That was not the case now. I knew the moment Luna understood just how… eternal and complete the Binding was, because she leaped off the bed, clenching her fists at her side. She fumed, her dark brown eyes sparking with anger and she glared at me. With her standing and me sitting, we were almost the same height, giving me the perfect view of her anger.
“Excuse me?” Luna yelled. Her face turned red, and even her ears and neck darkened. “I must have suffered a hearing loss when you moved me through the shadows because I think you just said that our life forces are Bound together!”
Thank Isvana I had put up a privacy ward around our room when I had sent for the food, or every single being in this castle—vampire or otherwise—could hear her right now.
“That’s correct,” I said, purposefully keeping my voice low. “We are Bound Partners.”
We were also Tethered, but this wasn’t exactly the right moment to remind Luna of that. As it was, she seemed to be in shock.
An entire minute ticked by as Luna stared at me. Her mouth moved, but no words came out of her lips.
I ran my hand through my hair. “Luna—”
“Not yet,” she snapped. “I can’t… not yet.”
I fell silent. Obviously, this was a lot to take in. I understood her shock.
There were reasons Bindings were rarely done. Reasons why Athena and I never completed the ceremony. Reasons that led to her refusal of my offer to Make her. It was because of those reasons she had died.
If this was how Luma reacted to the Binding, how was she going to react when she learned about the Tether?
After another minute went by, Luna started pacing. My bedroom was big, but it wasn’t that big. I perched on the edge of the mattress as she blazed a trail between the bed and the door to the bathing room; her fists still clenched at her sides.
Eventually, her words began coming in spurts.
“You… I… ugh!” Throwing her hands up, she turned to me and pointed in my direction. “This was an arranged marriage.”
“I know.”
“This Binding was never part of the agreement!”
“I know,” I repeated.
She paced, her lips moving without sound.
When I could take the silence no longer, I held my hands out in supplication.
“Luna,” I whispered. “I’m sorry.”
Stopping near the bed, she blinked. “You’re sorry?”
“Yes. You should have had the chance to choose this. The wedding. Our Binding. I’m sorry for all of it. They shouldn’t have thrust you into this without explaining what it was.” Or a Tether, for that matter. “You should have had a choice.”
Luna’s mouth opened in an “O” and she drew in a deep breath.
After a moment, her brows furrowed. “Did you?”
I tilted my head, studying her. “Did I what?”
“Get to choose this?” Her hand gestured between the two of us, and I stared at it.
Choice was something I hadn’t had in a long time. Not really.
I stood in the middle of what had been a lively tavern. Now, not even the mice dared to make a sound.
“Where is he?” I asked quietly. My voice was barely more than a whisper, but I knew they heard me. Spread behind me, my wings took up a good amount of room as shadows swirled around my legs. The tavern was crowded as vampires and others sought to drown their sorrows in bodies and alcohol.
This place did not differ from the ten other similar establishments that lined the border between Eleyta and Ithenmyr. Courtesans dressed in barely there clothes catered to the physical whims of their customers, while others served copious amounts of mind-numbing alcohol.