Page 62

P erhaps the pain was exponential. Perhaps that was why, one short day after Seidon had stood on Rico’s rooftop deck and mused about it feeling like a blister, it was strong enough to make his hands shake.

Strong enough that it crowded out other thoughts—at least when he was left with his own.

In the company of others, he could push it away.

Focus on the plans still being cobbled together an hour before the wedding.

Listen to the latest reports from the Guardians, be assured that the newly Awakened were all prepared to report for training tomorrow, after they spent this Firstday with their parents and families.

But now, he was alone in his office. Already dressed, but they weren’t ready for him yet at the cathedral. His crown sat on his desk, along with one for Arden and the matching rings that a jeweler had voluntarily stayed up all night to complete.

The door opened, though he barely heard it over the pounding of his head. Master Lee, perhaps, coming to escort him to the cathedral. He spun—then halted.

Not Lee. Arden, wearing the same blue-to-white gown that he still saw her in sometimes when he dreamed, and an impish little smirk that said she’d snuck away from Sapphire and was proud of herself for achieving it.

The moment she closed the door behind her, he could have sworn a magnet switched on, pulling him toward her.

And the moment his arms closed around her, the pain ebbed.

No, more—it vanished. He buried his face in her neck, careful not to disturb the intricate hairstyle that had probably taken hours.

“Should have insisted on yesterday.” He kissed the place where her neck met her shoulder, splaying his hands over the bare expanse of her back. He nearly groaned. “Arden.”

Her pulse beat every bit as fast as his did. One of her hands buried in his hair, making him glad he’d ignored the advice his valet had given to tie it back. “What is this?” she asked, voice strained.

He chuckled into her shoulder. Sometimes it was easy to forget that she hadn’t lived the lifetimes he had. “Love? Desire? Some cynics would probably call it lust, but I’d argue with them about it being so merely-physical.”

“Not that.” Though she laughed and ran her other hand down his back. But then she pulled away a bit, looking into his eyes. “You were in pain, when I opened the door. I saw it in your eyes as you crossed to me. I can feel it, everywhere I touch you.”

He felt his brows tug down. “No. It goes away when you touch me.” She couldn’t mean—it didn’t go to her, did it? He drew back, letting his arms fall.

The pain crashed in again.

Arden glowered and took his hand, bringing silence to his nerve endings once more. “Don’t. It doesn’t hurt me, I’m just aware of it.”

He blustered out a breath. “Reading minds now?”

“Only fair—you’ve been able to read mine since day one.”

Day one. It had only been a month ago, more or less. Yet it felt like another lifetime. Was—he knew very well he’d count his life now from when Arden entered it. He let her weave their fingers together. “You promise? You don’t feel the pain?”

“I promise.” She reached up, trailed her fingers over his cheek. “Is it the wall?”

He nodded once. There was no point in lying, no point in hiding what she could see. “It didn’t affect me so at first, but it’s been…chafing. Constantly. Yesterday I was thinking it was like a blister. Today—”

“Was it the Awakening, do you think? Your blood interacting with the magic of others’? Of mine? Could that have heightened it?”

“I…don’t know. Maybe? But I’ve never experienced anything similar.”

Geysers, when she stroked her fingers over his face like that, he forgot that pain even existed. “Does it not usually heighten things? Perceptions? Sensations? I swear I don’t just feel new things, I feel everything more. Especially with you.”

He shook his head. He didn’t remember any heightening of ordinary senses when he was Awakened as a child, and the many people he’d trained over the centuries hadn’t reported it either.

But he couldn’t deny that his love for Arden, his desire for her, exploded into something he had no words for when their blood mingled.

He’d already loved her. Already longed for her, body and soul.

But now? Longing didn’t begin to cover it.

Praise the Triada that she was the one he’d sensed that day. That he didn’t have to try to fight it off like he’d sworn he would do if he must.

He could have. For her, he could have. Would have. But how rich a blessing that he didn’t need to.

As for her question… “I don’t think it’s the general Awakening.

But it could be us, in particular. Together.

I knew that day Jade was kidnapped, when I sensed your blood in the water from so far away—it called to me.

Even then.” Not from the single drop he’d supposed—according to Storm, her arm had been pouring blood into the water.

But even so. It had been miles away. Miles . “We, together, could heighten things. Our blood’s mixing could cause it, perhaps.”

Her lips went tight.

And because she was touching him, he could lift his brows, feel the amusement of her clear distemper. “Now you look like I felt when Enoch told me I couldn’t resist my own blood, when I swore I wouldn’t be a slave to those nanites.”

She let out a huff of breath. “I suppose we aren’t the first people to get caught up in the conundrum of free will and yet an omnipotent, omniscient deity.”

He pressed his lips to her forehead. “I don’t love you because of our blood, Arden.

I’ll grant that it accounts for the heightening.

For some of the animal attraction—but when is that part not a matter of chemistry?

Science? That makes it no less real. And I fell in love with you when I couldn’t sense your blood in that way at all. ”

“One could argue that you did sense my blood, though without realizing it. But I suppose I shouldn’t mind that…that we were made for each other. How often do couples claim it? But we know it’s true.”

He smiled and wondered if she had color on her lips that would come off if he kissed her—it didn’t look like it, but they were glossier than usual. “I could have told you that weeks ago. You so quickly won my heart. Flew off with it the moment you first soared away on Ora.”

She smiled, but it faded all the way down into a worry that sizzled through her fingers, into his own veins.

“What is it?”

She shook her head, eyes focused on the collar of his tunic.

“All night, I kept waking up in a panic. Because this isn’t going to stay on land for long, Si—the fact that I am the one with this new magic.

Not Jade.” Her gaze crept back to him. “Not Jade. What will they do to her when they realize their mistake?”

His arms tightened around her. “We have time. As long as the wall stands, communication is spotty at best. If there are mer spies stranded on our side, they won’t be able to get information back to either Mariana or Finn easily.”

“But the wall can’t stand much longer—it’s hurting you. And if you’re weakened by pain, then—”

“I know. I know the implications.” He pulled her against him again, letting the fire soothe away the gnawing fear.

“And that right there, the fact that your thoughts are always for her, for anyone but yourself—that’s what makes you so suitable to be a queen.

That’s what I really first fell in love with. ”

“So noble.” She breathed a laugh into his shoulder. “Not me. I’m just in it for your good looks. All this muscle.” She leaned in to press a kiss to his neck, and he couldn’t stop the low hum of pleasure in his throat.

“Hey, I don’t mind being your pretty plaything.” Geysers, he wanted to kiss her properly, but glossy lips notwithstanding, he had a feeling he’d wreck her hair if he did it.

Soon. Soon she’d be his wife.

But she sighed and eased back a few inches, a frown marring her brow. “Something else has been bothering me.”

“Well, I’m a little offended that you haven’t been so preoccupied with thoughts of me that it banished all other thoughts and worries—but all right. What’s been bothering you?”

The grin she gave him at the tease faded too quickly. “If it was never Jade, then she wasn’t Awakened by the mer. She couldn’t have been the one moving that air in the recording. So…”

“Who was?” A good question, and one he should have thought of himself.

Would have , he liked to think, had every waking moment not been wracked with pain.

Which also proved her earlier point—he needed that wall to come down, or he couldn’t be a good king.

He thought for a moment, tried to picture the image, then decided that was counterproductive and pulled her with him over to his desk where the crystal was stored in the locked drawer.

She made a happy little sound as they neared, her eyes locked on the desk. “Your crown! Put it on, put it on.”

If he didn’t know for a fact that such silliness in no way erased the concerns from her mind, he’d have rolled his eyes at her bouncing attention. But then again, his wasn’t the only crown sitting there. He smiled. “I’ll put on mine if you put on yours.”

“Mine?” She said it like the very thought had never once crossed her mind. Like it was ludicrous. Then her gaze shifted to the small, delicate thing beside his monstrously heavy one, and her eyes went wide. “What…?”

His lips twitched up. “Your mother delivered it to me this morning. I had to assume it wasn’t for me.

” After setting her hand on his waist to keep the pain at bay, he used both of his to lift the tiara with its titanium feathers, its delicate pearls, its gleaming diamonds, and turned to tuck it into her hair.

Her free hand flew immediately up to touch it.

It looked perfect, nestled there in her pale hair, and he couldn’t resist leaning down to press one soft kiss to her lips. “My queen,” he murmured there, resting his hands on her waist again.