Page 16 of Hymn of Breath and Bone

I nodded, wincing as it made my head pound. “They attacked her,” I hissed, dropping my head back into the pillows. “Is she alright?”

“About the same as you,” Caspian replied. “Zephyr took her home. As soon as the healers clear you, I’ll be doing the same.”

Home. I swallowed. Caspian’s rooms weren’t really my home, but seas, I wanted them to be. Wantedhimto be.

I knew I had a thousand other things to worry about. But my realization from the library—that we could really do this—hit me so hard at that moment that no other truth seemed as important as this one.

“I have to tell you something,” I rasped, feeling my throat dry out as I tried to force myself to tell him the truth we had been dancing around. “About when I called for you in the library.”

Caspian nodded, his gaze piercing. “We don’t have to have this conversation right now, Urchin.” He lifted one hand to brush my hair back, a thumb stroking my cheek. “You just woke up.”

I blinked. “You know.” His face revealed nothing, and I decided that we would definitely be having this conversation right now. “You know that we’re mates.”

“Since Morar,” Caspian confessed, his hand holding mine tightly as if he was worried I might flee with this confession.

Of course he had known. He had known longer than I had. How could he not have known, with both of us blasting our feelings at each other for over a week?

A small part of me was hurt that Caspian had known before me and hadn’t told me. I’d been trying to tell him the truth for days, but he had chosen to conceal it from me.

But somehow I didn’t feel the pinch of betrayal. It seemed obvious that he’d known. That he hadn’t run from the realization. That he’d given me the space to figure it out and decide what I wanted to do about it.

It made me love him that much more. Have faith in this—in us—that much more.

Caspian’s eyes were steady and unashamed as I met them. A challenge. “And you?”

“I wasn’t certain until the day you presented me to your people,” I confessed. “But Ran called you my mate the first time I spoke to him.”

“That fucking horse,” he sighed. “I planned to tell you everything after the library, but….”

“You had good reasons not to,” I teased, squeezing his hand.

Caspian didn’t smile.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked, sensing there was more. “Before the library, I mean.”

“Probably for the same reasons you didn’t tell me, Urchin,” he replied, letting out an exhausted sigh. He must not have slept the last two nights, and I wondered if he had left my side long enough to even try.He turned my hand over in his and traced the lines of my palm. “You’ve been trapped all of your life, Marina, and I couldn’t do it to you again. There are…complications for siren mates.”

“Tell me,” I insisted, closing my fingers around his. “Tell me everything.”

Caspian frowned. I searched the bond between us, and he didn’t feel guilty or ashamed. He felt vindicated, somehow. Like he’d made what he thought was the best decision and was ready to deal with the consequences of it.

“The mating bond locks into place,” he explained, his amber eyes meeting mine again, “when it’s first consummated. It grants both mates greater strength in magic and a connection to each other's minds and bodies. But there is a cost.”

“I already feel that connection. Doesn’t that mean—”

“No.” Caspian blew out a breath. “No, it often starts before. It allows mates to find each other. It will grow when—if—”

He cut himself off, but I understood. It was why he had refused to bed me properly. He didn’t want to force me into the bond.

“You suspected before Morar,” I realized, remembering his hesitancy to become physical days and days before he realized the truth.

“I wasn’t sure,” he hedged. “But yes. I suspected.”

“And the cost?” I asked, trying to organize my thoughts and feelings.

Again, a part of my brain told me I should be hurt by his confession. But I just…wasn’t. He had told me that there were things I hadn’t understood, and I hadn’t pushed him on any of it. Not really.

And I realized I already trusted him enough with my heart to know that he hadn’twantedto deceive me.