Page 25 of Impaled by His Omega Prince (Reluctant Fae Princes #2)
Lumic
To everyone’s dismay, it took almost two weeks to set the wedding. Every day that passed had Lumic biting his nails and nervous, especially as his breeches needed the lacings loosened slightly. The tailor assured him that the necessary precautions had been taken for his garb.
“It will be fine, Lumic. Let them talk. They certainly did when Stamel was born so soon after our…” Kershai petered off as Pallosar shot him a glare.
“Oh? Oh, really?” Lumic turned to glare at Pallosar, who found something very interesting to stare at on the throne room antechamber’s rug.
“We’ve finished the fountain far faster than we could have hoped. The goddesses are thrilled and will bless them the moment our little one is born. Nothing else matters as long as we have one another.” Askara drew Lumic in for a small kiss and a smile. “We need only stand before them, perform our binding rites, and scamper off until time to eat.”
“If I can eat. Everything has smelled and tasted so foul,” Lumic said, sagging against Askara with a small whine. “Let’s just go back to bed and have my fathers tell everyone to enjoy the ceremonial wines and go home.”
“It doesn’t work that way. As much as you wish it did, I would love to show the world my son united with his love.” Kershai squeezed Askara’s shoulders as Pallosar cleared his throat and scampered out, refusing to address the earlier statement. “Don’t you love showing off your shiny new things?”
Lumic pouted and glanced Askara over. “Yes.”
“Okay, then. When the thalm organ plays, you two step out holding hands and just do as we practiced.” Kershai stared Lumic down with those wide blue eyes full of absolute pride and joy. “And if we can get you two wed, we might find Ingred someone.”
The alpha had been skirting his duties and shirking half his work onto the back of Oryn and his page. The thought soured Lumic’s mood for only a fleeting second. What Oryn had done was unforgiveable.
“I see that look in your eyes. Forget Oryn.” Askara drew his chin up and leaned down for a feathery-soft kiss that left his heart aflutter. Only Askara had ever made him feel that way. Other partners had gotten him hard and slick, but Askara made him melt .
“Banishment wasn’t enough,” Lumic said, inhaling Askara’s wonderful scent as they embraced. It would be their last moment before their souls entwined permanently.
“I’ve never liked that bastard. I told your father so when he dismissed him as his personal guard. I merely thought him horny, and I didn’t think he’d scheme.” Kershai sighed.
Stamel, for his part, had ordered Oryn to incapacitate Lumic in whatever way he saw fit. The plan had been for them to couple and find Lumic in the family way, but the thought of fucking Oryn made Lumic more ill than the scent of rusk cabbages stewed with grassboar kidneys.
It made sense why the old alpha continuously cockblocked Lumic. Though, given the opportunity to sabotage his preventatives…he’d done so gladly to get Lumic right where he wanted him. Lumic was no alpha’s retirement plan.
When he snapped out of the thought, Askara nudged him toward the door to the throne room where a small congregation of nobility, politicians, and merchants had assembled to witness. And what made the whole scene worse was that they did not feign interest or have the general rabble of boredom. They genuinely perked up when Lumic stepped in.
The low lamplight threw glints of light into his vision reflected from the lightweight of chains spread across his frostdeer horns. And for Askara’s part, the chains Alluin had gifted him, held the charms of Liaberian nobility and a sigil of the sun. Nemiah had called attention to the fact that Askara was not only of the sun but the moon as well and added a charm from a necklace he had. The royal jeweler had been delighted to fit the bands onto Askara’s horns as he’d done for Lumic as well, the fixtures to become permanent for them, waiting only for them to hook the chains onto them at first shift.
Lumic bore a blacksteel gold single strand that swayed between his horns, a few talismans clinking with each step.
Askara took his arm and stepped out, his draconic adornments so much more obvious in his wedding garb. The dark-plum velvet and gold embroidery so complementary to his natural pallor. And while he was a svelte alpha, he still bore broad shoulders and a defined face that earned Lumic’s unending admiration. He could lose himself forever in the artwork of him. The goddesses truly blessed him.
Lumic paid the crowd no mind as they faced one another before the lectern and dais where they joined hands over the flickering flame of a black candle, one meant for the presence of the moon.
Every curtain in the room flew open, moonlight filtering in as Pallosar raised his hands to quiet the room. Rather than speak, he lit the black candle and watched with fascination as the flame went dark and flickered.
“I, King Croatens, do name Lumic, third prince, as successor to my throne, as his older brothers have shown themselves to be outside of the goddess’s favor. The moon has declared us her children, chosen to be our mother, and blessed our lands where before only curses had thrived. So, I humbly beseech thee, Mother Goddess, moon above, address your children as we open ourselves to your divinity.” Pallosar bent his head forward and let his horns free, silver bands striated their length as they rose high, two long, kinked tines that twisted and curled inward, horns that held semblance only to a certain kind of grass beast in the desert lands, shaped the way they were to catch silkspiders’ attention, where they could nest and feast upon the pests that flocked the creature.
Pallosar sank onto one knee and allowed his page to attach the ceremonial chains, ones that would one day be fitted for Lumic.
Over the flame, Lumic stared at Askara, the dark flame sending flickering shadows over Askara’s beatific face. The alpha’s eyes lit with the silver of stars and moon; his smile as wide as he could contain. It was all Lumic could do not to sob at how much he loved the alpha.
My children, behold before you Askara, son of Lyrica, Queen of Liaberos. He will bring unto you blessings of bounty. He holds a key to vitalis, as does Prince Consort Virion of Drashil. But what is more, he will bring unto you salusis, the night sister to vitalis. I will heal the ill in the name of Croatens for all that would partake of my blessings.
Collective gasps spread about. The goddess spoke to Croatens for the first time in generations, and she promised to bring blessings. Lumic’s heart swelled as Askara glanced toward a window to catch the glint of the moon before carrying his gaze back. Tears glinted in his eyes, and Lumic knew he would lose his composure soon.
In Drashil, they pricked one another’s tongues and kissed to exchange blood, but new traditions needed to be set for Croatens. A goblet of weak wine trembled on the dais, the light of the candle making the liquid appear inky black.
Pallosar waited for the moon to speak, to instruct him.
Hold the goblet beneath Lumic’s chin, she commanded, and Pallosar lifted the delicate crystal where in but a blink, a single tear made the journey down his cheek to drip into the wine, sending a silvery sheen across the surface.
Likewise, she ordered Pallosar to take a tear from Askara, and in a brilliant flash, the single tear blessed the entire cup. Where before it had been an inky black, at that moment, it flared a brilliant silvery gold.
Where Askara is vitalis, Lumic bears the weight of his ancestors, and together, they will heal the sick to come. Drink.
Lumic took the first few sips and Askara took the goblet, drinking deeply with throat-bobbing swallows to finish it off. It tasted sweet like vitalis always did, saccharine, but with a hint of floral notes that vitalis never held. Honey versus nectar.
The low-lying nausea that Lumic had nursed since he’d returned from the castle seemed to fade away in but a few breaths as the first salusis healed him.
For Askara’s part, he winced and squared his shoulders, his breath faltering.
From the slightly parted neck of his shirt, Lumic could see the slaver’s runes etched onto his flesh aglow as they sank into his skin, never to hold Askara back again.
Be united, alpha and omega, as we sisters intended. As sun and moon meet, we complete the day, and as alpha and omega meet, they complete the heart. But your greatest gift is yet to come. I present you two as future kings of Croatens, the land of my forgiveness. Where no omega will suffer.
Blessed be Askara, son of moon and song. And blessed be Lumic, son of love and forgiveness.
And to Alluin, who hath sired my chosen son, I impart this final gift.
Lumic couldn’t contain the grin that stretched his face as he turned and extended both hands to the crowd. Alluin stared in horror, mouth agape like some sort of holly trout as Lumic extended his index and middle finger of both hands and curled them into the fickle fingers.
The flame’s flickering shape guttered and went out with a curl of smoke that drifted into nothing as the crowd erupted into boisterous laughter at Alluin’s expense.
“I honor this union.” Pallosar grinned and Alluin grudgingly nodded as if he did so, too. The creeping scarlet over his cheeks did not abate, rather grew fiercer as Nemiah and Virion daintily clapped.