I paced nervously in the small space, mindful of the train in the back of the dress as I did. The hauntingly beautiful melody I’d heard when I’d first arrived had quickly been overpowered by the chatter of the guests. The cacophony of their voices ran together and grew in volume as more of them arrived over the course of the hour.

  The Etheroz court. The nobility of the continent, whom I’d never met before, were now on the other side of the doors. All of them were likely eager to see the woman who’d shattered an engagement and stolen their prince’s heart.

  I shook my head at the thought. I haven’t stolen anyone’s heart.

  Royals were used to getting what they wanted, when they wanted it. Most of the drama at any court could be boiled down to the entitlement and impatience of such individuals. I was sure that Soren was no exception, though I couldn’t understand why.

  I was avoiding being used by the emperor, being thrown in jail, and remaining out of my father’s control. For all intents and purposes, Soren was taking a loss. He had nothing to gain from our union aside from being able to choose his wife. Maybe he’d seen the unsigned contract and proposed the whole idea from a place of rebellion.

  Regardless of his motives, he’d seen an opportunity and taken it.

  Two finely dressed women, who had to be servants of some kind, waited against the back wall of the room while I paced. Occasionally, one of them would move forward and straighten the train before I had a chance to trip on it, and then she’d go back to the wall. On the other side of the door I could see the shadows of two feet standing guard. A deterrent for anyone who might try and disturb me before the ceremony officially began.

  I fought the urge to chew on my lower lip. Everything had to be perfect. The healers had fixed all my cuts and bruises, and then they’d moved on to superficial adjustments like my cracked lips. I couldn’t risk ruining the soft skin with the angry edge of my teeth. We were already legally married, but Emperor Andreas Cassemir had never seen me before, and if he found any fault with me, he could still annul the union.

  That couldn’t happen.

  The Cassemirs were the only ones who could keep my father from reclaiming what was his, and now that I’d realized just how many of my memories might have been manipulated, changed, or forgotten... I had to stay well away from my father, the duke.

  Even if I was the stronger Bloodbound mage, I had no way to defend against his magic, let alone stop him from using it on me. He’d be able to pull any information he wanted out of my mind. He’d learn what I did to free the Eidolon, and he’d be furious. And if he learned that I was a mage? What value would he place on a Bloodbinding that only affected animals? Would he be pleased that I had magic at all, or angry that it was deformed?

  No, this marriage had to move forward. I refused to be helpless at my father’s hand any longer.

  A sudden silence fell over the crowd outside, and I paused my pacing mid-step. The door suddenly opened to the hall, and the music shifted from somewhere deeper within.

  “Your highness.” The guard said with a bow, holding the door to the side.

  “Thank you.” I replied quietly. With a steadying breath, I stepped out of the room.

  I was guided down the halls until I stood before the large, double doors that separated me from the sanctuary. The two women who’d been with me in the waiting room followed me here, adjusting the train and fanning it out behind me before approaching their respective doors, and opening them wide.

  I’d only ever been to one wedding as a child, and it did nothing to compare to the grandeur that met me inside the cathedral. Stone columns rose to meet a ceiling nearly one hundred feet above us, each one carved to look like they were wrapped in scrolling ivy vines. Bright light shone through the stained glass windows from the east, which painted the inner sanctuary in brilliant colors. Gold lined the ends of the pews and framed the windows. My eyes were nearly overwhelmed by the abundance of wealth they must have spent covering every surface in flowers.

  Hundreds of people rose to their feet from the pews on either side of the aisle as their faces turned to me. So many were in attendance… it was no wonder that their chatter had sounded like the force of the ocean. Had the entire city fit itself into the building for this ceremony? At the other end of the room, the chancel appeared small, and the figures standing on it were hardly discernible by their features.

  I took my first steps towards them.

  Rose petals covered the path. There were so many that I couldn’t fathom the sheer number of flowers they must’ve plucked to cover the entire length of the aisle. My heart raced with every step, and I clutched my bouquet like it was a lifeline that would pull me to the end. I locked my eyes ahead, afraid that if I looked away from the altar that I’d stumble.

  “Is this what you want?”

  I nearly stumbled at the whispery voice.

  My eyes darted around the pews, searching for the voice, searching for the Eidolon—for Leander. I continued, resolutely forward, careful to keep my expression neutral. No one else had heard him, as if the words had been placed right into my ears.

  A confusing wave of emotion washed over me in response to his voice. The excitement I’d finally begun to feel dimmed at the hurt of his abandonment.

  “It never mattered what I wanted.” I said softly, trying not to move my mouth and praying that he caught the sounds before anyone else heard my whispers. “It’s already done.” And the last thing I needed was anyone whispering about my sanity later on.

  “Contracts are only paper. What’s done can still be undone.”

  My eyes darted to the sides once more, looking for a thrasher, or anyone else who could be channeling Leander’s voice from wherever he was hidden. But the congregation stood motionless as they waited for my passing. I walked by a skeptical, older gentleman who nodded appreciatively, and then a jealous, young woman whose rage was only betrayed by her eyes. No one was weaving words through their fingers. No one would dare.

  I inhaled deeply, pretending to let out a long sigh as I whispered again. “Where are you and your Windbound hiding?”

  His response was indignant. “I do not need help to use Nahshon’s magic.”

  I began to press my lips together into a thin line before catching myself, and then forcibly relaxed them. I was halfway to the altar. Ahead of me, Soren waited in full military regalia at the lower of two steps, and above him waited a finely robed priest. To his side, sitting on an ornately carved golden throne, sat Emperor Andreas.

  The emperor’s expression was carefully guarded, revealing no hint of displeasure across his graying face, but I could feel the intensity of his gaze as it pierced me. He was older than I’d pictured. His once golden hair had become paler as the strands lost their pigment, the stresses of leadership and war aging him more than I’d expected.

  “Did you agree to the marriage before or after you realized he was a prince?” Leander’s voice came again, a level of disdain coating the words as I continued forward.

  “I don’t see what reason you have to care, given that you abandoned me before you could hear the decision.” I didn’t owe him any explanations. Explanations were for friends who were concerned enough to care.

  Soren’s mouth twitched up at the corners the closer I came, and I tried my best to ignore the growing nerves in the pit of my stomach. Was the tilt of his mouth a smile, or a smirk?

  “Perhaps you should ask your new husband why I abandoned you, if you’re so upset by it.” Leander’s voice was clipped. “But I doubt you will. Might ruin the festivities if you speak about another man. He won’t like that at all.”

  “Then where did you go?” I hissed as the music around me began to rise in a crescendo. The urge to raise my voice and speak over it was difficult to restrain.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  A soft chuckle caressed my cheek, which made me pause. Only a moment, but enough for an awkward clearing of a throat to snap me out of it.

  I looked up from the ivory roses to see Soren’s outstretched hand, which was held out to assist my climb up the step. Behind him, the emperor’s eyes narrowed at my hesitation, while the priest clasped his hands together in an example of patience.

  I reached out and took the offered hand, letting him pull me alongside him to stand before the priest. The priest stretched his arms out and motioned for the congregation to sit, and their obliging movements were a rumble of thunder behind us as they did. The organ quieted as the last notes echoed around the building, fading into silence,

  “Your highness.” A small voice startled me. A young girl held a hand towards the bouquet. My hands trembled as she took the flowers and scurried away.

  “Blessings upon you all.” The priest shared, his voice carrying loud and clear through the silence.

  “And to he who protects us.” The congregation responded in unison.

  The emperor was the only one, aside from myself, who didn’t respond to the priest. I didn’t know the response, had rarely visited the temple as the Astalians didn’t worship the old gods, let alone hold out any hope for their return. But the emperor basked in the response as if they were speaking of himself. His expression even turned smug.

  My eyes drifted up to the painted fresco above the organ pipes, expecting to see The Just One depicted above, but instead was met with a massive, golden lion. The Cassemir lion, swallowing the sun.

  The old gods vanished from the earth almost five hundred years ago, and their sudden absence created a void. A void that people expected new gods to rise and fill, to lead them out of their growing despair. None came. The priests who once walked alongside the gods only carried on out of hope that they would someday return.

  But the empire appeared to have found something—someone else to worship in their absence.

  “Today we gather for the union between two ancient houses. The House of the Body and the House of the Soul. Two halves of perhaps the greatest whole. It is only fitting that the empire unite these two, long standing halves to bring peace and unity within our borders...” The priest continued, his voice serious in all the right places and gentle in all the others, turning what I thought was the beginning of our vows into a speech about the empire.

  “I don’t recall the last time I heard Mallius’s blessed referred to as the House of the Body. I wonder which rotting scroll they found that one in.” The voice muttered.

  I stiffened, surprised that Leander still lingered and glad that Soren was facing dutifully forward to watch the priest speak. Even the emperor’s attention, which had been focused on me, had been drawn elsewhere. As if he found the priest’s speech too dull to listen to, though it was clearly designed to sing his accolades.

  “And who would be the House of the Spirit?” The words were difficult to form through my barely parted lips and clenched teeth, much too close to the priest and prince to continue this conversation. But as the words emerged from my throat, their sounds were immediately snuffed. It was if I hadn’t spoken at all as the words were immediately carried away to wherever Leander received them. It was as alarming as it was reassuring that our conversation remained secret.

  “You’re in his temple.” He paused, then continued. “Or, what was his temple.”

  “I suppose you would know, wouldn’t you?”

  He didn’t respond.

  The priest opened a large tome with yellowed pages and flipped to a passage in the back. “And among them were those blessed in his ways, and Delvin instructed his chosen line to go forth and guide us. To bring his people under one roof in his absence, until it is our time to see the Eternal Fields...”

  I struggled against the urge to fidget. From the corner of my eye, Soren continued to stand dutifully still next to me. He didn’t look surprised at the soliloquy. I could only imagine the ordeal that his brother’s wedding must’ve been like as the crown prince.

  “Tell me,” Leander’s voice returned with a new resolve. “Since we’ve nothing else to discuss, what does ‘I bound the Eidolon’ mean to you? Because I certainly know what it means to me.” It was the closest thing to a roar that was possible using a human tongue, and so loud that I flinched as if he was right next to me.

  Soren’s head turned a fraction in question, and I gave an apologetic smile and looked down as if in reverence.

  “I didn’t know that you were the Eidolon.” I spoke slowly, through barely parted lips, hoping that if Soren was watching me, it looked like a mumbled prayer. “There’s no record of Eidolons becoming human. How was I supposed to know that it was even possible?”

  “And if I wasn’t, would that ease your guilt over binding Caspian?” I could picture his lip twisting into a snarl, human or otherwise. “You aimed to bind him, and you succeeded. How quickly you followed in your father’s footsteps...”

  I squeezed my eyes shut as I fought the rise of anger, needing to school my face back into neutrality. I calmed. “I am nothing like the duke.”

  “Then undo it!” Leader demanded, not needing to worry about being overheard. “Prove me wrong and undo it.”

  My eyes watered at the anger that assaulted my eardrums. “This isn’t the time.”

  His rage was justified, deserved even, but what Leander asked was no simple task, and certainly not something I could accomplish while standing at the altar!

  I’d severed my father’s connections, but only because they were in the way. Unbinding my own threads... It was counterintuitive. If magic was fueled by using parts of one’s soul, then the threads that bound us together were an extension of mine. Every creature I’d bound was a part of me now. Even miles away from the rats, I could feel that they were closer now than they had been last night. That those who’d survived the pirate attack were following their threads to find me.

  I didn’t know how to remove the bonds intentionally. How did you remove a piece of yourself? Did I need to pull at the connection until it tore away? Would I lose that part of my soul which had merged to his essence forever? The very idea... It'd be like taking a knife and removing a finger.

  I murmured through clenched teeth. “I haven’t even said my vows yet. You cannot expect me to perform a task I’ve never learned.”

  “—And so we gather to celebrate the union of Prince Soren Cassemir. Son of Andreas Cassemir, the first of his name, to Lady Daelyn LeMont, daughter of Jasper LeMont and Duke of Astalia.”

  Hearing my name caught my attention, breaking me out of our argument, and the man motioned for Soren and I to turn and face one another.

  “If you will not free me, then you leave me with no choice but to go where your commands will not reach.” Leander’s voice promised in threat. “I will not allow myself to become enslaved again.”

  “Wilt thou have this woman...” The words flowed through one ear, and out the other like water as the priest began to recite the vows, but I was struggling to maintain the delicate balance of discretion and attention.

  I bowed my head down to hurriedly respond to Leander. “You are free in all the ways that matter. If not for me, you would be forced to return to Astalia.”

  I peered up through my eyelashes to see Soren watching my face intently. His eyebrow quirked up as he noticed my throat, the one reflex that I couldn’t entirely hide as I spoke. He reached out to grab my hands and began to gently trail his thumb along the back of my hand and knuckles comfortingly, mistaking the flexion of my throat for nerves.

  “I have lived and served long enough to know the dangers of human desperation.” Leander continued, speaking over the vows. “I am not ignorant of your help, but by refusing to sever the bond, you’ve only changed my captor. Leaving is my only chance at real freedom.”

  “Wilt thou promise to love and cherish her, forsaking all others for her as long as you both shall live?”

  “I shall.” Soren promised, squeezing my hands just a bit too tightly, and I fought against a wince.

  “This isn’t the time, Leander.” I hissed, becoming unbearably frustrated that he was continuing to interrupt.

  “Do you not see that you are putting me at the mercy of the empire as well?!”

  The priest smiled, turning his attention to me. “And you Daelyn, wilt thou take this man before the gods? To share his burdens and his sorrows—”

  “No one is going to learn of you.” I argued as I stared up into Soren’s eyes. It was so much more difficult to speak to Leander when I couldn’t risk moving my barely parted lips. It was disconcerting to continue to speak when I couldn’t even hear my own voice. “No one can use you, if they don’t know you exist.”

  “—His joys and his strifes—”

  “Don’t marry him, and we won’t have to worry about it while you figure out how to undo the bond!”

  “—Through the darkness of the storm—”

  “It’s already done.” I snapped back, not hearing the priest. “And I don’t know if I can.”

  “—And the pain of the ever night?”

  “But you can still try!” I could picture him running a frustrated hand through his hair in exasperation. “Whatever he’s promised you, you cannot trust Soren—”

  “I can’t trust you either, you left me!”

  Silence met me, and a wave of nausea rolled over me. Did Leander let the entire sanctuary hear my shout? Did he really just ruin the ceremony because I didn’t agree to end it myself?!

  But when I turned to look at the priest, he merely looked at me expectantly. He’d only paused, waiting for me to answer the first of the vows.

  My knees almost went weak with relief. “I shall.”

  “And wilt thou promise to love and cherish him, forsaking all others for him, as long as you both shall live?”

  “I...” I turned back to look up at Soren, and his thumb continued to stroke my knuckles in gentle reassurance. A wide smile spread across his mouth, like a victorious smirk.

  I hesitated.

  “He will break you, Daelyn.”

  Soren’s eyes pulled me in, and the warmth emanating from his hands ran up my arms to anchor me to the moment. His emerald irises suddenly drew my attention. They were beautiful, but now as the light hit them, they nearly glowed. I felt a warm peace replace my nerves. I couldn’t explain it, it was like an uncontainable joy that made my heart race in excitement.

  I barely heard Leander’s warnings in my ear. “I shall.”

  “Then by the blessings of the eternal gods on high, and those who dwell in the depths below, I hereby unite these two in holy matrimony. May none of the earth nor of the heavens destroy the binding of these two souls into one.” The priest bowed low before us before rising up to loudly announce. “May you bring fortune to the empire, Prince Soren and Princess Daelyn Cassemir of Etheroz!”