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A silent tear slipped down her cheek.

She squeezed Solaris’s fingers with the urge to crush his bones.

It splintered her heart to know Ronin watched. She needed to connect to him in some way.

His face was contorted as he raged, fighting against the steel grip of Theon and Avi. Others flocked around him. Noah and Damian, faces streaked with sweat and blood. The only proof of Ronin’s injury was the tear in his shirt. A heavy relief fled through her, lightening the worry that had been suffocating her. Whatever potion Avi had given him worked. He was fine now.

It is only the two of you. Nobody else.

Looking at Ronin, she said, “I do.”

A brilliant bolt of lightning slashed through the sky, punctuating the ceremony.

Levina. Solaris’s mother.

Naia flinched.

Solaris released her hand.

The High God of Marriage bound their wrists together with a dainty gold chain, and it felt as if a brick had settled at the bottom of her stomach.

The Chain of Union. Naia had heard of it. A relic sprinkled with the High Goddess of Fate’s power. The final link in binding a matrimony.

Naia thought she would be sick as the High God lifted their bound wrists. “By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife. Solaris, kiss your bride.”

Her body went stiff when Solaris moved in and drew his mouth over hers.

“Mira, High Goddess of the Sea,” Marina called out clamorously, her voice audacious and clear. “I summon you.”

Naia’s pulse surged madly.

No.

She lurched away from Solaris with the need to flee biting at her legs; to turn away and settle her gaze upon Ronin again.

Solaris caught her by the chain binding their wrists with a hard look that said, don’t you dare run.

The seconds passing were agonizing and painfully quiet. It was as if everyone had stopped breathing. The popping and hissing of the flames played in the background, only to be drowned out by the blood roaring in Naia’s ears as her heartbeat palpitated.

Something was wrong. Too much time had passed.

With a quick glance around, Marina’s eyes betrayed a touch of unease as she fixed Solaris with an intense, demanding stare.

“Levina,” Solaris tried. “High Goddess of Lightning, I summon you.”

The night sky was illuminated once again by a streak of lightning. Naia startled at the sound lancing through the sky.

Why didn’t it work?

She focused on unwinding the chain from her wrist as her fingers trembled.

“What did you do?” Marina snatched Naia by the forearm before she could get the chain off.

“I didn’t do anything.”

Marina dropped her gaze to Naia’s hand, eyeing the glove with explicit blame. She went to rip it off.

Naia struggled to pry her arm free, keeping her from doing so. “Marina, stop this!”