Chapter 79
Seventy-Nine
Invisibilia Film
Beautiful, warm deliciousness explodes into my mouth, his blood hot on my tongue. Any concern I have about Daimon and Vidaris begins to slip away with each gulp I drown in.
My vision blurs, so I squeeze my eyes shut, groaning in pure bliss as Graylen’s blood warms my insides. There’s the distant sound of shouting around me, but I don’t have it in me to care.
“That’s it, beautiful,” Graylen murmurs into my mind. “Take what you need.”
The feeling of bliss morphs into pure joy and relief. I can hear him—the real him.
I don’t understand what’s happening, but I know that I’m not alone.
My hand grips the back of his neck, his chest pressed into me as his body fights me. If it weren’t for the warm feeling coursing through me, I might stop. But his voice urges me on in my mind, keeping me going.
“I’m here, little princess,” he says, the sound of his voice stronger and clearer now. “I’m right here.”
I growl, a possessiveness ripping through me as I sink my teeth deeper. For a moment, I swear I hear a groan rumble in Graylen’s chest—his limbs momentarily ceasing their struggle to push me away.
Within an instant, he starts to flail again, pushing harder.
“You’re hurting me, Lunaria,” the fake Graylen says aloud.
“Don’t listen,” my Graylen urges into my thoughts. “Keep going. I can take it.”
A comforting wave of warmth washes over me, wrapping me in a cocoon of love.
Graylen.
My magic stirs from within the depths of my soul, slowly waking the rest of my Essence as my shadows keep Graylen locked against me.
A scream followed by my name catches my attention—a voice that sounds…familiar.
My lips stay locked on Graylen’s throat, but my eyes peek open. All of the air in my lungs freezes at what I see through the shadowy haze protecting us.
Warm hazel eyes frantically look in our direction, though not directly at me. Her soft brown hair, worked into a single braid—so like mine—whips wildly to the side as she dodges attackers. Her light magic swells in brilliant, shimmering rays at each burst that leaves her palms.
My mother came for me.
Evelina Manor, Queen of Penyth.
I stumble blindly toward her, my mouth lifting off of Graylen.
“Drink,” Graylen rasps.
It takes me a minute to realize he said it aloud.
My eyes snap to him just as darkness begins to bleed into the green of his irises.
He stumbles away from me, lost to the virus again.
I snap my shadows out, the cocoon around us stopping him from getting away. My magic still feels weak—lost. Like drinking his blood fuels it enough to use, but then it’s gone.
With my magic stored in Nightfall, it’s almost like this is a way around it—even if only for a moment.
My mouth connects to his neck once more. Everything disappears again, the feel of his blood rushing into my mouth the only sensation I can focus on.
The slowly fading Essence inside of me roars back to life, bursting at the seams as it comes back with dizzying speed. My magic calls to me, filling me with a fierceness that’s addicting. Intoxicating.
There’s a spark of a memory, of hazel eyes so like mine staring back at me.
But that falls away, too.
All that matters is Graylen—the feel of his throat against my lips, the emotions of warmth he’s sending through our connection.
At this moment, I can’t deny that he was made for me—and I for him.
He’s given up everything for me. His body, his soul.
Graylen has loved me in ways no one ever has or ever will.
“I’ve got you,” he soothes.
I whimper against his neck as he comforts me.
That’s when I know. My soul doesn’t belong to me—not entirely. A piece of me resides within Graylen, just as his intertwines within every fiber of my being—our souls two sides of the same coin.
My soulbonded, perfect for me in every way. Not made for me, but one soul cleaved into two—forced to live apart until this very moment.
I know what I have to do to save Graylen. Whatever monster has infected him can’t stay. Not when a part of his soul is in me, tethered on this plane by residing within me.
Ellerry’s voice washes over me, the memories causing me to hesitate.
“A mate hasn’t been found since the split of the Valon Empire. The pull of mates just…disappeared.” My mind races as her lessons surface. “Soulbonds are a gift from Eurydice. A fae’s Essence can be intertwined with another. Two halves of a whole, separated by two bodies.”
If there’s any chance of helping Graylen, I have to try to intertwine my Essence with his. Even if the chance is small, it could be the only way to force this creature out of him.
Suddenly, I’m not afraid. Not with Graylen—never when he’s near.
He tells me that he’s got me, that I’m not alone. But I’ve got him, too. It isn’t about him saving me or me saving him; it’s about loving someone so completely that you would do anything to make them happy. Safe.
I have to try. For him.
With my magic coursing through me—bursting at the seams to find a release—I push every ounce of it into Graylen’s mind.
“Graylen.” His name is a cry within my thoughts—a plea. “Come back to me.”
With my lips still against his neck, I can feel his body begin to sway. His strength wanes with each pull of blood out of him. But I need him weak, need this monster infesting his body to lose its hold long enough for me to get through to his consciousness.
A beat of silence passes, our connection silent—the tether between our minds that I now know resides there because of our soulbond.
Through my dulled senses, a flurry of noises pounds against the barrier cocooning us. Screams of torment, cries of frustration, magic fighting against magic. But I drown it all out.
There is only Graylen.
“Lu.” His drowsy voice crawls into my mind, curling against my thoughts as if to hide away from the world there. If this were any other time, I’d let him. But we don’t have long now.
“I can get this thing out of you,” I say quickly, praying to Eurydice that this works.
“Get out of here,” he snarls aloud, his voice a little stronger as his knees tremble to hold him up. His voice rumbles against my mouth as I drink from him, but I can feel his body beginning to weaken. “While you still can.”
“No,” I hiss into his mind. “Just listen to me. I can save you—but I can’t do it alone.”
The creature holding him captive fights against my chains of shadows, but it’s no use—not with the new surge of magic pulsing through me.
“Anything,” he agrees before he even knows what I need from him.
My head rushes with the power that surges in my veins, and I feel his body begin to shake. I rip my mouth away from his neck, my eyes widening as his eyes droop.
“Fuck—stay with me, baby,” I choke out.
I have to get this monster out of him. Now.
Into his mind, I rush out, “Bond with me.”
With bated breath, I await his answer. I don’t need to elaborate—don’t need to explain what I mean by bond. He knows it. I know it. I think I’ve known it for a while now, but I’ve been too afraid to admit it. Too afraid to bind him with a future as uncertain as mine.
But this is Graylen. A man who’d walk into fire for me—a man who crossed realms to find me. I never thought I was worthy of an undying love like that, but now I know just how wrong I was.
Because I’d do the same for him. Time and time again, I’d travel any distance, through any realm, in every lifetime, just to be his.
“Bond with me,” I say again. And though it doesn’t need to be said, I say it anyway. “Tell me what to do to bind my soul to yours, because every second that goes by without it means I could lose you. And this life is nothing if I don’t have you by my side, Graylen.”
His name barely has time to enter his mind before he says, “Yes.” My breath catches as his eyes meet mine, a brief moment of clarity flickering in them. “This isn’t the way I imagined it would go.”
He doesn’t question me, doesn’t bring up that a bond hasn’t been formed since the war ended and the magic was corrupted throughout the empire.
My throat tightens as my resolve strengthens. “We’ve never done things the conventional way. Why start now?” A tear slips down my cheek. “Show me what to do.”
I hold my breath, hoping he knows more about this than I do. Ellerry didn’t tell me how the bonding ceremony works, just that the pull had gone silent.
“Follow my lead,” he murmurs quickly.
My shoulders relax, even as my lips stay sealed to his neck.
“Are you certain your soul mirrors my own?” he begins.
I pause, the question hitting me square in the chest.
I’ve been afraid of being seen as just a wife or a body to produce children for a man. Watching women be treated like objects, expected to exist only to meet men’s needs because they’re too lazy to meet them themselves, was never something I wanted for my own life.
But this is Graylen.
The man who’s fought alongside me every step of the way.
The man who gave himself over to Vidaris to save me—as furious as I was that he did that, I know his intentions were based on his love for me. He doesn’t expect me to be someone I’m not, and he doesn’t push me to conform to any image of what a woman should be.
Graylen lets me be myself, and he loves me for it.
My fingers tighten around his shoulders as I reply, “I’m certain.”
“As am I,” he answers immediately.
His body shudders beneath my grasp, and I know his control is slipping as he fights against the demon in him. The shudders turn into convulsions, and the creature screams in protest when it realizes what we’re doing.
“Do you understand that you can only make this declaration once? That if you’re wrong, you’ll forever be separated from your true mate?”
A warmth spreads throughout my chest, and suddenly, it isn’t just Graylen and me at this moment. There’s a warm presence pressing in around us, tilting a curious head as it awaits my response.
But my answer is easy. There’s never been anyone I’ve let in as deeply as Graylen.
“I understand, and I’m still certain,” I vow.
The warmth surrounding us turns hotter, cocooning us in the sun itself.
“As am I,” Graylen repeats easily. He adds, “We need something to complete the ceremony, to test if our blood will unite as one or reject the bond.”
I keep my shadows wrapped tightly around Graylen and pull back from him. His eyes are still black, his face twisted into a snarl.
“It’ll never work,” he growls.
“Focus,” Graylen presses into my mind.
With a deep breath, I form a dagger of shadow and light in my hand, my Essence flaring as I hover the tip at the center of my free palm.
“Now, Lunaria,” Graylen urges in my thoughts. “Cut down the center of your palm and then mine. Let the blood fall to the ground.”
With a sharp inhale, I slice through my flesh, opening the skin across the length of my palm. After quick maneuvering of Graylen’s arm, I do the same to him, my fingers trembling as blood wells from the wound.
Holding Graylen’s dark, demon-riddled gaze, I press our palms together. His body flails as he yanks against my tight hold. But I can feel him in my mind, warm and soft with his comforting presence.
For a moment, nothing happens. Our blood drips onto the stone beneath our feet, running parallel alongside each other.
The drops continue to roll, not forging into one as they should but tracking in perfect lines side by side.
Were we wrong?
“They should be connecting, shouldn’t they?” I choke out.
Nothing happens.
My heart beats painfully against my chest as Graylen begins laughing, a raspy and half-mad croak. The demon inside of Graylen thrashes his body with a wild frenzy to get away from me, but my magic holds firm.
It didn’t work. We aren’t destined—
Graylen’s entire body stills.
Bright, brilliant light spills from our joined hands. My eyes snap down to our feet, to where the lines of blood weave together in a singular pool of crimson.