Page 66 of BounBound By Scars

She was looking at me.

And all the mourning I’d wrapped myself in like armor suddenly cracked.

Because she was smiling.

And that smile?

It wasn’t for anyone else.

“To Zarek and Leora,” she finished, lifting her glass. “To finding love… and not running from it.”

The applause erupted, but all I could hear was the heartbeat in my throat.

She stepped off the platform, nerves still tangled in her step—but she was glowing. On fire.

And I realized something horrifying. Something that would absolutely bind me to this damn world.

Ineededher to mean… Every. Goddamn. Word.

SEVENTEEN

Amelia

The applause still echoed in my ears as I stepped off the makeshift stage, my cheeks warm and my pulse fluttering from the speech I’d just given.

It had been for him.

It was my prelude to our inevitability.

A correction of my mistakes.

The lights twinkled overhead in the Blackthorn courtyard, the night humming with celebration. The music had started again and people were already making their way toward the center of the courtyard to dance.

Logan and Kaylan were the first to brave the floor.

Kaylan looked radiant—not in the glittering, show-stopping way people expect of a bridesmaid, but in her own quiet, effortless way. She’d opted out of the dress Leora had picked. Instead, she wore a sleek emerald green jumpsuit that hugged her frame like it was made just for her. Elegant. Sharp.

But it was Logan’s face that made my heart soften. That kind of wonder in a man’s eyes? That shit can’t be faked. He looked like he’d never seen anything more divine. But I wasn’t a stranger to that look now, was I?

I was about to go find Kabir when a familiar voice drawled behind me.

“Beautiful speech.”

I turned to find Sebastian—drink in hand, jacket discarded, sleeves rolled, as if he owned the night.

He extended a hand. “Shall we?”

My eyes flicked to the glass in his other hand. “Is that alcohol?”

“It’s a wedding, Falcon,” he said with a theatrical roll of his eyes—though his gaze darted across the room like it had a mission of its own.

He reluctantly set his glass aside and looked at me again—a plea in his gaze.

I exhaled, slipping my hand into his. “Fine, one song. And stop scanning the crowd like you’re waiting for someone to jump you.”

Sebastian blinked, caught. “What?”

I lifted a brow. “Someone named Inez, perhaps?”