Page 20 of Bought By the Revenant (Monsters’ Bride Market #1)

Chapter Seventeen

Amity

I wake to sunlight streaming through a high window. For a moment, I’m disoriented, I don’t know where I am, or whether I’m actually alive. Then it all comes back to me: the villagers trying to sacrifice me, and Riven arriving just in time to stop them.

I’m on the table in Riven’s workshop, and I’m feeling warm, and… well? I push myself up to sitting, and wait for the pain to hit me, but there’s only a dull ache in my muscles. That doesn’t make sense. After losing that much blood, I should be weak and barely able to move.

Riven sleeps in a chair next to me, his head bent at an angle that must hurt his neck, and his white hair hangs across his face.

One of his hands rests on the table close to where mine is, and I know he must’ve been holding my hand.

I study his stitched face, his slightly parted lips, and his wide forehead, finally relaxed, and I realize that he doesn’t look frightening at all.

I feel warmth spread through my chest, and I smile.

It’s hard to believe I’m here, with him, and that my past will never bother me again.

Thorne is dead. I saw Riven kill him, and I saw the Elder wail over his body.

After the lesson Riven taught them all, I’m sure they will never come after me again.

Who knows, maybe Draug will accept Thorne’s spilled blood, and bring back the rain.

I’m being sarcastic, of course. It will rain when it rains.

I lift my injured arm to examine it. The Elder’s knife cut me from elbow to wrist, deep enough that I should have died.

Now black stitches run along that line in an intricate pattern.

These aren’t normal stitches, though. They’ve somehow become part of my skin, fused into me completely.

When I run my finger along them, warmth spreads outward from each one, moving through my arm and into the rest of my body.

I’m not sure what happened… What Riven did to save me.

I slide off the table and test my legs, expecting weakness, but I feel strong and steady.

More than that, I feel incredible. Every part of me feels lighter and more alive than ever before.

Even my heart is lighter, like there’s no point in worrying about anything.

I walk to Riven and touch his shoulder. He jerks awake, his white eyes going wide when he sees me standing before him.

“Amity? You shouldn’t be up.”

I smile down at him. “I feel wonderful.”

“Are you sure? You lost so much blood…”

I settle myself onto his lap and wrap my arms around his neck. His whole body goes rigid before he relaxes into my touch.

“I feel like I was born anew,” I whisper and lean in to kiss him.

The second our lips meet, fire races through me.

I press my body against his and deepen the kiss, sliding my tongue into his mouth to taste him.

Heat builds between my legs, and I can feel myself getting wet and swollen with need.

His cock hardens beneath me, and I shift my hips to press against it, which pulls a deep groan from his throat.

My hands move down his chest, feeling all the different textures of his stitched skin through the fabric of his shirt.

I slip my fingers under the hem, desperate to touch his bare skin, but when I reach his side, he flinches.

I pull back, remembering Thorne stabbed him there.

“You’re hurt!” I jump to my feet, horrified that I forgot about his wound. “I’m sorry. What was I thinking?”

Riven catches my hand and pulls me back onto his lap.

“It’s nothing. Revenants heal faster than humans. We have magic running through our stitches.” His fingers trace the black line on my arm. “And some of that magic runs through you now.”

“Is that why I feel so different?”

“You needed a blood transfusion, so I gave you my own blood, then used enchanted thread to stitch you up. There was no other way. You were dying, Amity, and I couldn’t lose you.”

I rest my forehead against his. “Thank you for saving my life.”

“I simply couldn’t lose you,” he repeats. “Not when I’ve only just found you.”

I kiss him again, keeping it gentle this time, but the heat builds between us anyway. When I pull back to look into his glowing eyes, the words I’ve been holding back finally spill out.

“I love you, Riven.”

Joy makes his eyes glow brighter.

“And I love you, Amity.”

“Let’s make it official, then. Once and for all.”

***

The lake looks perfect at twilight, with lanterns hanging from tree branches throwing warm light across the water. A bonfire burns at the shore’s edge, sending sparks up into the sky as it darkens above us. Riven waits beside the fire, and his white hair and eyes seem golden in this magical light.

This afternoon, Nell and Fria helped me get ready for the ceremony.

Fria made disapproving sounds when she saw my chipped nail polish and carefully removed every trace before painting my nails deep blue again.

The wedding dress that Olaf brought back from the seamstress in Aura Glade fits my body perfectly – white fabric with blue details that flows from my hips down to my ankles.

“You look beautiful, Mistress,” Nell said.

Now I walk toward Riven, and everything else fades away until there’s only him. The terror I felt when I first saw his stitched-up face is gone. I see every mismatched piece of him and love how they come together to create the man who saved my life.

Our witnesses stand in a small half-circle around us.

Nell and Fria, Tomas and Olaf, all of them serious.

This isn’t the wedding I dreamed about as a young girl in Witherglen, surrounded by family and neighbors in the village square.

This is better, and I’m sure my parents and my brother are watching from wherever they are.

When I reach Riven, he takes both my hands in his.

“In my long existence, I never imagined finding someone who would look at me and see beyond this form. Who would choose me not once, but every day.” He reaches into his pocket and withdraws a ring – a simple band of some dark metal with an iridescent sheen.

“I’ve carried this for centuries, never believing I would have the chance to give it to anyone.

” He slips it onto my finger. “I vow to protect you, to cherish each moment we share, knowing that your mortal life is precious and fleeting compared to my existence. To remember always that you chose me when you could have turned away. At the bride market, you reached for me instead of running. When I found you on that altar, you called my name. You’ve given me what I thought impossible: a home in someone’s heart. ”

Tears blur my vision as I look from the ring back to his face.

“I don’t have a ring to give you,” I say, my voice catching.

“But I offer you my heart, my life, whatever years I have.” I squeeze his hands.

“I vow to see you always as you truly are. Not the monster others fear, but the man who risked everything to save me. Twice. I promise to build a life with you, where neither of us needs to hide or run. Where we can simply be.” I reach up to trace the stitches on his cheek.

“These marks that others find frightening, I find beautiful. They are proof of your determination to exist, to be part of this world. Just as my scars now show that I fought to stay here, with you.”

The fire crackles, warming us both. Riven pulls me against him and our lips meet in a kiss that seals everything we’ve promised. Behind us, our small group of witnesses breaks into applause and cheers that echo across the water.

The celebration afterward feels perfect in its simplicity.

We gather around the bonfire to share the feast Nell prepared, passing plates of roasted meats and crusty bread, sweet pastries and bottles of wine.

The servants who stood so seriously during our vows now laugh and talk freely with us.

Tomas raises his glass to make a toast to our happiness, his words slightly slurred from the wine but heartfelt.

Even Olaf, usually so quiet and stern, offers his congratulations with what might be a smile.

For the first time since my family passed, I belong somewhere again. I belong with someone who chose me just as I chose him.

The night grows deeper around us, and the fire burns down to glowing coals.

Riven wraps me in a thick blanket, and we sit together looking up at the stars.

I feel connected to them in a way I never did before, and I know it must be because of Riven’s blood flowing through me.

Part of him came from out there, from those vast spaces between the stars, and now part of that cosmic essence lives in me, too.

We turn to look at each other at the exact same moment, and I feel something pass between us – a sort of deep understanding.

“So, this is forever,” he says.

“It is.”