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Typically, we’d have someone draw a portrait of a royal couple upon their wedding day, and my heart sank when I realized that would not be the case for us. “Mother,” I began, but a low hum entered the room.
The serpent sorceress arrived, tendrils of smoke slithering toward the rafters and a crimson smile brightening those red eyes. “Well, look what we have here.”
My mother stayed in the center of the room, her apricot and lavender gown swaying with an u
Dade’s blank expression did not falter, nor his stance, as the sorceress’s heeled slippers clicked over the white stone to the small carpet we were standing upon. “A beast and a bird.”
“Thank you for coming, Silver.”
I was still absorbing the fact that my mother obviously knew the sorceress on a first-name basis when Dade said, “You are to marry us.” Not a question but a clipped acknowledgment of her presence.
Silver tore her attention from my mother, her lips curving as she stopped mere feet from us. Her two snakes uncoiled around her arms, writhing. “I did fail to mention that with your little visit earlier, yes.” She forced a pout. “My apologies, king.”
My mother’s eyes flew to Dade, but he paid her no mind.
With a small wink at me, Silver whispered none too quietly, “Fates are fu
“You think this is fu
Silver gave me a feigned look of shock, then turned and spread her fingers toward me, her back to Dade. “Nikaya, darling, how your heart must bleed…” Moving back to face us all, she watched me and Dade, her snakes stilling. “Oh, my.” Turning to the windows, she released a cackle that made all of us tense and gape at her back, her red gown scraping over the stone. “She doesn’t know.”
Dade’s jaw clenched, his hand growing hot, too hot, in mine. With his other, he loosened the collar at his neck, and I could feel nearly every muscle straining. He wasn’t just on edge, he was holding on to a fraying piece of nothing, and I had a feeling if it weren’t for me, his mouth would not be closed.
He was behaving, had leashed himself, for me.
“What are you talking about?” Mother asked vacantly, and I noticed her eyes flick around the room. Indeed, she was impatient. So much so, she seemed to miss the fact that the sorceress was talking about our bond.
Surely, she knew by now. Surely, she was not merely pretending it did not exist.
Not all bonds could be sensed, but she was my mother, not to mention a queen with powers unlike many in our lands.
Silver tilted her head her way, then gri
Her red nails tapped over the golden whorled ends of the thick arms. Behind her, the spiraling curls of gold fashioned into sun rays rose as though a second crown to the snakes that circled and then stilled upon her head. “So let us proceed.”
A golden priestess typically officiated at weddings, and I’d half expected one to be the witness to our pledge to one another. The serpent sorceress was reserved for nobility—should they request her over the priestess—too great a cost for most common folk to afford. Not to mention intimidating.
I wondered how much coin she’d take home with her after all this was said and done, or if she’d already received payment. The tapping of those nails said it was the latter as her own impatience sparked, her curiosity with this ordeal waning.
It was no wonder my mother was in a mood. It was already shameful enough that she’d agreed to marry her only child to the male who’d caused us such a great deal of suffering, made worse by the fact she’d had to spend good coin we likely did not have.
At last, Dade turned to me. His assessing gaze cooled marginally when I offered a small, tremulous smile, and he took my hands in his.
“Under the sun that is good and golden, under the watchful eye of the awakening stars, I bear witness and approval of a marital bond between King Daden Volkahn, and Princess Opal Gracewood.” My heart couldn’t keep up with the sudden words, and Dade pulled me a step closer. The sorceress needn’t have bothered glancing around the throne room as she said, “If disapproval of this union exists, it must now make itself known or be swallowed by the tides of fate forevermore.”
Silence, and then, the shifting of my mother’s feet. I didn’t look at her, could not bear to see what was surely horror stamped across her face. I kept my eyes on Dade’s chest, my lip between my teeth, until the sorceress made us repeat after her.
Dade’s voice did not waver, his heartbeat steady and slowing mine with his gentle vow. “For now and forever.” Breath burned inside my throat as I allowed myself to meet his eyes—his damp, glistening eyes. “I pledge myself to thee, Opal Gracewood.”
Everyone waited as I swallowed and found my voice, choked at first but firm in conviction I hadn’t been aware I’d felt until those words passed over my tongue and his eyes held mine. “For now and forever, I pledge myself to thee, Daden Volkahn.”
Dade’s lashes lowered, creating shadows upon his cheeks as his hands trembled in mine.
The sorceress purred, “You may now seal your eternal promise.”
He looked back at me, the water cleared from his eyes, but his delight unmistakable when our bodies closed the gap, joined, and his hands rose to swallow my cheeks.
My eyes slowly closed, anticipation brimming, then flared wide when he whispered over my lips, “I know you think me incapable, but I’m not, and I do.” My fingers clenched the fabric of his vest, my eyes searching his as his mouth glossed over mine, his voice nothing but a barely audible breath. “I do love you, Opal Gracewood.”
I heard every word, tasted their truth when he cupped the back of my head, tilting it for our mouths to join. They pressed, and they did not retreat, parting and gliding as we sealed our fates in earnest. His free hand roamed to my lower back and tucked me close. So close, but I couldn’t get close enough, fisting his clothing and standing upon my toes to sink my fingers into his hair.
It had worked—far better than anything I could have dared hope for.
This king, this savage, wild monster of a king… he loved me. A whispered confession, yes, but it was merely confirmation of a truth I’d already suspected. A truth I’d run to and from for weeks now when I’d seen it growing within his eyes, thickening the air between us, and felt it within every searing touch.
Indeed, it had worked, and now I was thankful for those hands holding me so tight, his mouth bruising on mine, for otherwise, I’d have fallen.
I’d have fallen under the weight of everything I’d done.
I’d created a life with this king of wolves. Tentative, beguiling, aching, and wonderful, but I knew… I couldn’t keep it. That we were playing with borrowed time.
But maybe this could work. Maybe I didn’t need to forgive him the unforgivable in order to give in to all he made me feel. Maybe we could find a way to make this unforeseen piece of real we’d stumbled into a long-term reality.
I pulled back and sucked in a much-needed breath, my fingers ru