Page 28 of What Whispers in the Dark (Promises of the Marked)

Maybe it was the sorrow or the mere thought of her name, but a flutter like the sweet smell of first rain, the first glimpse of dawn’s pastel colors, or the shards of rays from the morning sun, whispered in the silence.

My sweet protector.

Thalon choked on the air in his throat. He waited long enough to convince himself demons were playing a scheme when that voice like warmth and sunlight and home, like flying through a cloudless sky, breathed, You love him just as you have been. As we always have.

“Eh—Ev,” he sobbed into Garrik’s neck. Sobbed as his hold on him grew tighter. Everlyn… Ev… “I just want to see him smile again. To see him not suffering. Maker, please. If we could just go back. If we could go back—” To when she was alive. To when Garrik was alive.

And Thalon gave himself over to it. That deep-seated anguish that who they were and what they had was gone.

Gave himself over to that weapon that tore him apart every time Garrik’s eyes dulled.

Every time he froze at the sight of flames or heard the crack of a whip.

Every time his stare was kingdoms away, haunted.

Each moment his brother flinched, and for a fleeting, terrified, torturous second, recoiled from a breath of touch.

Thalon let that anguish drown him as deep as the chasm his tears ruptured from.

His body trembled.

Like a wicked taunt, his mind replayed Garrik’s once fun-loving, beautiful smile. That taunt grew darker, sharper than his golden sword, offering the crushing sound of his true laugh, which wracked his entire body in convulsions that more than a few times felled him to his knees.

As if the knife of those memories couldn’t dig deeper, he felt the phantom memory of Garrik’s arms around him like the very last time he could stomach touch. The last moment, days before they were ordered away from the castle on a mission, leaving Garrik behind, alone to be ambushed.

On that mountain with his family around him. The last time he saw Garrik smile. Perhaps the last time he had ever truly laughed.

Everly swung her blade, nearly clipping the two attackers at their chests and stomachs. She was a starsdamned wonder to watch. A warrior of the highest rank and skill. Nothing short of the perfection her House bloodline was born with. Deadly with a blade.

Iron skipped off her wrist guard. Thalon couldn’t contain the growl rumbling from his throat as the female he called sister earned her first strike.

“Calm yourself, grandsire,” Jade called out as Garrik circled Everly. “If you wish to protect her, then get your ass in the ring.”

“Don’t even think about it!” Everly snarled, but it was too late. Thalon had jumped from the training ring wall atop that mountain in Galdheir. Leaving Aiden slumped on the ground against it, carving a piece of wood into a cat with… horns?

He decided to table that question for later, focusing on that stunning female who turned her eyes to him instead of their High Prince’s calculating steps and the threatening gleam from his outstretched sword.

That split second of warning Thalon to stay away cost her. The Guardian was taken from behind.

Everly swung her sword, but Garrik caught her wrist. Her other was clamped in his free hand before he crisscrossed them in front of her chest. Caging her in.

Everly’s growl of frustration bounced off the rocks and cliffs. “I almost had you!”

“No.” Garrik chuckled in her ear, and Thalon fought the urge to rip his head off as he drew closer. “Best put up your shield, Ev. Your greatest battle is yet to come.”

Thalon’s heart pounded like the forges at Tarrent-Garren Keep as he knelt on the ground behind Garrik.

Prepared for the moment they had planned.

He watched as Garrik perfectly executed his final maneuver.

Spinning Everly from his embrace. And as she whirled on her heel, her elbow aimed for his chest, he leapt back in time for her to stop mid-air.

Meeting Thalon’s knelt form on the dirt not ten paces away.

On one knee.

“Unleash … Michael,” she breathed as those violet eyes surveyed him there. Surveyed him trembling like a youngling about to be punished for acting out of its wits. “What are you ? —”

His hand slipped inside the leather pocket of his pants.

“Do you know what time it is, sunshine?” Thalon asked, his hand frozen inside his pocket. Tracing velvet.

Everly looked to the sun setting, closing her eyes to take in the sea-misted breeze. She shook her head.

“It’s precisely the time I ascended Tarrent-Garren to the Sacred Seven not so long ago. The day I vowed to Maker of the Skies my oath of honor and servitude in the middle of those mighty swords. The single most important vow of my life … until this moment.”

Everly’s eyes lined with liquid. Her grip loosened on her sword when Garrik gently slipped it from her grasp and pressed a tender kiss to her temple before stepping away.

It was then she noticed…

Aiden. Jade. Eldacar. They stood there flanking him. All quiet. All waiting.

Thalon continued, “Today I make my second.” He removed his hand from his pocket.

Those enchanting violet eyes of the female he loved flicked to the tiny gold velvet box in his hand.

He opened it. “I have loved you since the very first moment I saw you at the Keep, sunshine. You enchanted me. Invaded my every thought. Stole my breath. I am hopeless to breathe without you. My days are torturous and my nights sleepless without you by my side. You are the one for whom my heart beats. The one my lungs need to breathe. My world means nothing without you in it.”

Everly’s lips trembled as Thalon opened the box.

Inside, a single golden band rested. Melted and reformed from the ten golden Earned he had taken from his braids seven months ago.

“By my Earned, I vow an oath to you. An oath of love for as long as there is a beat in my heart and far after.

To love you the way Maker of the Skies loves us.

Every day. Unconditionally. Fiercely. Hopelessly a fool to your every whim and command.

To forever serve at your feet and protect by my sword and hand.

“Everly … House of the Second Y. Descendant of Raphael. The sacred line of healers. Love of my life. Will you end my misery and be my wife?”

The entire mountain could have crumbled and he wouldn’t have noticed.

“No,” Everly said, and Thalon was certain he died. But she continued despite it, “I will not end your torment, Guardian. Because it has only just begun.” A wicked grin climbed her face—as wicked as the one on Garrik’s as he stepped forward.

By the confused expression on Thalon’s face, Everly held out her hand.

He took it, and she pulled him to his feet. Those warm palms clasped his cheeks as she explained, “You will never be rid of me, Thalon. I will torment you till my final breath … as your wife.”

He blew out a trembling breath as his dumb, impossibly stupidly-in-love voice managed, “That’s … that’s a yes?”

Her giggle was nothing short of a Stars Eternal dream. “Yes, my love. That is a yes.” She turned from his face and regarded Garrik. Then swiped her gaze back to Thalon’s face. “I do not wish to wait. Not another year. Not another day. Not another moment.”

Stars, yes. Without question, yes. Thalon about asked Garrik to preside when his brother was already by their side. The look on Everly’s face told him that maybe his proposal wasn’t the only planning that had occurred as of recently. Did she?—

“She asked me a few weeks ago.” Garrik shrugged.

“I could not imagine why someone would want to be tied to you, but alas.” His grin grew purely sinister, and Thalon suppressed the urge to tackle him.

“I said yes, knowing your idiot ass might coward out. We were all waiting to see who would ask first.”

“I voted for Everly,” Aiden proudly exclaimed as he stepped forward, carrying a white cloak.

Jade flanked him, carrying another. “I had coin on Thalon.” Her grin was purely reptilian.

Eldacar stepped forward next, a small box much like Thalon’s waiting in his hands. The sun gleamed off his round-rimmed glasses as he said, “I didn’t care to vote.” His cheeks reddened a little as he looked at his feet. Those brown eyes lifted as he murmured, “I’m happy you both said yes.”

A tattooed hand rustled the wavy red hair on his head as Thalon gave him a warm smile.

Garrik’s smile was brighter than a sun setting on Airathel’s oceans as he took Everly’s hand and placed it in Thalon’s. “It is my … greatest honor.”

Jade draped the long white cloak around Everly’s shoulders as Aiden toweled another around Thalon’s. Eldacar opened that small golden box where another ring sat. Much the same as Thalon’s, quite the perfect match.

They gazed at one another, wonderstruck, slipping the rings on each other’s fingers.

Thalon burned the feeling to memory, marveling as Garrik went on, “The Stars Eternal as my witness. By the power gifted to me by the Almighty Maker of the Skies. I, Garrik, High Prince of Elysian, tie you as one. Tethered forever in a bond that nothing but our stars’ creator can break, not even I, as Tarrent-Garren laws are written. ”

Their High Prince turned to the female that only death could tear from him.

Thalon’s smile was outworldly as he prepared for that moment he had waited for since the day he met her.

The day she strolled into their eating hall at the Keep.

Her first day in training. When, surrounded by so many younglings, he stopped mid-sentence to stare at the female who stole his breath away.

“Everly…”

Seconds. Just seconds until he heard the change.

“House of the Second Y. I cut your ties and tie a new.”

One more second. Thalon’s heart hammered. His knees weak.

“Thalon. House of the Seventh N…”

Unleash Michael, Garrik. Get on with it. He was certain he would die at that moment if Garrik didn’t hurry up.