“Of course I didn’t,” Luna snapped. “That’s what I have been saying this whole time.”
She continued on about the ridiculousness of males, but I wasn’t listening anymore. How dare Ciro do this to me?
Everything else I had planned, everything else I needed to do, no longer held any importance. All that I could focus on was this.
Why?
The question repeated over and over again in my mind.
Something niggled at the back of my mind, something I should have known, but when I tried to grab it, it flitted out of reach. This was extremely bad. The worst possible thing, in fact.
I needed…
Well, what I needed was to go back to the night of our wedding and kill Ciro before he could do this to us.
Unfortunately, that was not possible.
Gods. Of all the things. This marriage was supposed to be a political alliance, and nothing more. Just another one of Mother’s errands. Instead, everything was being thrown into upheaval.
To make matters worse, all the excitement of the past hour had exasperated my hunger. Usually, I could go days between feeds. Weeks even. But the agonizing pain from earlier had depleted my stores.
I needed some proper food. The deer’s blood just wasn’t cutting it anymore. I needed to get out of here. I needed to not be Bound to a human.
Everything was too hot. I pulled at the collar of my tunic, trying to get some air, but it didn’t work. Sweat beaded on the back of my neck, and my shadows writhed and pulsed within me as I struggled to get control of myself. It wasn’t working.
I tugged at my tunic again, desperate for a cooling breeze, but none came. Of all the times for this gods-damned frozen castle to be too hot, it was right now. Sweat rolled down my back, and I struggled to breathe.
Of all the possible outcomes of my wedding, this was never one I had foreseen. Everything was wrong.
A hand landed on my back. I tensed, turning around to find Luna standing a few feet away from me; her gaze alternating between me and her Binding Mark.
“What did you see on our wrists?”
Her question was fair, but right now, I couldn’t deal with it.
“I’ll tell you later. Right now, we need to go see—”
“No,” Luna interrupted me.
“No?” I repeated incredulously, widening my eyes. “No one says ‘no’ to me.”
She huffed a laugh and crossed her arms as she sat down on the bed. “Well, I do, so you had better get used to it. I’m not going anywhere with you until you explain what is going on. First, you accuse me of trying to kill you, and now you want me to follow you blindly? That’s not going to happen.”
My eyes widened, and my blood pounded in time with my shadows as they coursed through my body. “You want to know what’s going on?”
She nodded. “Yes. I do.”
“Fine.” I stalked toward her, grabbing her wrist once more and pulling her to her feet. There was barely a foot between us and she inhaled sharply. The air thickened and my lungs tightened as I pressed our Binding Marks side by side. “Look!”
Now that I knew they were there, I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the red lines running through our markings.
“I’m looking,” she said softly. A beat passed, and those brown eyes moved up to mine. “What, exactly, am I looking at?”
I ran a finger over her Binding Mark, and she flinched as I tapped my nail on her skin. “Thisis wrong.”
Her brows furrowed. “What exactly am I looking at?”
“This is the Mark of our Binding,” I snarled. “Only it isn’t. That black-hearted ancient bastard betrayed me, and I am going tokillhim.”
She sucked in a breath, twisting her arm in my grasp. “Instead of uttering death threats, maybe you could spend a little time explaining to me exactly what a Binding Ceremony does. In case you forgot, youstillhaven’t told me.”
A bitter laugh escaped me, and I dropped her wrist, running my fingers over my own marking. “Well, it appears we are going to have all the time in the world for that now, Luna.”
Her voice was cool as she asked, “Why is that?”
She knewnothing. If the situation wasn’t so dire, I probably would have found it amusing.
“Because, Princess, we’re not just Bound.” I took a step back, shaking my head as I worked to wrap my head around this. “We are Tethered.”