Sebastian’s grip tightened on my fingers, and his jaw clenched, but he pointedly avoided my gaze. I didn’t know what hurt more: the priest’s decision not to ask if I agreed to this union, or that the male I was marrying wouldn’t even look at me.
Although I was a mortal, I thought the prince would at least be curious about me. I thought perhaps he would want to know about me. I certainly wanted to know more about him. But he was ignoring me.
His rejection stung more than anything else.
The marriage ceremony dragged on and on. My knees ached and my back hurt from kneeling for so long. Still, I remained unmoving. As was myduty.
Anger festered beneath my skin, and it was fuel to my fire in this gods-damned frozen north. The vampires plucked me from my life, threw me into this snow-filled land, and made me an outsider. Even so, I wouldn’t let them destroy me. I vowed that no matter what came my way, I would find a way tolive.
Eventually, the priest turned his ancient brown eyes toward me. Bending, he removed the ceremonial red cloth from our hands. “Do you have the rings?”
Rings?
My eyes widened, and fresh panic blossomed within me.
I sucked in a deep breath, but the prince in front of me finally broke his silence. “I have them.”
He released my hand, and instantly, my skin felt colder. The prince reached into the breast pocket of his black silk shirt, pulling out a matching set of shiny, obsidian rings.
“It’s time.” The priest canted his head. “Hold out your hands.”
At least he was speaking in the Common Tongue now. How was it I spoke three languages and had been educated in some of the most prestigious academies and universities in all of Ipotha, and yet these vampires had made me feel extraordinarily different and lesser in such a short span of time?
Marriages in Ipotha were nothing like this long ceremony. They were quick and efficient, often done in the middle of the day and presided over by one of Kydona’s priests. This was the most drawn-out and elaborate wedding I’d ever attended.
I unfurled my hand, laying it palm up between me and the Prince of Darkness. The vampire finally moved. Black eyes filled with swirling shadows met mine through the veil, and somehow, I knew he could see me perfectly.
Swallowing, I held his gaze as he extended long, thin fingers in my direction. Like the rest of him, they seemed almost unreal in their perfection.
The moment Sebastian’s cool skin touched mine, my heart jolted. His fingers ran over mine with a gentleness I wouldn’t have thought a male like him could possess. Something about him differed from anyone else I’d ever met, and I stared at him as he held my hand in his.
Flickering purple lights illuminated our joined hands, painting a picture that was far prettier than anything I ever expected to find in this castle in the middle of the snowy north. It was almost beautiful, the way my tanned hand reflected against his paler one.
My lips parted beneath the veil, and for a moment, it was as though there was no one in the room except for us. My heart raced in my chest, and his thumb swept over the back of my hand in one smooth movement.
Then the queen’s voice rose from her throne on the larger platform. “Within this century, son of my blood,” she said in an ice-cold voice that lacked all traces of kindness.
I glanced up at her.
Queen Marguerite was beautiful, in a deadly sort of way. Her skin was as pale as the snow falling outside, and her hair was as black as the gown she wore. Her long nails tapped on the arm of her throne, and I knew in that instant that she was the real threat in this room. Violence radiated from her pores, and I instinctively shrunk back.
“Of course, Your Majesty,” the prince said.
Blowing out a long breath, he slid the obsidian ring onto my appointed finger with ease.
This was it. I was really marrying a vampire prince.
A handsome one, to be sure.
But still—a vampire.
Too soon, it was my turn. Sebastian handed me a ring that, while larger than my own, was the perfect match to the one on my finger.
“It’s your turn, Luna,” he whispered.
Nodding, I held his cool hand and raised my eyes until I met his gaze once more. His black eyes widened, and I stared into those swirling storms as I slipped the obsidian ring onto his finger. Despite the barrier of the heavy veil, it was as though he was trying to see into the depths of my soul.
I felt… strange beneath his heavy gaze. Air itself was harder to come by when those black eyes were resting on me. My lungs tightened as the vampire prince studied me.