Page 160 of Enchanted Shadows
She sniffed, but I continued. “I vow to be your light in the darkness. Your warmth in the cold, and a shoulder to lean on when life is too much to bear on your own. I will protect you, honor you, and respect you. In light and darkness, silence and laughter, I will be by your side. My love for you knows no limit. I love you, Kessara.”
I brushed her tears away as I finished, adding gently, “Knock it off, Princess.”
“They are the good kind of tears at least,” she argued.
“Still don’t like it.”
She laughed and moved to squeeze my hands. “Owen Gerald Raikes, you are everything I never knew I needed. I didn’t even know exactly what it was I was looking for, until I found you. Thank you for being the type of man who proved to me that men could be so stubbornly honorable. Alsovaliantly handsome, but thething which drew me to you most was that big heart of yours, always doing what’s right. It knows absolutely no quit. So I vow not to quit on it either. It is the greatest gift you could ever give me, to hand me a heart so pure, so lovely.”
Dammit. Her words combined with how intensely her blue eyes were locked onto my own. Everything was burning. My eyes. My throat. My immediate need to kiss her entire body.
“Knock it off,” she joked.
“Yep, shutting it down.”
“You have all of me, my heart, my soul, and every space between,” she continued. “I might be a Princess, but being called your wife is my favorite title. I vow to be your light in the darkness. Your warmth in the cold, and a shoulder to lean on when life is too much to bear on your own. I will protect you, honor you, and respect you. In light and darkness, silence and laughter, I will be by your side. I love you, Owen Raikes. And if you’d be so inclined, I’d also like to take Raikes and add it to my own name. Team Raikes forevermore.”
Shocked and unable to help myself, I kissed her. Fully. We needed no pecks this time around. I could taste her all I wanted. Well. Within reason.
As she pulled away, caring more about scarring poor River with our need for one another than I clearly did, I whispered, “The urge to whisk you upstairs.”
“Stop skipping steps. Palm maiming is next.”
Dammit, I loved this woman. Every single thing about her. “Make it count.”
I gestured for River, and he didn’t delay striding back toward us. “Only a bit longer, and we can all get warm, yes?”
“Yes please,” Kessara laughed.
He gestured to me with a nod and I took the dagger out of my boot. A dagger which meant entirely too much to me. Without delay, I sliced her palm. I tried to go gently, but I also had to makesure we did this right so that our blood could pose as the conduit for the bonding itself. She barely flinched, a sharp inhale the only noise she made. And then she took the dagger, slicing mine.
I locked eyes with hers, hoping for the impossible. Then again, the impossible already happened. I found her. “I willingly give you this magic, Kessara Astra Zavatari Raikes. To protect, to empower, to honor. A thousand lifetimes may pass, yet I will stand steady, bound with you.” As I willed my power to her, rather than imagine a drop or half, or all but a drop, I willed her enough to always be safe, to never have to run in fear again. To live a long and happy life, as much as she needed for that to happen.
She squeezed my hand. “I willingly give you this magic, Owen Gerald Raikes. To protect, to empower, to honor. A thousand lifetimes may pass, yet I will stand steady, bound with you.”
I held my breath, but nothing happened.
Nothing at all.
And though I had dared to hope for the impossible, I found I was fine. I loved Kessara with a fierceness that even a consolation of a heart bond instead of soul bond couldn’t ruin a thing about this for me.
I chose her. And I would keep choosing her.
Kessara inhaled sharply again, so I stopped the thoughts running wild in my head and tried to calm myself, feeling brave enough to breathe in finally.
It started with a small tingling, which then spread along the cut, the entirety of the diagonal gash across my hand. And then I felt it travel up my arms, even under the cast remaining on my left arm.
“I lo?—”
I never got to finish. A shockwave of my green power and her shadows glittered with gold pushed outward from our feet, traveling along the ground and knocking us down. I made sure to takethe brunt of the fall, Kessara falling over on top of me, catching herself with her free hand level with my head.
I looked over to River, where he sat on the grass. He was getting too old for tumbles like this.
“Took a seat beforehand,” he explained, “Just in case.”
I laughed and kissed my wife. Never in a thousand years would I have thought I’d be this happy to have my ass handed to me. It waseverything.
EPILOGUE
