Her mouth was dry, from nerves or his proximity, she wasn’t sure. “That’s why you’re sorry about my hair.” Remembering, she added, “That’s why Gabriel cut his hair. Mother said it was some odd custom of Nic’s family, but it was from the bonding ceremony.”
He nodded, hands still in her hair. “Being them, they did it both ways. Traditionally, only the familiar’s hair is cut.”
“Good thing,” she remarked, “as you have nothing much to cut off.”
He didn’t laugh, still regarding her somberly. “Can you do it? It won’t be easy, I know.”
“Do I have a choice?” She’d meant to sound arch, or even resigned, instead the words came out like a plea.
He shook his head slowly, regret lining his face. “If you don’t go willingly, you’ll be stripped and chained and the end result will be the same, except that Maman might decide I can’t control you well enough and choose another wizard to bond you to. Your best chance lies with gritting through this—I’ll make it quick—and getting out again.”
Definitely not the wedding day she’d dreamed of. “Fine,” she agreed quietly. “But I want you to promise me, on whatever you hold sacred, that I can trust you in this. That this is how it has to be.”
“I promise,” he averred in a resonant voice, “that you can trust me in this, if in nothing else, that this is how it has to be.”
“All right.” She took a deep breath.
“I am sorry, though,” he said quietly. “For all of this. If I could’ve spared you any of it, I would have.”
“I believe you.” And she did.
Lips quirking, he studied her face intently. “Despite the lies and betrayal?”
“I know now you were trying to protect me, in your perverse way.”
“My perverse way. That about sums up my entire life.” His tone was wry, but his expression still oddly intent, a hint of vulnerability in it. “I didn’t want this for you, Seliah. This from you.”
“What did you want?” She breathed the question, the moment fraught and humming with anticipation. This was a Jadren she hadn’t seen before.
“I don’t know. I…” He trailed off, hands tightening in her hair, his magic taut between them. He wasn’t tapping her magic, but hers flowed eagerly toward him regardless. “Who knew I’d turn out to have romantic ideals after all this time?” He seemed to be asking the question of himself. “The Phel virus, infecting us all.”
He moved closer, lips a whisper away. Then his mouth closed on hers, hot, brandy-scented, gently feeding on her lips with tender nips that evoked the sharper bite on her thigh. Both the immediate caress and the memory flooded her with startling heat, and she moaned, leaning into the kiss and opening her mouth to his.
In another moment he was gone, nearly leaping away from her, standing an arm’s length away and wiping his mouth with the back of his shaking hand. “I apologize,” he informed her with stiff formality, even adding a half bow from the waist.
“Jadren?” She had no idea what to make of this sudden shift. “There’s nothing to apologize for. I liked the kiss.”
He huffed out a laugh, a despairing sound in it, then his expression hardened, eyes going flat-black. “You asked what I wanted for you? I wanted someone better than me. Unfortunately, you’re stuck with me, so let me apologize in advance for that, too.”
“Well, as you say, if I have to be stuck with any wizard, it might as well be you,” she offered with a smile. “I’m not sorry it’s you.”
He stared at her, stricken, then opened his mouth. She’d never know what he’d been about to say because the intricately wheeled timepiece on the wall, one that reminded her of those orbiting globes in the dome of the feast hall, chimed the hour. “And now you’re out of time. Get dressed.”
“Why bother if I’m going to be naked?”
“You really want to be paraded naked through the halls for everyone in the house to see?”
“Good point,” she muttered.
“Fix your hair, too—it’s all messed up now.”
Standing, she strolled toward him, catching a glimpse of wild emotion in his gaze before he hid it from her. “I’m not afraid of you,” she told him.
“Maybe you should be.” He held himself with stiff wariness, stepping back when she lifted a hand to touch him. “Don’t.”
Because he seemed like the fragile one now, she dropped her hand again. “It will be all right.” Quite the turnaround, that she should be offering him comfort—particularly after she’d tried to kill him not hours ago.
He was thinking it, too, she could tell, dry amusement flickering behind the impassive mask he’d assumed. “You are a very strange woman, Seliah.”
