Page 253 of The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King

Raihn.

I wasn’t sure how I knew exactly where he was. Only that, without thinking, I was walking over to his chambers and—

The door swung open just as my fingertips brushed the knob.

He was alive.

He was alive.

I didn’t take in anything else about him, only that he was here and alive and standing right before me and alive and smiling andalive.

And then his arms were around me, and mine around him, and the two of us held each other for a minute and an eternity, like two halves reunited. I buried my face against the bare skin of his chest and squeezed my eyes shut against the tears.

For a long time, we stayed like that.

And then eventually, he murmured against my hair, “So you missed me.”

Arrogant prick,I thought.

But aloud I said, “I love you.”

I felt his shock at those words—actuallyfeltit, like it was my own. And then, the wave of contentment that followed, like the sun falling over my face.

His arms tightened. “Good. Because now you’re really stuck with me.”

I scoffed, but the sound was muffled against his skin, and it sounded much weaker than I’d intended.

His lips pressed to the top of my head.

And he whispered, “I love you too, Oraya. Goddess fucking help me, I do.”

* * *

He pulledme into his apartment, though it was more of a stumble, the two of us not wanting to let go of each other long enough to properly close the door, let alone walk. The need to be physically close to him was disorienting—like our very essences had been united, leaving us with an innate need to get our flesh as close as possible. It wasn’t sexual—or at least, it wasn’t sexualright now. It went deeper than that. More intimate.

I realized, after a few moments, that our heartbeats had aligned—his quickening slightly, mine slowing. And I knew this because I couldfeelhis, the same way I could feel my own.

He noticed it the same time as I did.

“Strange,” he murmured. “Isn’t it?”

Strange was an understatement. And yet it also seemed like... too negative of a word. It didn’t feel wrong. It didn’t feel unnatural. It didn’t even feel frightening, which shocked me, because I would have thought that having my soul linked to another person’s would be utterly terrifying.

Linked. Bonded.

Goddess, we had actuallydonethat. We had a Coriatis bond.

The realization hit me so hard that I pulled away from Raihn abruptly, nearly sending myself toppling over until he caught me.

“Easy.”

I stopped short. My brow furrowed.

I grabbed his shoulders, not to steady myself, but to hold him straight.

I’d been so relieved to see him that I hadn’t even stopped to really look at him. He was shirtless, wearing a pair of low-slung cotton trousers, his torso covered with the fading remnants of his injuries and the bandages that had treated them.

But my eyes fell to his chest—his throat.

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