A Baron of Bonds (Conduit of Light #2)

23. Rev

Chapter 23

Rev

I grinned like a fool.

A fool in love, a fool ready to bask in the rays of someone else’s light. Not just anyone’s, but hers.

I chuckled to myself, standing in the washing room connected to my bedroom. I scrubbed at her emerald ring with a paste one of the channeler guards had given to me when I’d asked it of him.

The guards used it to shine their armor and the servants used it to shine the silverware. I used it to clean whatever was caught in Karus’s conduit ring. I had noticed that a cake of black something was embedded in every crevice and I would not place it on her finger tonight unless it was free of whatever she had just gone through.

Where had she been? Why did she leave? What could have forced her to leave Felgren and yet let her set the rhyzolm in the grass so that I could find her?

I shook my head and kept scrubbing with the soft-bristled brush I had borrowed as well. She’d tell me when she was ready. I was impatient to know, but more so, I was thankful that she was here, in the room next to mine.

She was about to be mine.

And I hers.

Companion bonds were strong, and sure, they could be broken, but it did not happen often. I knew ours would not. After what we had already been through, I knew there was nothing, nothing , that could break what we shared.

When we were bonded as companions, our connection would be endless. The magic of the bond would pull on us at all times. Even without the rhyzolm, we would share some sense of the feelings and place of the other.

Our liberum marks on our wrists would dissolve, and we would be free to create children.

I wanted that. I wanted to share that with her, but not yet. Styris tea would prevent it if only for a short while at a time.

I thought of how we had ravaged each other in the throne room and snickered at myself. There I was, a thirty-year-old Baron of Felgren, and I wanted her more than I ever had in my early twenties. If anything, I had only grown in my desire to kiss her, taste her, feel her writhe underneath me.

I put my tools aside and dropped the ring into the water basin to soak. I looked into the mirror and let out a long breath. Thinking of her made my eyes swirl with blue. They swirled with the color of the ocean as she had told me time and again—a place I had never even seen. They only hinted at blue when I was near her. Or when I was thinking of her.

I shook my head. What a Baron I had turned out to be.

The power of the Baron of Felgren seeped through my eyes most of the time, causing my irises to turn fully black. But somehow, my original deep blue often resisted around her. I remembered Heimlen’s gray doing the same thing on occasion, and I wondered if this warring had happened to every Baron before me.

Heimlen would have seen it as a weakness.

I saw it as a strength.

If my love for Karus was strong enough to challenge the most powerful magic on Arcaynen, I was heartily ready to accept that.

I wondered how her eyes would look black if she accepted the Baronship with me. It would be the biggest downfall, but maybe I’d get to see the green of them again when she was loving me.

I lifted the ring out of the water to inspect its shine. I used a soft cloth to dry it and slipped it into my pocket. I gathered the ribbons and flowers I had managed to use my connections here to find and stepped up to the door of my room, absolutely ready to begin this night. I’d come back for the food and tea later.

I opened the door just as Karus’s fist raised to knock.

She lit in mirthful laughter, tilting her head back, exposing more of her beautiful neck and chest. She held a tray in one hand and wore something a bit more fitting than the rosy pink dress she’d found me in. This one laced up the front, pulling her breasts taught and lovely, the deep copper accenting her eyes and making her smooth skin glow in the dim light of the hall.

I stepped forward to slide my hand around the back of her neck. “You are…” I shook my head, unable to contrive a word that could even come close to describing her beauty.

“Yours?” she whispered, lifting her lips to mine, wrapping her hand around my arm that still held onto her.

I breathed in her scent, lavender and rosewater, as she pushed me back into the room.

“Are we doing this in here?” I asked, setting the flowers and gold ribbons on the small table. I took the tray from her hand and set it next to my own.

“If you don’t mind.” She shrugged timidly, and I realized she must have memories in her old room she’d rather not recall tonight.

I shrugged as well, inspecting what she had brought. “I don’t mind at all. I’d bond to you in a lumen den if need be. Speaking of…are Rauca and Parvus safe?”

She nodded and paused. “They’ve been through a lot.”

I watched her choke slightly on her last words, but I would not pry. I picked up the small bag of styris tea I had brought and compared it to hers, smirking and raising a brow her way.

She picked up the mums and lifted them to her nose, chuckling. “I see we’ve both been busy preparing.”

“Indeed. How did you find the tea?”

“I used to live here. I know where it’s kept. The question is, how did you find some?”

My lips twitched. “I’ve been busy and resourceful while you’ve been away. Thankfully, that hard work is paying off.” I inspected the hard cheese and fruit she had brought as well. “Would you like to eat first?”

“Absolutely not.”

She slipped her long fingers through the gold satin ribbons, four in total, and brought them to her chest, looking at me with precious vulnerability. We held each other’s gaze in silence, and I remembered those times she would come to my study after she had found the rhyzolm in the forest. We would say so much in those moments without speaking a word.

Back then, she had looked at me with curiosity and confusion, though always with a hint of desire. Desire to know me or desire that seeped from somewhere deep within, I never knew. My gaze had always been one of longing, frustration, and hope.

“I love you,” she said, keeping her eyes on mine and stepping forward, ribbons in hand.

I nodded. “I love you, too.”

I knew what she meant. I knew the simple words were not enough to express what we felt, but our hearts spoke the truth louder in their steady silence deep within our chests.

She smoothed the ribbons out on the table and raised her right hand to me. I took the emerald ring from my pocket and slipped it onto her forefinger. She laughed lightly, grinning up at me without inhibition as I clasped my fingers around hers.

She inhaled long and loud as she picked up the first ribbon, exhaling softly through her full, ruby lips. “Ready?”

“Yes,” I murmured. I wanted to shout through the streets that I was ready to bond to this woman. I wanted a public declaration to all of Arcaynen that I loved her and would want her all the days of my life. But I could see what this meant to her. Just her and I together, alone, where we loved each other best. The time would come soon enough for me to be able to shout to the rooftops of my soul singing her song, but here, in this borrowed room, she needed me…just me.

Finding the center of the ribbon and placing it over our joined hands, she carefully wrapped one end around her own wrist and then to mine, beginning the words to the bonding we had both been practicing.

“In this binding, I share with you my hopes and desires.”

I took the other end of the ribbon and repeated her movements, first wrapping the long end around my wrist and then hers. “In this binding, I share with you my hopes and desires.”

She bit her bottom lip in pure joy, and I shook my head. She knew I struggled to resist that.

I picked up the next ribbon, placing it over the other, managing to tuck one end under what was already wrapped around our hands. I understood why this was so much easier with a conduit to conduct the ceremony, but I managed to tie the ribbons together in a loose knot with my left hand.

I repeated the wrapping again, reciting, “In this binding, I reveal to you my strengths and weaknesses.”

She took her end, wrapping it around us once more, and repeated, “In this binding, I reveal to you my strengths and…” she paused, swallowing hard. I lifted my free hand to her face as she looked to me and finished, “…weaknesses.”

I wanted to kiss her, but couldn’t yet, as my thumb caught the single tear that slipped down her cheek. If we were to get this ceremony right with just us two, we’d have to stick to tradition as much as possible for the binding to set.

She opened her red lips slightly and took a deep breath before picking up the third gold ribbon. She managed to tie it around the others and proceeded to wrapping while vowing, “In this binding, I offer you my past, my present, and my future.”

I repeated her movements, vowing the same. “In this binding, I offer you my past, my present, and my future.”

I trembled slightly, picking up the last ribbon. This was the final test. We’d know if the bonding worked with this last piece of gold. In traditional companion ceremonies, the last ribbon would be imbued with the conduit’s magic, glowing as it was tied and wrapped over the other three.

I held the ribbon toward her and she took one end, closing her eyes and breathing deep. I watched as her brilliant green power raced down the length of the ribbon, meeting my own deep blue in the middle.

“Karus. Look,” I whispered. She opened her eyes to watch as our power met and began to entwine, each tendril running down the length of the gold satin in a twirl of binding.

I slipped the ribbon under the other three and finished the ceremony. “In this binding, I promise my love to you, Karus, and all of the endurance I have to share it for all of the days of my life.”

The ribbon flashed a brilliant blue, and Karus repeated my wrappings and words, “In this binding, I promise my love to you, Rev, and all of the endurance I have to share it for all the days of my life.”

It flashed a brilliant green before each coil of power melded into one swirling piece of teal, the shade warm and soft, emitting a dim glow in the low light of the room.

Karus looked up at me with a beaming smile, upturning her left wrist before laughing and revealing it to me.

Her liberum mark was gone, and I lifted my own wrist to see that mine had left as well.

“We did it,” she laughed with fervor. “We really did it.”

I laughed with her, our hands still bound as I leaned down just an inch or two to kiss her lips.

It was a difficult task, our grins so wide our teeth clashed. Instead, I bent my forehead to hers, basking in the elation of the moment of our binding.

Companions. We were companions and bound to each other for the rest of our lives.

It would take time to sink in, I knew, but in those moments of joy, and laughter, and love, I fought with all I had to remember my heart standing before me. Her eyes were a gentle glow of green, her cheeks pink and burning from her smiles and laughter at our success.

I turned to the tray, placing the tea infuser over the brown mug as I poured the styris tea that had been brewing into hers. I repeated with my own and handed her the steaming brew.

She sniffed its contents. Neither one of us had ever tasted the tea since we had never needed it in the past.

She lifted her mug to mine, tapping its surface. “Here’s to us, Rev.”

I smirked. “To us.”

We sipped the warm contents at the same time, both breaking out into laughter at the bitter taste.

“Couldn’t they make it a little sweeter or something?” she asked, taking another sip and grimacing.

“I’d guess if they did, there’d be a lot fewer children on the isle. I think the bitterness is the point.” I took another sip and then decided to down the whole thing in one go. She looked at me in surprise and I smirked again, shrugging. “Feel like joining me on the bed, Karus?” I winked at her and laughed as her face fell from amusement to lust. A small moan escaped with her breath and she mimicked my gulp, downing the rest of the tea.

Placing her mug next to mine, she followed as I lead us to the large four-poster bed, our hands still bound together. They would be until morning as was tradition. The consummation of the companion binding was meant to be tricky with hands entwined for the whole of the evening—the first difficult task the couple would have to navigate together.

I sat on the edge of the bed and pulled her to me. She lifted her skirts with one hand and settled herself over my lap.

“I need you to know something, Karus,” I started, lifting my free hand to her neck, rubbing my thumb across the base of her jaw.

“I’m listening, Baron Revich.” She leaned into my touch, the candlelight in the room reflecting off her eyes.

“From the moment I saw you, felt you, I’ve wanted you. It has never been a choice to love you. Never once did I have to stop and think about whether I did or did not. Your soul has spoken to mine through time and loss, and I have welcomed every second of it.”

Her eyes brimmed with glistening tears, and she placed her free hand over mine still stroking her face.

“I am still healing from that loss, and I wake everyday thankful that you have come back to me. If I have realized anything these last sixteen days, it is that we deserve each other.”

A soft cry left her, and she lowered her head in what I could only recognize as a sense of shame and guilt as tears spilled down her face. I kissed the top of her white streaks of hair, ones that I had helped in making. I gently lifted her chin and shook my head. “This is my soul speaking to yours, Karus of Felgren. My companion, my love, we deserve each other. You and I. I will show you every day of our lives that what we deserve is happiness, and love, and a future of good things. Together. Regardless of what we will face next, we face it together. Promise me that, Karus.”

She swept forward, urgent, needy, pressing her lips against mine, pushing me to lay back on the bed, and I kissed her in return with just as much urgency.

“I promise, Rev,” she breathed against my mouth. “Together. I promise.”

I shifted my right hand to slip my fingers through hers under the ribbons. I never wanted to hear her speak of not deserving this. I never wanted her to think that she was worth less than what we shared together. I would make her see the truth. If not tonight, then every night for the rest of our lives.

I would worship her body, kiss and touch every inch of her skin until she understood what she deserved. And then, when she finally realized her worth, I’d do it all again, because that is what I deserved.