13. Tassarion
Tassarion
A delightful ocean breeze warmed the peak of the twinight as I held onto Nahomie, ready for the Wingbinding to begin. A magical, lavender light illuminated the surface of the Ouanaviel Sea from beneath, giving it an intense, luminescent glow despite the dark waters.
“I hate to admit it, but we need a Farasee if we are to legally bond, mi Roi.”
Nahomie shuddered at the word Farasee. I felt a twinge in my chest at her reaction. The empyrean priests had hurt my Phantimèssa. A wrong I would make right, no matter how long it took.
I squeezed her gently, tugging her closer.
“To the Six Hèls with the Farasees. We have someone better.” I grinned. “Friere Zuriathelle. He’s an ordinary priest who is well-versed in the Creed and has the credentials to perform wingbindings. The only thing is... well. He’s not an angel.”
Nahomie raised a high eyebrow. Her amber eyes looked around, sifting the night for the Friere I was referring to. Her mouth fell open in a small o when she saw a Nanmiess floating forward.
“I thought only angels...” She stuttered on her words, unable to process what she was seeing. “Since when do souls perform wingbindings? This is lawful?”
“It absolutely is.” I jutted out my chin in pride. “Mortevain isn’t as prejudiced as your beloved Edenael. You lot only allow angels to use their gifts. On our island, we believe all races should be able to use what the Infinite blessed them with. Including the Nanmiess and Esprit.”
Nahomie said nothing, her eyes fixated on the priest. The amber dimmed to burnished bronze. She didn’t trust the Nanmiess, but she also didn’t argue. I gave her time to acclimate to his presence. His ghost-like robes fluttered in the breeze beneath his hip-length, ghoulish hair.
The Friere looked back at Nahomie. The two seemed locked in a battle of wills.
Ocean water washed over our feet repeatedly until Nahomie finally scrunched her nose, acquiescing to the Nanmiess.
I bit my lip to keep from smiling. It was an insignificant gesture of defeat.
One that gave me pleasure in triumph. She was bull-headed and defiant, but at least in this moment, she would yield.
“Shall we begin?” Zuriathelle asked.
“Please,” Nahomie grumbled. “I’m ready for this infernal gown to stop pressing against my ribs.”
I snorted as she shuffled in place.
She shifted on her feet, scrunching her nose.
“I mean, honestly, Tassarion. Of all the gowns in all of Sorellien, you chose this? What’s a female to do in this hèls-infested piece of fabric? This gown was a choice.” Her eyes flashed as she glared at me. “A diabolical one.”
She kept murmuring beneath her breath while shimmying around, trying to get comfortable.
My lips twitched. I struggled to rein in my laughter.
She kept muttering beneath her breath until Zuriathelle cleared his throat.
The soul coughed twice, the only hint that he was also trying not to explode from laughter.
“And another thing,” she lifted her pointer finger, shaking her hair. “Just how serious an arrangement is this? I mean, this is for contractual purposes, right? None of this is actually real. The bond makes us wingmates by Creed, but it doesn’t mean we become lovers... right?”
Something feral and possessive stirred deep within me at her words. She was right, of course. This was an arrangement. She would bond to me. I would give her protection from the Empyrean. Yet... this didn’t feel like it would be that simple. This didn’t seem at all like a transaction.
“What makes you think our arrangement won’t be real, Phantimèssa?”
Her eyes blazed with passion; her chin lifted in defiance.
Stars. She was an unbreakable mountain, this one.
“Don’t be delusional. This is merely an exchange of sorts. But it isn’t for real.”
“On the contrary, Madame Nahomie,” Zuriathelle butted in.
“Once you’re bonded to the king, this will be a legitimate binding for you.
Should either of you break this bond, the other will die.
If death claims you, the other will die.
Should one of you choose to enter the Ellelights before the end of the Age... you guessed it. The other will die.”
We both turned to Zuriathelle in shock. His luminescent eyes glowed eerily. A flash of midnight crossed his irises before becoming ivory again.
I’ll admit, I hadn’t thought through this plan that far. I knew the bond itself required us to shed blood so we could become one, and once it settled, I’d have access to Nahomie’s powers, which would allow me to break my curse.
All the other risks of a bond was not something that had ever crossed my mind.
I looked at Nahomie in the same moment she blinked up at me.
Rot. What if she backed away? Said no? I needed my curse broken. Needed to be free of Zemshaza once and for all. And only she could do it.
“I understand and I accept,” I stated, shoulders squared, chin raised.
Nahomie looked at me for a long time, that sharp mind of hers running through every scenario and calculation. It was the mercy of the Infinite that I didn’t start fidgeting out of discomfort while I waited for what she would do. Finally, Nahomie took a deep breath. She’d made up her mind.
“I understand, Friere Zuriathelle.” A twinkle in her eyes. “And I accept as well.”
“Good,” said Zuriathelle, wasting no time. Another flash of onyx crossed his eyes. “Let’s begin.”
The Friere lifted a scroll he pulled from within his robes and recited.
“Under binding Creed, before the majesty of the Infinite, we lift our wings to you, Tassarion and Nahomie.”
My chest tightened. My hearts were in my throat as Zuriathelle continued.
“The umbrella of our wings flies in testament to the bond between you both. Before our Infinite King, for the good of all Vainyens, I decree you both will no longer be separate. From hence, you will be one.”
The Gargorètti lifted their wings, clapped them thrice, then settled back into bone-chilling silence. I swallowed hard, my gaze tethered to my Phantimèssa.
“Love is patient and kind. When one of you wins, the other shouldn’t mind. It isn’t proud or arrogant. It isn’t boastful nor selfish. Love won’t insist on its own way. It isn’t irritable...” A look at me. “Celèstian.”
I flashed my teeth, grinning. Zuriathelle’s shoulders twitched, almost imperceptibly, as if he was fighting contortion. Something was off with him tonight. I made a note to check on him afterwards.
The Friere sighed, shaking his head before continuing. Nahomie looked between us, trying to pick up on the inside joke. I wriggled my eyebrows at her, which made her lift her nose as if she didn’t care. I wanted to laugh because I knew she definitely cared. Nosey little Seraphim.
“Love won’t ever dance from wrongs, but it abides in truth. And this twinight, we come as one, in agreement and in favor of your bond.”
Zuriathelle looked between Nahomie and me, pleased with whatever he saw between us.
Nervous energy blasted along the length of my bones.
I could feel a shift in the air. Even though it was hot out, and we were at the edge of the shoreline by the crashing waves, it suddenly grew cold as the wintrien season.
Chilly winter air curled around Nahomie and me.
She shuffled even closer until our bodies were pressed together as she drained me for body heat.
“Greedy,” I whispered. “You’re the one with blackfire.”
She snorted and pressed even tighter. I couldn’t help the tug at my lips at her reaction and the glee that danced across my chest.
“Nahomie Emélie Namarielle, will you vow to give Roi Tassarion the feathers of your wings, and fly by his side until death do you part, or you choose to call the Ellelights home?”
“I do.”
Nahomie answered with such confidence that my knees wobbled. I knew this was coming. Us claiming one another for the Wingbinding to actually occur. But I never expected her to be so certain. So sure about choosing to agree to this. To us.
How long had it been since I longed to be claimed like this? Branded and bound to another? There was a passion in her voice I didn’t expect, yet I still craved all the more. I held her hands in mine tenderly. To my surprise, Nahomie interlaced our fingers, intertwining them, then squeezed.
I couldn’t make sense of the emotions colliding inside me. I felt as though I was being upheld by fraying threads. Rot.
If only this wasn’t just to break a curse.
If only this were real.
“And to you, Tassarion Celèstian Everthorn. Sovereign of Mortevain. Roi of our island. Descendant of the Orèthe. Wings of Namenthys. Do you vow to extend your wings and cover Nahomie? To love her like the Infinite loves us? To thread your wings with hers and never unwind them forevermore?”
I lowered the full weight of my gaze on Nahomie. My eyes burned. I held her tight, as though it were us alone. Then I smiled my first genuine smile in over eight centuries. Nahomie’s breath hitched. My hearts beat wildly like drums.
“I do.”
Fire erupted in my chest. A thread of gold surfaced inside my ethèr.
I gasped. My Soul Bending surfaced, threads of ivory, blue lightning slipping into the air like steel tendrils and smoky shadows.
I watched as Nahomie’s ethèr did the same.
Her blackfire was siphoned out of her bit by bit.
Beautifully elongated tendrils of the deepest black threaded together with lavender so bright I couldn’t tell where the onyx began and the lavender ended.
Her power seeped out of her chest through her gown, reaching for the tendrils of mine.
Our intertwined fingers grew hot as our powers started making their way towards each other, like lovers searching for their mates.
I hardly registered a word as the Nanmiess spoke again.
“Your vows are spoken, established for every Age you will live to see. Raise your wings, thread your feathers, and be bonded until the Ellelights call you home.”
We did as he said, never once removing our eyes from each other.
Amber jewels pierced into mine as if branding me into her soul.
I shuddered at the sheer confidence and knowing in that gaze.
When our feathers intertwined, the threads of our vow connected.
My vision turned white. For a moment I saw nothing but felt everything. Fire. Excitement. And... joy.
Stars.
I was feeling joy.
How many cycles had gone by and I hadn’t so much as felt an inkling of that emotion?
I was overwhelmed. When I came to, Nahomie wore a smile that eclipsed the stars, and tears wet her cheeks.
I looked at our joined hands and saw on both of our pointer fingers a ring of gold with small stars and wings embedded through it.
Both of our right hands had an interesting pattern.
Golden stars with thorns threaded throughout. The symbol of our bond.
And like a fiery brand, where the pattern, the evidence of our bond glowed, we both bled. Golden ichor trickled across our palms, still joined. As my blood fused with Nahomie’s, a blinding light exploded within me. I had no words for what I felt as I became wholly hers.
And the Phantimèssa of Edenael finally became mine.
An overwhelming urge surged through me. A dark entity from within roared with hunger.
Without thinking, I leaned forward, scooping Nahomie into my arms. I breathed in her scent as I gripped her waist. As I held Nahomie, something inside of me tore.
Like someone had grabbed hold of my six hearts and was shredding them, ripping them apart. I released her and clutched my chest.
“What in the rot,” I wheezed, unable to breathe.
“Mi Roi!” screamed the Gargorètti, leaping into action all at once.
Then Nahomie began screaming. The screeching wail pierced my ears as I looked at her.
I blinked away sweat from my eyes that had pooled at my temples.
When I saw her face, I trembled with fear.
Nahomie had ebony black tendrils snaking across her skin everywhere.
By bonding to me, she now inherited my curse.
Rotting, burning hèls.
No, no, no.
The amber of her eyes began morphing into obsidian so dark that for a split second, I was reminded of the Souls Court. It was a moment longer before I realized it wasn’t sweat trickling down my face.
It was blood.
I watched as my bride screamed. As sable thorns bled across her face.
Zuriathelle’s ghostly lips curled into a serpentine grin.
The ivory of his eyes blended into black, turning his handsome face monstrous.
Then I tumbled to the seafloor, falling into a bottomless pit of black. I heard Zuriathelle’s, cruel, unnatural laughter. His voice filled the abyss of my mind as I faded into darkness.
“I told you, Slave. This was very real. And now you both are mine.”