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Approval. And perhaps an invitation.

Parys cocked a brow. “Did you just make that up?”

I shrugged. “I’m High Queen. As long as he agrees,” I jerked my head toward Arran, “I can do whatever I want.”

I practically felt Cyara roll her eyes. Arran’s leg nudged mine harder.

“What’s next?” I asked again, ignoring them all.

The clock on the other side of the room was nudging toward midnight, but I was brimming with energy.

“You are,” Parys said, meeting my eyes across the table. “Tell us what happened when you fell through the rifts.”

17

VEYKA

I recounted my terrifying journey through the realms as succinctly as I could. None of them interrupted, which was uncharacteristic. By the end, the smile had melted away from even Lyrena’s merry golden face.

I ended with the description of the feeling in my chest, Arran’s name flashing again and again through my consciousness, a persistent demand that dragged me through the realms without my consent.

Arran stared at the table as I described it. Once, his hand twitched. Like it might reach up and rub that space at the center of his chest, beneath his slate gray tunic.

I felt it as well.

Just talking about it made the bond feel stronger, the compulsion more and more demanding.

I had thought he’d been bumping his knee against mine as a show of approval and support. Now, I wondered if it was a way to take the edge off of the burning need inside of him—inside of us. A little touch, to release the tension that demanded connection with his mate. My mate.

I swallowed hard, trying to push back the rising chorus of voices inside of my head.

“He pulled you back,” Parys mused, drumming his fingers on the table. “I wonder if it has something to do with your mating bond…”

“What?” Arran and I said in one voice.

We both rocked back in our chairs. Both looked at each other accusingly.

Lyrena laughed. Even Gwen huffed a breathless, half-believing chuckle.

“It appears the bond is stronger than any of us realized,” Gwen said quietly, hedging her amusement well.

I tore my eyes away from Arran’s. “How could that be?” I demanded of Parys. “I couldn’t even control what was happening. How could Arran have been the one to pull me back, when he didn’t even mean to?”

Cyara interjected before Parys could answer. “From what my father described, the mating bond is deeper than thought or intention. Arran did not know what he was doing, only that he wanted his mate back. The power of that…”

“… stretched across the realms.” Arran finished. His voice was hollow, even with his glower in place.

Hollow, because he thought this mating bond between us was precious and special, while I’d all but rejected it.

Ancestors above, could I do nothing right?

Revenge, relationship, ruling. Apparently, I could only manage one at a time.

“We’ll have to experiment,” Arran was saying. “This is a new power, to both the elementals and the terrestrials. Or maybe it is some facet of elemental power no one has delved into before, a kind of wind gift.”

“I am wind-gifted. I can move small objects using my wind, but not myself. Veyka’s power is not wind magic,” Parys said, annoyed.

“We’ll start training, and then we’ll see,” Arran hedged.