Page 13

Evelina

This far into the tunnel, nearly at its end, Evelina was faced with a dead end, nothing more than an abrupt stop in the path. Meaning there was no way out if someone was coming from the other side.

She braced herself for the inevitable moment she got caught red-handed.

But then a deep, familiar voice floated through the tunnel and echoed off the walls. It was Keir. “They couldn’t have gone far; the tunnel can only be so deep.”

Evelina relaxed. But who was he talking to?

“We should get a few hours of sleep before we leave in the morning,” Keir whispered angrily. “And why would we care who’s in the temple this time of night, Daimon?”

Evelina froze at his name, still undetected from where she crouched.

“Don’t you want to know why the door was left open?” Daimon whispered. “Whoever opened it didn’t use the front entrance for a reason—they didn’t want others to know.” His voice was tense.

“And maybe they don’t want others to know for a reason ,” Keir muttered. Their voices were getting closer. “If a Manor is here, then there’s a reason .”

Evelina curled into herself, hoping they wouldn’t investigate any further.

“We need to be rested for the flight. Let’s just—” Keir’s voice cut off.

Evelina stared down at two pairs of boots. She looked up reluctantly, and two very large fae stared down at her.

Keir let out a long, frustrated breath and said, “Should’ve known it was you.”

“What are you two doing here?” Evelina whispered. Her stomach bottomed out as she looked at Keir and only Keir. She hoped they couldn’t hear her heart as it pounded in her chest.

“We could ask you the same thing,” Keir huffed.

Evelina narrowed her eyes, not wanting to give up Annora and Aldric. But then the unmistakable voice of the Sacred filtered from the other side of the wall.

“A final bonding beneath the equinox moon,” the Sacred began.

Daimon and Keir shuffled closer to the wall.

“Who is it?” Daimon asked softly, and turned his head until his gaze found hers.

Her breath caught as she realized how close they were standing. Everything she had wanted to say to him for twenty years sat on the tip of her tongue. To ask why he never came back, to yell at him or tell him how much he had hurt her.

Instead, she dropped her gaze and said, “Annora and Aldric.”

Daimon and Keir exchanged a glance, a silent conversation passing between them. Keir made a face, seemingly conveying something, and Daimon shook his head, his eyes flashing with anger.

Keir had bonded with his wyvern early in the war and joined the Alpha Fleet not long after. She didn’t know how he managed to be the Aegis council head and on the fleet, but he did come back to the palace often. Daimon did not .

“Are you really all having fun without me?” a light voice said.

Evelina held back a grimace as one of her sisters popped up in the tunnel. She didn’t even hear her approach, though that wasn’t much of a surprise. Lyria had always had the stealth to sneak about more than the others—especially if she was trying to remain hidden.

“Lyria, go home,” Evelina whispered. While Lyria was years older than Evelina, she always acted younger than her.

“Make me, Evie,” Lyria said, sticking her tongue out. “Don’t be such a downer.”

Evelina sighed and turned away. Lyria always had a grin on her face and her wide, brown eyes were soft and inviting. Evelina would never understand her desire to be the center of attention, but she still had more in common with Lyria than any of her other siblings. Their eldest sister, Carwyn, was the strong and confident leader—but she was next in line for the throne, so it came with the territory—and Ren was the glue that held them all together.

“You can’t tell Carwyn we came here.” Evelina spoke quietly, but her words were firm as she turned to eye Lyria.

Lyria gasped. “I wouldn’t do that. Now, who is it?”

Daimon rolled his eyes and Keir held back a smile. Everyone knew that Lyria couldn’t keep a secret. If the saying was Loose lips sink ships , then she could sink a whole fleet. But even when they all bickered and got on each other’s nerves, they were there for each other. Always.

“Annora and Aldric,” Evelina repeated. She was beginning to grow restless.

Lyria’s eyes grew wide and a grin split across her face. She opened her mouth as excitement danced in her eyes. Evelina lunged forward and slapped her hand over Lyria’s mouth before she had the chance to speak.

“I said to keep your voice down,” Evelina hissed, knowing her sister was about to speak far too loudly. She never had been able to control her eagerness. “This is likely their only chance. ”

Lyria muttered something unintelligible beneath Evelina’s hand. Evelina slowly removed her hand and gave her a pointed look.

“I was just going to say it’s about time they figured it out,” Lyria mumbled. “I am capable of keeping quiet, you know.”

A small tremble rolled beneath the temple and caused loose stone to crumble and dust to rain down.

“Eurydice is here,” Daimon whispered.

The group crowded against the small opening, eager to try and see Eurydice. It wasn’t often they were able to see the Goddess of the Moon. Evelina was squished into the middle, with Daimon on one side, her sister on the other, and a reluctant Keir in the back.

Every brush of Daimon’s shoulder against hers set her skin aflame. She hated it. She hated that she loved it.

Lyria gasped and said, “Maliena and Neve don’t know Annora is doing this, do they?”

“You have to keep this to yourself, Lyria, please,” Evelina whispered quickly. “Just until they decide to tell everyone. It’s too late to be stopped now.”

Lyria shuddered and shuffled closer to Keir. He stiffened and kept his eyes fixed ahead.

“And what if they’re choosing wrong?” Lyria pressed. “What of the empire if it’s a mistake?”

Evelina’s anger rose to the surface, but she fought to keep it at bay. She trusted Annora had made the right decision—besides, it was still her mistake to make.

“What of the empire? We don’t know how long the empire can fight the rebellion—or what will even be left of the empire once it’s done,” Evelina said bitterly. “At least one of us deserves some semblance of happiness.”

Evelina turned back to Annora and Aldric, ignoring her sister’s frustrated sigh and the weight of Daimon’s stare. Instead, she watched as the Sacred handed a small blade to Aldric.

“You deserve happiness too, Evie,” Lyria said softly .

The words hit Evelina deep in the chest, piercing a tender place in her heart. Her eyes darted to Daimon, but he was pressed as far away as the small space would allow, his eyes firmly fixed ahead as if he hadn’t heard their conversation.

It was an odd thing to have someone she once called her closest friend now feel so foreign to her.

She cleared her throat, setting her attention on the ceremony.

“ Are you so certain that her soul mirrors your own? ” The Sacred spoke to the couple in a voice that did not belong to her. It sounded like a hundred fae speaking at once. It sent a chill sliding down Evelina’s spine knowing that meant the goddess was here. She wondered if Eurydice knew she was watching.

“I’m certain, Goddess,” Aldric said confidently, his voice strong and unwavering.

Eurydice turned to Annora and said, “ And you are so certain that your souls are merely the same, just cleaved in two the moment they were conceived? ”

“I’m certain, Goddess.” Annora beamed, reciting the vow back.

“ If you do not share a soul, the ritual will expose your false hope. ” The Sacred’s head tilted to the side, puppeteered by Eurydice. “ And you understand that you can only make this declaration once—even if you are wrong—forever to be separated from your true mate by falsely choosing another? You are so confident in this decision? ”

Annora and Aldric turned to each other, their gazes wide and their hands clasped tight. Aldric nodded his head and Annora smiled.

“We’re certain, Goddess,” the two vowed in unison.

“ Then only the blood willingly given beneath the moon will tell, ” Eurydice said and raised both of her arms. “ Both of you are to cut down the length of your palm and let the blood fall to the ground. The scar of the bonded will remain. ”

Aldric made the cut first, not even flinching as the blade sliced his skin open—a ferrum blade to stop the fae healing process from immediately closing the wound, just like the one Evelina had used to cut her palm to open the tunnels. He handed the blade to Annora and she took a deep breath. She made the same cut across her palm until the blood welled to the surface of her skin. Both of them extended their arms and squeezed their hands into fists.

“ The blood will make known if you are truly mates, ” Eurydice said as the blood trickled onto the stone. “ If the blood seeks the other’s out and becomes one on the sacred grounds, then you will know. But if it does not, and instead flows parallel to each other, then you have chosen poorly. ”

Annora and Aldric looked so unequivocally in love, so deeply intertwined with each other. Even with the hint of accusation in Eurydice’s words, their gazes didn’t falter from each other.

Evelina held her breath as the blood on the ground began to move. Her hand started to shake—something it tended to do when she couldn’t hide her nerves. But it was dark enough in the tunnel that no one would see.

The separate streams of blood got closer to each other but started to slow down, not quite touching. Evelina felt her tremors increase, fear that her friend could be jeopardizing her true mate overwhelming her. She loved Aldric and how kind he was to Annora, but what if they were wrong?

From the corner of her eye, she could see Daimon lean toward her, his gaze still set on the ceremony. Her body froze when she could feel the heat of his body warm her shoulder. Her heart began to beat wildly as she remembered the ways he used to be there for her. She hadn’t been this close to him in so long, hadn’t remembered the smell of frost and cedar that wrapped around him.

But things were different now. She knew better than to let her mind race with the possibilities of why he was doing what he was doing. He probably wasn’t leaning toward her, her eyes seeing something that wasn’t there. She could pretend in her mind, but not in reality.

They all watched in anticipation as the blood of Annora and Aldric melded into one singular puddle. Eurydice clapped once, and Annora threw her arms around Aldric.

“ And so it seems the blood of one flows through the blood of the other, ” Eurydice declared. “ This bond is unbreakable, unable to be unwoven or erased. The pull that you feel for each other will only intensify as the bond permanently settles. Your pain will be their pain, your thoughts will be able to be heard within their thoughts, and your joy will overflow with theirs. ”

Annora and Aldric held each other so close that their noses touched and smiles stretched onto their faces. Eurydice nodded her head at Annora. “ Do you accept this bond, Annora, daughter of Maliena and Neve, Nocturna with an affinity for dreams, protector of the vulnerable as they sleep? ”

“I accept,” Annora said breathlessly, her eyes not moving from Aldric’s.

“ And Aldric, son of Odessa and Nolan, Nocturna with an affinity for dreams, protector of the vulnerable alongside your mate, do you accept this bond? ”

Aldric held fast to Annora, his eyes alight with hope as he said, “I accept this bond.”

“ Then I, Eurydice, Goddess of the Moon, bless this bond, ” she said firmly, and another tremble shook the ground of the temple. “ For these two souls now become one, no longer a mate calling to another but a soulbond forever bound. ”

Annora and Aldric gasped simultaneously, and their eyes widened as an unforeseeable force hit them at the same time. Aldric held a palm up, examining it closely. He held it out to Annora. A stark white scar was burned into his palm. Annora held her palm up, now etched with the same scar.

“ The mark of the soulbond will stay with you until your dying breath. ”

Evelina smiled. Their love was true. Someone in her life had managed to find a glimpse of happiness within the endless war. She began to lean away from the opening, finally feeling as if she could sleep for the night. Daimon and Lyria had already pulled away, Keir several steps away as he began to exit the tunnel.

But then something shifted in the air around her and she paused.

She watched as the body of the Sacred turned her head toward Evelina, and then the eyes of the moon goddess herself were set upon her. The glowing white eyes and hollow blue ring on her head blazed through the room, and she found that even if she wanted to move, she couldn’t.

Annora and Aldric were too wrapped up in each other to notice, but Evelina was frozen.

In Eurydice’s eyes, there seemed to be a warning. Evelina waited for her to speak, but then the goddess’s eyes dulled, as if it had never happened.