Chapter 49
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
LYVIA
The Starling people’s salvation hovers a breath from damnation.
– Eghan Family Stone.
Lyvia – Borva, Votruvia
My birthday had come and gone, the days following the creation of the múritinne rings passing quickly.
I glanced down at the one sitting perfectly on my middle finger, awe and pride continuing to collide in my chest. My gratitude for my brilliant friends only grew.
It sparkled against the stunning violet crystal sitting on the finger next to it.
Stars draped the midnight sky, the dazzling display lighting up the velvety darkness blanketing me overhead. The mossy ground was soft beneath my bare feet, the ivory silk of my dress slipping over the tops of them as I slowly made my way through the thin, winding path.
Tall, white stones lined the maze, where two twirling paths led to a sacred, private space in the center.
I ran my hand along one as I passed, the pads of my fingers slipping against the rough, ancient rock.
I smiled, a distant curiosity forming, because for the first time in my life, I had no urge to dig.
No desperate need to uncover the history here.
I could feel it.
This place was sacred. There was no need to scribble in a notebook, to pull out my tools and dissect.
Vulcan’s tenor voice vibrated through the maze, somewhere behind me, the notes of his heavenly song floating over the monoliths and pebbling my skin. I had passed him first. And after a few more curves, Isla, then Drystan, and at last, Aeriden.
Each of them had spoken soft words, words from the heart that left tears pricking at the corners of my eyes, before I left them and continued following the spiraling path on my own.
I rounded a tight curve in the maze, following the gentle pull in my heart before reaching the small clearing in the center.
I rounded the corner a moment before Kellan, his dark eyes sparkling in the soft starlight that illuminated the small, empty space.
Enough room for just two. A faint smudge of burgundy tinged his right cheek, a mark undoubtedly left by his mother’s lips on his walk through the other side of the maze.
He would have passed Ezrich and Raek prior to that.
A shadow passed over his sharp features as Tiberius flew overhead, and a wave of warmth floated down from my caeluma before giving us our privacy.
My heart swelled as a soft smile graced Kellan’s lips, and he reached a hand for mine, pulling me to his chest. My hand clasped in his while the other ran down the length of the lapel of his sea blue coat.
He’d worn a clean, cream shirt beneath it and simple leathers.
His head bent over mine as Vulcan’s song floated in from the distance.
The notes of the soulbinding ode drifted to the private clearing, mingling with my connection to the pirate lord.
A pop of power darted along the silver, braided thread.
It zapped between our souls, each hit giving me more life…
more love. Each touch softly awakened more and more of me, as it had the moment I caught sight of it in the Waters of Ascendiel.
As Vulcan’s song stopped, Kellan’s lips parted, and we sang the last line together.
As the notes left our lips, the power zapping along that silver thread shot into us, igniting something powerful and ancient.
Something deeper, something innately universal that our mortal minds couldn’t fully comprehend.
It swelled inside of me, Kellan’s hands wrapping tightly around my waist as the braided thread connecting us solidified into something permanent.
I sighed against Kellan’s chest as he slid his hands to the sides of my face, pulling my forehead against his lips as his soul bound itself to my own.
Isla’s words came next. I’d passed her minutes ago, yet she wasn’t far.
I spoke my promise first, and Kellan repeated his, the oath familiar and safe.
A whisper of wind slipped through the winding maze of monoliths, carrying Isla’s jasmine air before mingling with the leather and cedar of Kellan’s and my own unique scent.
The air between us stilled, before an intimate line of wind sparked into existence once again.
He pressed his forehead to mine as our oath circled us, lifting the hair off our backs and pressing us closer together.
“Are you ready?” he asked against my forehead after planting one more kiss.
I pulled away just enough to see his entire face.
“I’ve never been more certain about anything in my life,” I answered, and I pulled Honor from the thin belt at my waist. My heart beat steadily. My breaths came full and silent, as the surety of this next promise grounded me.
I slipped the sharp tip of Honor over my thumb, the pain distant and insignificant compared to the warmth that swelled inside me.
“From now until forever, these oaths create one tether.”
I give to thee a promise of the three.
To love unending, my soul’s bond unbending.
To defend and respect, our breath’s air to protect.
To follow you through any realm’s doors, I choose to be yours.”
Something powerful tugged in my chest as I spoke the words we had chosen, and my thumb drew a line of blood down the center of Kellan’s lower lip. The life water flowing in my own veins seemed to still as I handed him the dagger.
My heart maintained a steady beat as the Old Votruvian words left Kellan’s lips in the rolling, romantic language. My tongue slipped between my lips as Kellan’s blood wet them, and the third and final bond shifted into place.
The air between us stilled, and Kellan slipped his hands into mine, our fingers twining together, and our rings settling into place. A quiet stillness hung in the air before Kellan pressed his palms harder against mine, and he gently pushed his power into me.
My eyes fell shut as the Transcindiel and Obscura twisted into something tangible, weaving the three oaths into one. The magic wrapped around us as wind stole through the maze of monoliths. Kellan’s power surged inside of me, and I opened my eyes to find his gaze hard and determined on mine.
I was ready.
I nodded, mouthing the word Yes and pouring every bit of love I had into my returning gaze.
He closed his eyes, and the power he sent into me, the power renewed and transformed by the three oaths we had sworn, shot from my being and into his.
His head snapped back, and the three bonds exploded into a shower of light as a single weave settled into place, creating something fresh and unique. A bond entirely of our own making.
We strode down the moonlit path, our hands twined as the early autumn breeze carried the loamy scent of dried leaves and dirt through the forest of willows butting up to Kellan’s land.
Long, thin branches swayed and swished, whispering blessings as we passed.
The thin smile of a single blue moon stretched above the crest of the nearest hill.
Kellan paused, lifting my hand and pressing his lips to the top of it, the sparkling shine of the violet crystal glistening in the faint light.
He’d secretly cut a small chunk of rock from the Arx chamber, its shifting color stilling after we left the floating island.
His thumb ran over the top of it, eyes softening as he shook his head gently.
He opened his mouth, as if to speak, but the words seemed to clog his throat.
“What’s wrong?” I whispered. The bonds between us rippled in response, and though I couldn’t see it, the thread we created brightened.
Kellan’s chest heaved.
“Almost everything,” he finally answered, his voice low, his head shaking softly as we stopped walking. “So much of the world is wrong, yet it is entirely right. This is entirely right.”
His voice broke, and I lifted a hand to the side of his face, brushing my thumb over his cheekbone, his short beard tickling my palm.
“Somewhere, something good is happening in the world,” I repeated his sister’s words, and recalled Isla had said something similar in Lotrennia during the Awakening. “Just because there is darkness, does not mean we don’t deserve the light.”
My eyes drifted to the stamp of my blood smeared down the center of his lips. His thumb brushed against my own, the iron tang of his blood lingering on my tongue. He pressed his forehead against mine, and we stood quietly for several moments.
A calm contentedness wrapped itself around me in a profound sense of home. I smiled as my eyes drifted closed. I knew who I was, and I knew where I belonged. Home was not always a place.
An owl cooed from its roost high above, and a small tendril of wind wrapped itself around a loose curl of hair that hung between us. Joy swelled in my chest, and I fought the tears rising behind my eyes as his wind flipped it over my shoulder.
Kellan placed a kiss upon my forehead before our linked hands fell between us. We continued meandering through the midnight glade, the peace of our promises falling gracefully on our shoulders.
A warm light glowed from the small window in the little cottage at the center of the willow forest, a place Kellan came to be alone.
We climbed the stone steps, and Kellan dropped my hand as he reached for the dusty blue door.
My stomach jumped as Kellan’s arm appeared behind my knees, and my legs buckled as he swept me up into his arms, shouldering open the door and stepping into the small room.
The crackle of a fire popped in the corner, and I took a deep inhale of the cedar wood lining the walls and the leather hide stretched over the cushioned chairs as he slid me back to the ground.
A myriad of weapons lined the far wall of the cozy room, blue light from the late moon glinting off the sharpened blade of a harpoon.
This place was Kellan.