Page 103 of A Kingdom of Destruction

Was he going to put a stop to this before they went too far? Before there was no backing out?

Would he speak up and halt everything? Did she want him to?

Please.

He took another step toward her, but Cillian didn’t notice his brother’s movement. His attention focused solely on Aven, with his lips pulled back in an ever-tightening smile. Did he know what went through her mind? Could he smell the terror on her? She had no way of knowing.

Her gaze fixed on Roran again, and whatever he saw when he looked over her, he nodded. Aven’s stomach hollowed out. More than anything, she wanted to let him do it.

She breathed his name inside her mind. Instead, she forced herself to shake her head, a small jerk of her chin. Telling him not to. Keeping him back.

She flicked her eyes back to Cillian’s and took his outstretched hand. She’d already made her choice. Even whenher spine stiffened and the altar looked ready for sacrifice rather than marriage. She’d made her choice and she refused to change her mind now. Couldn’t be that selfish.

She forced herself to step beside Cillian and listen to the rattling and dry tones of the officiant as he walked them through the steps.

This was supposed to be the happiest day of her life.

Hah. What a joke.

Nothing was good. Nothing was right.

33

The fabric of her wedding dress slicked across the marble floor, making no sound, liquid given physical form. Only the train moved fluidly. The rest of it had been starched into place so thoroughly it remained stationary no matter how she shifted.

Cillian walked a step ahead of her, leading the way down the unfamiliar halls of the private wing of the palace. The one place she hadn’t been in before. Her mouth had gone dry at the start of the ceremony and remained that way until now, no matter how many times she swallowed.

Long sleeves hid her scars from view, and her stomach flipped nervously.

She’d done it.

They’d stood at the altar together while the officiant offered words of praise about honoring their spouse for the rest of time.

Cillian gladly repeated the required phrases while Aven went through the motions. Roran stood there on Cillian’s other side. She felt him watching her, took it into her heart, and ignored it all. Her hands were steady when they slid a golden bandonto Cillian’s ring finger, and she repeated the words without so much as a tremor.

Done. They were husband and wife, and she’d tied herself irrevocably to this man and his kingdom.

No going back.

Cillian stopped at the door to his room with his hand paused in the air above the handle and offered her a sweet smile. “This is the part where I sweep you over the threshold, isn’t it?”

Aven yelped when he grabbed her, one arm under her legs. The dress hardly wanted to move with her, and ribbons trailed from her hair all the way down to the ground.

“Cillian!”

She pressed her hand to his chest and felt his heart racing, a mirror of her own.

Although he didn’t look flustered, she might have called him nervous. It made her feel a fraction better.

“I’ve wanted to have you in here for a long time.” Cillian trailed kisses along the line of her jaw as he took them both into the room. She caught flashes of the space, the dark walls and the wide-open windows. No, doors. Glass doors leading out onto a large balcony glowing under the moonlight.

The space was large enough to fit an entire house and, from what she could make out, had been divided into sections. A desk in the corner, piled high with paperwork; a large wardrobe; and a full-length mirror against the opposite wall.

And the bed…

It made her own bed look like a crib for a newborn.

Her stomach rolled and shook with anticipation and nerves. Cillian’s lips found their way to hers. The kiss seared through her from front to back.

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