just said, “Yep, these two should strap the fuck in.”
Konstantin’s staring at me like I just cracked the sky open with my bare hands. “Well,” he says, voice rough. “Guess we’re really married now.”
I toss my head back as laughter rips from me. “You sure you’re ready for this much wife, monster man?”
He leans in, his lips brushing my ear. “I was born ready to survive with you.”
I’m his.
He’s mine.
And the world will have to burn around us before we ever break this bond.
twenty-one
Konstantin
Thereceptionhumswithlow music and laughter, a pulse of life echoing off the crumbling stones of the abandoned asylum we bought out for the night. The flicker of candlelight plays tricks in the corners, casting elongated shadows that dance like ghosts. Fitting, really. Cressida and I, celebrating our union in a place rumored to be haunted. They say a woman in white walks the floor corridor with her feet a full inch above the floor. My men heard a door without hinges slam. The caretaker refused to talk about room 313 and crossed himself backward when he left me the keys.
If the dead do walk these halls, they can take a number because I’m already possessed by something far more dangerous than a lonesome spirit.
Cressida stands across the room, her laughter lifting as Sunniva says something obscene. Her black veil’s gone, and her combat boots are kicked under the table, leaving her barefoot with her wild curls tumbling down her back.
She’s chaos personified. My chaos.
The bond is hot beneath my skin, my senses razor-edged from the aftershock of it locking into place.
I feel her in my bones, my blood, my fucking soul, and it’s driving me insane.
I move through the crowd with a predator’s ease. Misha lifts a brow when I pass, smirking knowingly, but he doesn’t say anything. Smart man. The last person who dared make a comment about my wife was barely left breathing. I brush past Lucetta, clap a hand on Kingston’s shoulder before he can scowl at me again for ‘corrupting his sister’ and then I’m in front of my little fox.
She tilts her head up, her eyes sparkling with mischief and something much darker. Something that matches the pull in my gut.
“You look like you’re plotting murder, monster man,” she murmurs.
