Page 100 of Winds of Ruin
Absolutely.
I smirked. “Getting cold feet now? It isn’t too late to find another woman without such a dreary future awaiting her.”
With a firm shake of his head, he held out his hand. “I’d follow you to whatever end comes of me, so long as you’re by my side.”
His words—that level of devotion—may have scared another. They only warmed me. I took his hand and led him into the Egress.
“To Belray Square,” I whispered the command, afraid that if I said it too loudly, someone might try to stop us.
They would fail. With my mind made up, little could deter me.
The Temple of Light towered above us. I squeezed Dritan’s hand, and he squeezed back, pulling me closer to his side. His warmth was a welcome relief from the biting chill as the sunset made the winds colder.
“My aunt Asterie told me about this place—about a Divine she met here,” I explained. “It’s supposedly the original house of Astros.”
“Seems ominous.”
He was not wrong. The limestone spires of the building were imposing.
“Nothing is evernotominous with Aunt Asterie,” I said. “Some days I think she knows more than she lets on—that she’s seen something she does not want to admit to us all.”
“Such a cheery topic for our wedding night.” His tone was flat, but when I glanced over at him, he smirked and squeezed my hand again. “After you,” he said and pushed the heavy wood door open.
Marble floors greeted us, and the temple ceiling domed into a stained glass roof that revealed the fading light of dusk.
Hurley stood in the center of the temple beside a large sunstone that sat on a round pedestal. He faced away from us but looked stiff and uncomfortable. He’d always hated the formality of the old religions.
We’d had many conversations about whether the Sources deserved people’s adoration and prayers. He’d witnessed the cruelty of Caym that day when Death had risen and dragged the Origins’ descendants into the Sahlmsara amphitheater, him included.
Thousands of stones lay where the amphitheater had sat, commemorating the lives lost in Sahlmkar—people who had placed their faith in a cruel Origin.
Hurley had once asked me,“If the Origins care so deeply about our success, then why not intervene? Why let us suffer loss after loss at the hands of such evil?”
I understood his hesitation. I needed to hold on to the belief that Desidero, the Origin of Shadows, and Isolde, the First Reverist, had a plan for us.
For me.
With the relics, I could end Caym’s reign—if only I knewhow.
Hurley turned on his heel. He wore a rumpled tunic and dark breeches, and his brown waves lay disheveled over his forehead. His gaze narrowed on my and Dritan’s linked hands. He’d only met my betrothed in passing at Aunt El’s estate, and I could feel him connecting the missing pieces.
A Divine awaited us at the center of the room. “Welcome to the Temple of Light. Your witness arrived early. I did not expect a child of Aquas in my home, but it lifts my hopes to see you here together.”
He held his arm out toward the stools beside the sunstone for me and Dritan to kneel on.
The Divine’s skin was dark in contrast to the gray hairs framing his temples. He wore a long cream robe with the Sun symbol embroidered on both sleeves.
“Lark,” Hurley gasped with his brow furrowed. His brown eyes searched our expressions. “What’s going on? Witness for what?”
Dritan stiffened at my side—impulsively, he tried to unwind our fingers, but I gripped them tighter.
The Divine lowered his arms with a frown. “Are there matters you must attend to, Princess?”
“None more important than this, my Divine. Just give us a moment.” I pulled Hurley back toward the door, dragging Dritan along with us.
Offering my cousin the warmest smile I could muster with anxiety burning through my gut, I whispered, “I wanted you here to witness our wedding vows.”
Hurley’s face dropped, and he ran his fingers over the stubble on his cheeks. “Yourwhat?” he whisper-shouted far too loudly. “First you need contraceptive tonics, and now you’re getting married?”
