I held up my hands in supplication, and took a step towards her.“Look—”
“Stop!” she shouted, moving away from me. “I know who you are. Why did you bring me to this… this… red room? Are you going to hurt me? What did you do to me, earlier? What is a Binding? I have so many questions and no answers!”
Frustration and anger duelled in her tone, pushing past the fear that was still present.
“Your questions are valid,” I said.
“Then answer them!” she demanded, her voice raising as her eyes widened.
We did not have a lot of time. Ciro couldn’t shadow himself, so I had bought us ten, maybe fifteen minutes. Even that wouldn’t be sufficient for all her questions. There was little I could do about this whole situation, but I knew hysteria wouldn’t get us anywhere. I had long since learned my lesson about going against Mother’s wishes.
“Luna, we don’t have very long,” I said, trying to keep my voice calm.
Shaking her head, she tightened her fingers around the base of the makeshift weapon as she glared at me. “I need an explanation. What in Kydona’s name is a Binding?”
“It’s a… joining,” I said, choosing my words carefully as I took a single step toward her.
Her heart rate quickened, and she sucked in a deep breath.
Idiot.
I paused. Of course, she was scared. Of course, I frightened her. She was much smaller than I was, and my wings were still out.
The Binding would be difficult enough on her body without having her succumb to a panic attack. She needed to calm down, or tonight was going to get a lot worse for her. One thing I remembered about my time as a human was that telling females to relax usually did not go well.
Keeping that in mind, I tried to make myself less frightening. Pulling my wings back into the shadows, I held up my hands and took a very large, very obvious step back. “I will not hurt you, Luna. You can put the weapon down. You don’t need it.”
She scoffed, tightening her grip. “Says the vampire prince who could rip my throat out before I even finished talking.” She narrowed her eyes. “I know they call you the Prince of Darkness.”
I hated that name. What it meant. The weight it bore.
The price for my immortal life was high, and the name they gave me was a daily reminder of the things I’d done at the queen’s command… and the ones I had yet to do. This was my burden. My penance for agreeing to this immortal life. I would never be freed from the shadows in my veins or the queen who held my leash.
I sighed. “It’s true that I’m the Prince of Darkness, but—”
“Then I’ll keep it, thank you very much,” Luna interrupted me, waving the candelabra in the air.
My mouth fell open, and for a moment, all I could do was stare at her. “You interrupted me.” I blinked, and a disbelieving laugh filled the air. “No one interrupts me.”
This human was braver than most of the vampires in that expansive throne room. I couldn’t remember the last time someone dared to speak to me in such a manner. I would have been lying if I said I wasn’t… fascinated. The fact that this human was courageous enough to interrupt me was intriguing.
Nothingintrigued me anymore.
In front of the crowd of vampires, she had appeared timid. But now that it was just the two of us, she was blossoming like a flower in the early spring, coming to life.
She drew in a breath, taking a step toward me as she twisted her hands around the candelabra. “Do you think you might stop staring at me long enough to tell me about the Binding Ceremony?”
Her words forced me out of my stupor. Shaking my head, I blinked as I rubbed the back of my neck. “The Binding is… important.”
“I gathered as much,” she said. “I’m not an idiot, you know.”
That was becoming exceedingly clear.
“The Binding is… it will join us.”
Luna raised a brow. “We just got married,husband. We are already joined.”
“I’m well aware that we are married.” I needed no reminder of what we’d just done. The ring on my finger felt like the heaviest of weights.