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“Don’t say that,” I immediately growled.
Her words were meant in jest, but my chest squeezed tight, wondering if she believed there was truth in those words. I supposed I hadn’t led her to believe otherwise, and yet…I wasn’t a cruel monster, intent on using her up until there was nothing left. Did she think me one?
She didn’t tell me how much pain she’d been in, I reminded myself.
“Zari,” I called out, to distract myself, to escape the mad pumping of my heart. “Thryn’ar!”
In its literal meaning, it meant unleash in Karag. To feel the effects of that word, one would understand why. At its core, however, it was the command for a bonded Elthika to fly, and so the two meanings were interchangeable. To fly was to unleash oneself, untethered to this world.
The ultimate freedom.
Zaridan drew on her power, her muscles tensing and contracting beneath us like an intricate machine, and when she unleashed it, launching herself into the sky, the cheers from below were nearly as loud as the sudden rushing of the wind.
I didn’t have to guide Zaridan. She knew exactly where we were going. Instead, I focused on Klara, wrapping my arm around her back in support as she turned her face into my chest to shield her eyes.
My aunt had been right. I’d never enjoyed being told what to do. I detested it. I had always forged my own path, my own way. I made mistakes along the way—it was a certain thing—but like I told Klara, I didn’t make them a second time.
Only with her, there would be no second chance. I’d meant what I said. I took the marriage vows as sacredly as my bond with my Elthika. Klara had Zaridan’s song, her blessing. As far as I was concerned, the bonds were already tied between us. This ceremony in the temple was only a formality.
I turned my gaze north, over the Arsadia in all its wild beauty, thinking of the mysar command the Elysom council had given me to marry. Elysom wanted the South secured—Sarroth secured. A part of that included a queen. Heirs. They’d thought I would refuse. Perhaps my aunt had even counted on it so they could install another to lead my people, my territory. She knew I’d never wanted to marry—I’d made that perfectly clear in the years I’d been a Karath.
And perhaps taking a Dakkari queen had filled me with a strange, rebellious, vindictive thrill. But with Klara in my arms…
This is it, I realized, nostrils flaring.
She would be a very large part of my future.
I needed to make the best of it. A strong legacy required respect. We might never love one another…but we could respect one another at the very least.
Perhaps we could even be content with one another. Stranger things had certainly happened in our history.
And so, I decided right then that after our marriage was sealed in Lishara, I would treat her as my wife, in the truest of forms.
On the back of his descendant, flying toward our future, I vowed it to Muron.