Page 176 of The Stolen Throne
I never was one to listen to cautions, and I have no idea what our futures hold. Waiting out of prudence—such a boring word—would be a waste when the time we have could be cut short so easily.
My heart is pounding so hard, I could dance to the rhythm at this point. Like the revelers in the streets below.
I reach up, brushing his hair back from his forehead. “What I want is for us to do this together. I know we’re not certain, but not trying is worse than not knowing at all. So…really together. Like soulbound mates—”
At those words, he goes rigid against me.
Oh no. Did I scare him off? Was that too much? Did I get it wrong?
He stares at me so hard I squirm. I go to pull away, heat climbing into my cheeks, but he tightens his hold on me. “You’re mine, Mereneith Evangeline. Written in the stars to be mine.”
Turns out relief and sheer happiness can feel the same. Like a whoosh through the chest, warming the heart and…everything else. I wasn’t wrong. I didn’t go too far.
He feels the same.
I want to shout it to the world.
We’re in this together. Entirely together. No one, not Omma or Tabra, not even Cain, has given me that gift.
I burrow closer into him, body to body, heart to heart. “Goes both ways. You’re mine, too.”
Reven smooths a lock of my hair back from my face. “Then I have something important to ask you.”
“What?” I’d give him the world if I could.
His hand trembles against me, and I lift my head to stare at him. Is he… Heavens help me, he’s nervous. Nervous and…somber? It darkens his eyes and reaches through my scars to wrap around my heart.
“This life…” He shakes his head. “We could both be not long for it.”
I search his gaze.
Reven closes his eyes. “Goddess, can I even ask for this?”
“Ask,” I whisper. More of that desperate kind of hope unfurls in me.
His eyes open, and he pins me with that intense look he does sometimes when he’s super serious…or unsure of me. “It’s not something fair to you. That’s why I—”
“What?” I offer a teasing smile. “Are you finally considering the heartmate thing?”
He doesn’t smile. “I’m asking for something much bigger than that.”
75
Are We
Doing This?
Bondmate.
The word hardly dares to whisper through me. There’s only one thing bigger than heartmates, and that’s… “Are you asking what I think you are?”
“I want you to bind—”
“Yes.” The word bursts from me, cutting him off.
Darkness swirls around us, inside me, but Reven holds so still, doubts crowd in to snarl through me. “You will?” he rumbles. Shock is rigid in his voice. “You’ll be my bondmate?”
Then he smiles. The real one he rarely offers. I’ve missed that smile. The beauty of it, the way it reaches every part of his usually serious face, sends an answering glow through me. Like sunlight in the desert, chasing away every hint of night from the lands.
