Page 1 of A Baron of Bonds
Prologue
REV
seven years before
“Eyes like emeralds, Karus, they came to me first.”
I adjusted my grip, using my knee to help pull her further into my arms. My heart raced, unwilling to slow. Unwilling were my lungs to breathe without her pressed to my chest. Unwilling were my hands to ever let her go.
Karus did not respond as I shifted her again, one hand grasped around her thigh, her light skirts doing nothing to withhold the shape of it. My other hand was clasped around her arm, my fingers entwined over hers. The crook of my elbow cradled her head. I studied her newly white-streaked hair and the subtle burns on her cheeks and lips from the sun she had held to destroy the Blight.
It’d been nothing short of glorious. The strength and power it must have taken to hold the simulated sun for that long…I was sure it stretched miles.
But she was drained. She lost…something of herself.
I knew she wasn’t going to wake and recognize me. I knew she wasn’t going to make a miraculous recovery, even with thehelp of Clairannia’s medicus magic. In the very depths of my soul, I knew.
I knew she was lost.
I adjusted her weight again and forced the lump in my throat to move, doing what I could to keep her with me in my arms as I shook.
I’d take forever to get back.
The Fortress with its bleak halls that had begun to seem more like home than anything I’d ever known, could wait.
The world could wait.
The immense power that constantly droned in my skull for the last twenty minutes, asking a question I must answer, couldfucking wait.
I continued with my story, my words drifting in the night air with no one around to hear.
It was just us.
Only us.
“I remember holding the rhyzolm in my hand and closing my eyes. For the first time, I had been given a task only I could complete, and I took it very seriously. Even at only nineteen,” I chuckled. “You were so hidden, Karus. If you’d have used your magic more often, I would have been able to get a better glimpse of who you were and where you were. It took months before I saw any other part of you.
“And I knew. I knew then that I was done for. I knew that those eyes would haunt me for the rest of my days. They’d stay and I’d be powerless against whatever it was that forced me to witness—forced me to see the shape of your face come to light.”
I kissed her forehead, slowing even further, the question of power that needed a Baron became but a small sting in my mind.
I would not break. Not yet.
“You were the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. You’ll be glad to know, I was smitten by twenty. And if you would justhear me now, I’d be happy to bear your teasing about it for all of eternity, Karus. If you’d just open your eyes and listen to me now…”
She didn’t wake. She didn’t bat her eyes in recognition. I wanted her to. I wanted her to look at me with the purest green of life and smile my way. I wanted her to forgive me, yell at me, hate me.
I wanted her to know me.
But she didn’t. And she wouldn’t.
I continued. A man with little success, but a man with hope, is still alive.
I cleared my throat, tears still at bay. “And so, I followed the pull. That guiding light you shone even when you were not allowed to use it. When I found myself on the outskirts of Hyrithia, I panicked. I would never be able to get to you if you were there. I’d never be able to hold your hand or press my lips to yours if you were there.”
The power of the Baron of Felgrenscreamed. It found its way into a place I could not ignore, and I finally addressed its presence.
“What do you want?” I asked aloud into the still snowfall of a winter night, desiring only to be rid of what interrupted me. I had more to say to my love in my arms and it was wasting my fucking time.
