Page 62 of A Fate of Ice and Lies (Fated #1)

Death’s laugh was dark and husky. “She believed sending you here would result in one of two ways. You died, or you accepted the bond between you and your soul-bound mate. Either way, she’d get what she and the Elders wanted.

Should you die, your death would decimate Elias, unleashing a fury like no other.

Accepting your bond strengthens him beyond what regular fae are capable of.

Regardless, Elias will become the most powerful fae in all the realms. Strong enough to fight your ancestor, Leanora. ”

Wait, what? His words swam in my head, each thought fighting for dominance.

I wasn’t ready to learn more about the Elders’ manipulations or how I could possibly be related to Leanora. So I settled for something normal. Something I could wrap my head around.

“What can I call you?” I asked. “Do you have a name?”

He drew a hand to his chin where he stroked his square jaw. “You wish to know my name?” he asked, his voice filled with something like surprise.

“If that’s okay.”

“I was born Eiran but haven’t been called that for hundreds of thousands of years,” he said.

Hundreds of thousands of years. He was that eternal, yet he’d given me what I’d asked for. Had taken the time to speak to me and now wanted to teach me to fight with a sword in exchange for the answers I sought.

It was humbling. Terrifying. But why? I still couldn’t comprehend why he’d do any of this for me.

“Eiran.” I tested out his name, and he gifted me with an amused smile. “I can still accept the bond although I rejected him?” Twice.

He pushed the edge of his sword to my chest, and I took a step back.

“Plant your feet, hands up, and eyes on me,” he instructed. Once I did what he asked, he continued. “The thing with fighting with swords is that it isn’t merely the distance of the sword you must know, but how long the sword is and how tall your opponent is.”

Too quick for me to track, he extended his sword and lunged toward me. I ushered back a few steps but not fast enough as he cut a small slice that tore through my clothes and across my stomach.

“What the hell?” I hissed out. “Do I get another tattoo for every cut?”

Another throaty laugh .

“Watch.” His tone held little room for objection.

This time, he moved slower. He drew his sword from his side and thrust it toward me, leaned forward with his upper body, and stepped toward me.

I used what I’d learned, and with my hands up and body angled away, I retreated.

All while staring at his sword as if I expected him to dig it into my chest.

He lowered the blade, and I heaved in a breath.

“Do you wish to accept the bond?” Eiran asked.

I hesitated. I wanted Elias. Loved him. And he’d said he liked me for me, not because of some bond that decided we were meant for each other.

“Should you accept the bond, what you feel will be amplified,” Eiran said. “His heart already beats for you. Whether you accept it or keep your end of the bond broken, he will spend the rest of his life devoted to you.”

“What happens when I die?” I asked quietly.

Because I would die before him. Where he still had three, almost four hundred years left, I’d be gone in sixty, maybe seventy years.

“A part of his soul will die with you,” he answered. “He’ll love and mourn you until his last breath.”

“And what?” I questioned. “He suffers for hundreds of years after? That’s cruel. Why make me his mate, then?”

Waiting for him to reply, I didn’t notice him move. Didn’t have enough time to retreat. His sword lay across my throat, where my pulse thrashed.

“Why would fate bind your souls together, indeed?” He dropped his sword and quirked up a single sleek eyebrow. It was an almost too human expression.

I kept my attention on his blade while he continued talking.

“That is a different question I will only answer once you retreat correctly,” he said. “But it seems I’m feeling generous, so I’ll tell you this. If you accept the bond, you will have another choice.”

This time, I was ready when he thrust his sword up, and although I moved quickly, his sword lay inches away from my arm, where he made another small slice.

Tightening my stomach muscles, I held myself in the same fighter’s position Everly and Brenton had drilled into me.

“While you’d remain human, you could choose to have the same lifespan as your mate,” he continued, his tone even. Not even the tiniest bit winded. “Age as he does.”

I’d have hundreds of years with him. But then I’d have to watch my closest friends die.

“How does that work? Do I go back to my realm and tell him I accept the bond?” I questioned.

I watched as he swung his sword back and forth, side to side. Smooth movements that seem orchestrated.

“Is anything in life ever that easy?” he questioned.

When he thrust his sword forward, I edged away before he lunged.

His smile was alarming. Lethal. “Eyes on me, not my sword,” he reminded me.

I glared at him, ready to argue, but held my tongue.

“To accept the bond, you must let him bite you.”

My hands shook, but I clenched them and forced them up as I waited for his attack.

The memory of Elias’s fangs grazing my neck made some primal part of me yearn for that bite.

“When he bites you, your souls will bind together,” he said.

“So, what, he’s a dog, and I’m his favorite bone? ”

He dipped his head back as he barked out a raucous laugh. “I do believe I’ll miss you when you go back.”

I couldn’t help smiling in return.

“The biting is supposed to be romantic and erotic.” There he went using that silky voice again.

I squirmed, but it was Elias’s face I saw. His teeth I pictured against my neck. Countless times, I’d read novels where biting during sex wasn’t just sexy but a euphoria like no other. Maybe fiction hadn’t gotten it all wrong.

“Your other question...why bind your souls together.” He drew a hand to his face where his long fingers moved along his jaw. “This has been in motion for millennia.”

Again, he thrust his sword forward, and I was able to move before he lunged.

He jutted his chin toward my feet. “Don’t step so high. Fighting is like a dance that requires smooth movement, not clomping feet.”

He demonstrated, moving his feet slowly as he lunged and retreated. I tried it several times, with him giving directions. He didn’t continue until he was happy with my retreats.

“Leanora has been telling you her story for three years now, so you know how the mages met their end,” he said. “But this?—”

“Wait, so what Leanora’s been telling me is true?” I asked. “Elias said?—”

“Elias was lied to,” Eiran said. “All of his people were lied to.” He paused, and when I didn’t ask further questions, he continued. “You and Elias were written in the stars long before that. While Elias is meant to be your realm’s salvation, you are to be his.”

I wrinkled my nose when he didn’t finish. “What does that mean?”

Using his magic, he called my sword from the ground where I had left it and floated it to me. I took the offered hilt and readied my body for his attack.

“Take a moment to take in the sword’s weight and how it affects your stance and movement,” he said.

I focused on my center, on retreating and lunging while moving my sword in the various positions I’d learned from my fae friends.

When I stopped to take a breath, he came at me. This time, he made a small swipe against my cheek.

I touched the trickling blood, and through gritted teeth, I said, “Will you stop doing that?”

He smirked. “Make me.”

I steadied my breathing and watched his hands. No, not his hands but his eyes, but yeah, also his hands.

“The dragons have been playing god since they helped wipe out the mages,” Death said, his fingers twitching around the hilt.

“While a dragon’s magic is incomparable, they are simply dragons.

The ones the fae call Elders assisted the fae in slaughtering the mages, and then while the fae’s magic was diminished, the dragons replaced their memory to one that was far more convenient to them. ”

He feinted, making me believe he was about to strike, and grinned when I fell for it and stumbled before I could center myself.

“The dragons rewrote the fae’s history,” he continued.

“Not only did they erase the fae’s gods, but they warned them against using their primal instincts.

Told them it was dangerous, that it would drive them mad.

Rather than allowing the fae to lean into their instincts, they made them fear it, all so the dragons could keep dominion over them. ”

“I don’t understand,” I said. “When Elias allowed his primal instincts to rule him, it was as if he wasn’t even there. Like he was a different person.”

“Because he’s suppressed it for so long, that raw power overcame him,” Eiran said.

“If he were to channel it regularly, like his ancestors did, it would be his greatest weapon. To beat her, he must release who he is and sink deeper into his instincts, but you, Theodora, as his mate, can summon him back.”

“You mean. . . I can’t ask him to do that.” To risk who he was to fight a mage who was thousands of years old, all on the chance I could bring him back. Absolutely not.

“You won’t have to,” he said. “He’ll do it when the time comes to protect you.”

“No.”

Sparks flew as I deflected his approaching thrust. I hacked my own blade down, but tired with aching arms, he unarmed me with a quick maneuver.

“No,” I told him again, anger making my burning limbs shake.

I sought out the vibrant colors that vibrated around Elias. He didn’t move but seemed to have frozen in place along with the others.

“It is fate.” He held my gaze. “He will be your realm’s salvation, and you will be his.”

“Let my realm burn or freeze or whatever,” I seethed. “I won’t risk him.”

“In not telling him the truth, you risk him.” Patient, pitying eyes watched me. “Allow him to learn to lean into his inner beast so that when he fights Leanora, he may win.”