Page 109 of Golden Queen (Idrigard #1)

Thirty-Seven

After what felt like my entire body detonating and disintegrating into infinite points of bright starlight, I stretched out across the cosmos past all semblance of time or direction.

I soared everywhere and nowhere before retracting, slowly dancing back as though to a rhythm.

I re-formed from nothing back into something—one tiny, infinitesimal point at a time.

I raised my head to see darkness.

Shadows swirled lazily around me, billowing in great gray clouds, some looking more like smoke, others falling across my face and casting my vision in muted night as they moved like wraiths around me.

The shadows were everything. They swayed and pulsed with some depthless energy that I knew must have swallowed the entire world outside me.

They had devoured everything except for the black clad shoulder under my chin and the shock of tousled dark hair at my side.

"Are we dead?"

"No," he chuckled.

"Is everyone else dead?"

"No one is dead," he said, loosening the arms encircling me.

I pulled back to look at him and saw the truth in his eyes as the shadows began to draw back.

"I shielded us," he said, as my gaze flitted around the room. "Well, I shielded them from you," he revised.

I looked around but couldn't make out anything in the darkness.

A startled laugh escaped me as I remembered what I had just done, remembered that endless power that erupted from inside me.

I had finally gotten back what they took from me, and my body reveled in it.

I wanted more of it—ached for it with a fierceness I had so far only ever felt for him. My hands began to tingle and grow warm.

"Sera, look at me," Io commanded.

I obeyed, even as my eyes ached to look down at the flames I knew would be wreathing my hands again.

"Put your hands on me and channel it into me."

"What?" I asked, feeling eyes on us as the shadows finally dissipated.

"You have too much pent-up magic. You let most of it out, but you need to let out a little more. If you let it out into me, it can't harm anyone.

"Will that...hurt you?" I asked, gritting my teeth. "Will it burn you?"

"No, not even close. Now do it."

I put my hands up, but hesitated at the thought that he might be lying. He would take those burns for me. I knew it.

"Do it, Sera. Now. It won't hurt me. You already surrounded me in your fire."

I laid my hands on his cheeks and immediately felt some relief wash through me as the pressure in my chest receded. My body stopped vibrating as some part of me flowed into him.

His lips curved up. He liked the way it felt.

"That was so much more than I was expecting. You’re more powerful than I imagined—more powerful than me. I felt it. And Sera, darling, I know you don't quite comprehend what that means, but it’s a fucking lot of magic.”

He kissed me sweetly, tenderly. I could feel his excitement at the prospect of my magic.

I didn't have the time or the ability to think about what that meant for me, but the idea that it delighted him, well that really fucking delighted me.

I had never known a single man—a single person, for that matter, my dear cousin included—who would have been that happy to find themselves outdone so spectacularly by anyone—let alone a woman.

He loved me...because I was his mate. Wasn’t I? I should know that, but I didn’t. I didn’t feel it. The realization sent a shock-wave through me that seemed to tip the foundations of the world.

Everything counted on that. All the plans for our future—avoiding hostility and war with his brother, getting him to agree to help us take back Windemere. It all depended on us being mates—a bond so sacred that its validity would be upheld no matter what.

I began to shake—not from that dread power in me, since my hands were no longer on fire, but from worry, fear, uncertainty.

Someone pushed their way through the crowd of people gathered around us.

"Are you alright?" Aben asked, his big frame crouching down next to us. "What the fuck happened here?"

"Sera got her bracelets off," Io told him, proudly, motioning toward my now bare wrists.

Aben picked them up, studying the ring of paler flesh where the cuffs had been. "Well, fuck me," he said, with a grin. "I got here just in time. Congratulations."

He looked around at the red-robed scholars, plain-clothesed students, and black-robed masters crowding around us. "You two are attracting a crowd. Let's maybe get out of here."

I was suddenly aware that I was sitting in Io’s lap, my body nearly wrapped around him.

He kissed me again, lightly, and then stood, pulling me up with him.

The crowd of onlookers hung back, most of them peeking from around the three arched doorways that led into the chamber.

They were increasingly being pushed forward into the room by the arrival of more people drawn to the commotion.

I tried to hide behind Io, but they surrounded us on all sides.

Aben's jaw set into a hard line. "Let's...get out of here," he said again.

Io was not deterred. He clapped Aben on the back. "Soon, cousin. For now, we have an appointment with Master Cassius to confirm the mating bond."

Aben's eyes went to me with such...relief and understanding that I wanted to back away. I wanted to run from them all again. But this time I would not stop until I was all the way to Athelen.

Io was so sure, and I still didn’t feel it. I loved him—more than anything—more than I thought should be possible, but I didn't feel any of what I should have if we were mates. I didn't feel him.

Master Cassius rushed into the chamber, looking between me and Io, and then to the sword that lay back on its plinth. I wondered if he could tell it had been disturbed.

"Good news," Io said with a smile. "Atlas' spell worked after all. It just took it a few minutes to kick in."

I knew by the look on Cassius' face he didn't believe a single word Io was saying, but he made no remark in the middle of all those people.

He turned to the crowd. "Out!" the master roared, waving his hands. "Out! All of you, get back to your studies. Go!"

They reluctantly fled.

Cassius turned to Io. "Amon, what did you do?" He picked up Io’s hands and turned them over, looking at them carefully.

"I'm fine, Cassius," Io said, pulling away.

"How did you..." the master asked in a reverent whisper.

"I didn't," Io said, sternly. "I told you Atlas did it. Now, can you confirm our mating bond so that I can tell my brother the good news?"

Io held me close to his side, reaching down to take my hand each time I began to feel that vibration of magic in my body, that ache of needing release.

I let it bleed away harmlessly into him as we followed the master to his chambers.

I could feel the magic, like a well-worn part of me had grown and stretched until it took up more space inside me than it should have. My skin felt tight, my bones crowded.

We had to be mates, I decided. For us to both have this gold power and share it between us as we did—never burning each other. We had to have fates-forged souls to have come together as we had.

For whatever reason, I just couldn't feel it yet. It would come. I was suddenly sure of it.

I walked into the master's chamber with renewed hope, smiling at Io as we took a seat at a wooden table covered in nicks and scars and burns. It looked like it had seen its fair share of some sort of labor.

Aben followed us into the chamber. He stood leaning against the wall watching the master warily as he fumbled around on the shelves.

I heard the clatter of a large metal basin hit the floor and a shower of bottles cascading across the stone tiles with it. "Oh, bother," The master muttered.

Aben bent to help him collect his things.

I realized the old man was shaking as he took the basin from Aben's hands. I wondered if it was the events of the day, the fact that his lord had picked up the Dagda's sword, or just his age that had him trembling like a leaf.

"So, how does this work?" I asked.

"It’s very simple, really," Master Cassius put in, noisily setting the bowl on the table.

He reached for my hand with one of his and Io's hand with the other. "We just need a bit of blood and a bit of ash."

He laid our hands across the basin, palms up. Grasping a small, sharp-looking silver knife in his shaking hands, he approached my wrist.

"I will do it," Io said, taking the knife from the master’s trembling fingers.

He looked at me with that familiar, mischievous look on his face. "Unless you want to do it. I know how you enjoy a bit of cutting."

I tossed him a dirty look and offered him my wrist.

His knee connected with mine below the table reassuringly as he put the blade to my skin.

He slid it neatly across one of the spidery blue veins just below the surface.

Blood welled up along with fiery pain, but it was replaced by a faint, cold ache that quickly faded away. He was using his magic to lessen the pain.

I angled my wrist over the basin to let a thin stream of blood pour out.

I pointedly looked away as Io cut his own wrist, but then I noticed a great deal more blood streaming down to meet mine in the bowl.

"That's too much," I said, watching wide-eyed as the blood pulsed out in time with his heartbeat.

"He will be fine, my dear," Master Cassius said as Io smiled reassuringly. "We will be lucky to get enough even at that rate before his wound closes. He has powerful regenerative abilities. Far greater than he should. We have studied it extensively."

The thought of just how they studied his regenerative ability sent a wave of nausea racing through me that I didn't think had anything to do with the metallic scent of my blood in the air—or the faintly sweet scent of Io's.

"Speaking of," Aben said, from where he still leaned against the wall with his arms crossed over his wide chest. He nodded to my wrist.

"You healed yourself, Sera," Io said as I looked down to find the bleeding had stopped. His crooked smile of delight was charming. It made my heart trip over itself in my chest.