Chapter 42
VINCULA
Caius stared at himself in the mirror and straightened his suit jacket. He smoothed a hand over his perfectly styled hair and pictured Rory in a beautiful dress, walking toward him with a smile meant only for him.
It was time.
Sitting on top of his comforter, he leaned against the headboard and grabbed the sleeping potion he picked up from the pharmacy in town. Chugging it all, he wanted to stay asleep for as long as possible. This was a night he didn’t want to rush.
Wildflowers covered the floor of Caius and Rory’s bedroom, and candles scattered around the room to cast an iridescent glow. He didn’t set those up before falling asleep, but the soulscape knew what he needed.
“Isn’t this a fire hazard?” Rory’s teasing voice asked as she stepped through the bathroom door.
He couldn’t respond, too stunned to form coherent thoughts. His mate was gorgeous, and if he never woke from this dream, he would die happy.
Her hair fell in loose waves to her shoulders, her makeup accentuated her grey eyes, and her lips were the color of blood. The long red dress had slits to the top of her thighs, making him bite back a groan. Her look was reminiscent of their first Plenilune ball but in vivid color.
If he wasn’t about to ask her the most important question of their lives, he would rip her dress to shreds right then and there.
She stood before him and ran her hand down the lapels of his jacket. “It’s rude to stare.”
He trailed a finger down the bare skin of her back, teasing the edge of her dress. “And yet, I can’t stop. You look stunning.”
“I’ve never seen you in a full suit before,” she remarked. “Turns out, I love it.”
His voice lowered as he brought his mouth to hers. “Then I shall wear one every day.”
Their lips met, and while he wanted nothing more than to kiss her for hours, he withdrew from her arms. “I don’t want to waste any time,” he said quickly. “I want to do this properly without being rushed.”
She tilted her head slightly. “Do what?”
“This,” he murmured and dropped to his knee. She inhaled sharply with wide eyes as he removed a smokey grey box from his pants pocket and opened it to reveal the Umbra ring.
It was an antique, passed down from the early Umbra Royals, and comprised a large black diamond surrounded by a halo of smaller black diamonds. Caius had thought it was obnoxious until he envisioned it on his mate’s hand.
“I have always been enamored with you,” he murmured. “Even when I wished you would burn in hell for your crimes.”
Her eyes watered as she laughed. “You are terrible at this.”
Smiling, he grabbed her right hand to slide the ring onto her middle finger. “I would have followed you to hell and burned beside you for eternity, Aurora Raven. When I looked into your hate-filled eyes that fateful day in my throne room, my heart was no longer my own. I just didn’t know it yet.”
Her left hand swiped at her cheek as she stared at him lovingly.
“I should have kept my promise and married you that night in my office, but I am a fool, and that night is my biggest regret. I want to be with you always, whether it’s at your feet or by your side.” He released a shaky breath. “Will you marry me?”
Silence.
“What if I don’t want you to?” she had asked him the day she regained her memories. The beating in his chest was so loud it could be heard in the aether.
“You are an arrogant fool,” she said hoarsely. “But you’re my arrogant fool. Yes.”
His head fell forward as happiness and relief thrummed below the surface of his skin, threatening to burst free. Rising to his feet, he grabbed her face gently and kissed her with everything he had.
He prayed to Lora, begging her to grant them a successful union in the soulscape. It was her magic, and he needed this to work.
Please, he begged the golden Seraph again. Please.
“There’s one last thing we have to do, and if this works, you’ll be safer until I can find my way to you,” he said when he broke their kiss.
Her eyes moved between his before flaring slightly. “You think if we marry here, it will make me immortal?”
“Yes.” Releasing her, he walked to his dresser and removed a dagger from the top drawer.
“The awareness will alert Gedeon of your transformation, but he’ll find out about you anyway, and this will at least give you more protection when he does.
Besides,” he added, “it only tells him a new Royal exists. It doesn’t tell him your location or identity. ”
Her breathing picked up, and worry prickled Caius’ spine when her panicked expression worsened. “You can’t just spring immortality on someone with no warning.” Her hand went to her throat. “I need water.”
Rushing to the drink cart, she poured herself a glass and gulped it down. He followed her and took it from her hand, setting it on the cart. “You knew immortality was part of the deal when you agreed to marry me.”
“I thought I’d have time to get used to the idea,” she said, running a trembling hand through her hair. “I’m being dumb. I know that. I’ve always known this would happen.” Closing her eyes, she took deep breaths and shook out her hands. “This is ridiculous.”
He cracked a smile. Even flustered, she was the cutest thing he’d ever seen. Cute. That was never a word he thought he’d use for The Butcher, but as he watched her flap her arms to calm down, he could think of no other word to describe her.
Her demeanor calmed little by little, and when she finally turned to him, she looked embarrassed. “I don’t know why I did that. It just took me by surprise.”
He tugged her closer and bit back a smile. “Immortality is hard for any lesser mystic to fathom, and it’s difficult to watch your loved ones die while you go on living, but I promise, we will meet them in the aether one day.”
“I know,” she replied softly. “The thought of marrying you makes me happier than I’ve ever been, but I’m still a normal person who had a tiny case of cold feet.”
He ran his hands down her bare arms, his eyes never leaving hers. “I’ll buy you warm socks, but first, I’d like to marry you.”
The beautiful smile that spread across her face was all he needed. Stepping back, he picked up the dagger again.
“That’s my dagger,” she said in awe, taking it from him. It only seemed fitting to spit on Nina’s grave by getting married with the very weapon that killed her.
“I’m going to cut our right palms, press them together, and then recite an incantation you’ll need to repeat,” he explained as excitement built in his chest.
“Can I do the cutting?” she asked as she inspected the handle and looked up.
He threw his head back and laughed before kissing her hand. “You can do whatever you want.”
They held their hands palm side up, and Rory pressed the cold blade into each, drawing the smallest amount of blood before laying her palm on top of his.
Caius looked deep into her eyes and repeated the lines he’d memorized since childhood, and when she repeated them back, he felt their bond strengthen.
Next came the awareness. It was a warm tingle in his chest, moving up his neck. His eyes closed as he relished in what it meant, and when he looked at their palms, the Umbra Aeternum sigil, a U surrounded by swirling shadows, was imprinted on their skin.
She lifted her hand, staring at her palm. “If I’d known we were getting matching marks, I wouldn’t have gotten a tattoo.”
He narrowed his eyes. “I’d still have bitten you.”
The laugh she released rang through the air like a melody. “What did it feel like?” she asked.
“I don’t understand your question,” he said, mindlessly rubbing the sigil on his palm.
“The awareness,” she clarified. “Did it hurt?” She sounded worried.
“You didn’t feel it?” She was a Royal now; why would she not?
“No. I didn’t notice anything.”
“It’s a warm sensation that starts here,” he said, pressing the bottom of her sternum.
“It moves up like magic filling your body.” As he spoke, he trailed his fingers up her chest until they skimmed her neck before dropping his arm to his side.
“When it first happened, I didn’t know what it meant because I’d never felt it before.
The transfer of power to Gedeon wasn’t immediate.
It wasn’t until Adila arrived to see Atarah’s dead body that he glowed, and then I felt it.
My siblings and I never mentioned it to one another, but I knew what it was. ”
He thought for a moment. “I assumed we all felt it, but it’s possible Gedeon didn’t since he was the one who transformed into a Royal.”
She couldn’t tell if he was joking or not. “He wasn’t already a Royal?”
Caius shook his head slightly. “You aren’t considered a Royal until you take one of the three Royal positions. As kids, they called us the Royal children or Royal heirs, but we weren’t actually Royals yet.”
She ran her hands up his chest, getting a bit of blood on his shirt. “I don’t want to talk about him anymore.”
Caius didn’t either. All he wanted to talk about, think about, was her. Tonight, he wouldn’t ravish her; he would cherish her.
Reading his mind, she stepped forward and pushed his jacket from his shoulders to kiss his neck. His arms slipped around her waist, lowering the zipper of her dress, and it slid down her body, pooling at her feet.
There were no undergarments in sight, and he licked his thumb to brush over one of her nipples. “You were bare for me?”
Nodding, she reached for him, removing his shirt before unbuttoning his pants. “Take off your shoes.”
Soon they were both naked, and when she lifted her foot behind her to remove the sexiest shoes he’d ever seen, he stopped her. “The shoes stay on.”
Once she was on the bed, he crawled over her, memorizing every inch of her. “I have waited for you my entire life,” he whispered.
“I’ve been waiting for you too,” she murmured. “I just didn’t know it.”
He sucked one of her breasts into his mouth and moved a hand down her stomach, feeling it quiver beneath his touch. Her hands went to his hair, and he smiled against her soft skin.
The arousal he found between her legs made him groan and bury his face in her soft chest. “Fuck, Rory, you’re always so wet.”
“Mmm,” she hummed. “You would be too if someone who looked like you couldn’t keep their hands off you.”
He tugged her nipple between his teeth, making her squirm. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
His two middle fingers entered her with ease, and he groaned again. “Oh,” she breathed as he stroked in and out while lightly grinding his palm against her clit. “Caius.”
“Tell me what you need,” he commanded softly. “Tonight is about you.”
She brought his face close to hers. “I only need you.”
Her lips parted when he moved his hand in a circular motion, pleasuring her inside and out. When he added another finger, she squirmed, and his strokes came easier with each passing second as she drenched his skin.
He pressed his knee against the back of his hand to drive it deeper and watched as her head thrashed to the side.
When her pussy spasmed, he curled his digits and put more pressure on her clit with his palm.
She cursed as her orgasm took over her body, and he let her ride his hand until her limbs went limp.
After sucking his fingers clean, he moved between her legs, capturing her eyes with his to convey every ounce of love he had for her.
Reaching up to thread her fingers through his hair, she whispered, “I love you.”
He pushed into her and hissed. The feeling of her warmth encompassing him would never get old. “I love you too, Umbra Queen.”
Pinning her arms to the bed, he clasped his fingers through hers. Their bodies moved in perfect harmony because they were made for each other, and now that the bond was complete, the pleasure between them was unlike any other.
She tried to close her eyes, but he stopped. “Look at me.” When her gaze met his, he rolled his hips into hers, and she lifted, meeting him halfway. Every stroke was ethereal, and the sounds they made were primal.
No thoughts ran through his mind other than his need for her. Taking her once wasn’t enough, but for now, it was all he had. They stared into each other’s eyes, refusing to look away as their skin came together again and again.
Releasing one of her hands, he moved his own to her neck, feeling her pulse beat wildly. “Never have I seen anything more beautiful,” he murmured and pushed his cock as deep as possible, wanting to touch every inch of her.
She gasped, and the look in her eyes would have brought him to his knees had he been standing. “I love you,” she whispered, lifting her hips faster.
“Fuck.” He grunted between pants as his cock grew at her words.
Their movements grew frantic as they chased the high only the other could give. Squeezing his cock almost to the point of pain, she came, and he welcomed the ache, slamming into her harder. He finished, calling her name like a prayer.
Nothing would ever compare to making love to his mate, his wife. The room shimmered, and she propped herself up on her elbow, tugging him to her. “I love you, husband.”
He sighed, happier than he’d ever been in his long existence because they were the sweetest words he’d ever heard.
“And I love you, wife.”
The first thing Caius did when he opened his eyes was check the palm of his right hand. He stared disbelieving at the Umbra Aeternum sigil. It worked. If he was being honest with himself, he didn’t think it would because they possessed none of their abilities in the soulscape.
His head tilted toward the aether, and he whispered, “Thank you, Lora.”
He was a married man, and his wife had one more layer of protection against his brother.
The elation he felt made the marks on his arms recede. When Sam returned, they’d figure out what Caius needed to create to get through the barrier.
Sam’s arrival couldn’t come soon enough.