Page 92 of All the Pain of Promises
The tension coiling through Solarius’s body instantly relaxed, eased to where he could finally breathe. That was why the bond still hummed. She was only in a deep sleep, saved by a potion of her very own making thanks to the wit and cleverness of one Lady Aria Skyhelm.
“I owe you the entirety of my gratitude, Lady Aria.” Solarius bowed his head. “I am not sure I can ever repay you for saving her life.”
“Think nothing of it.” She lowered her arm, sighing quietly. “Lady Narissa is a wonderful fr?—”
But Lady Aria’s words were lost as Trysta lunged toward her, snatching the vial from her grasp.
It was like watching the world move at a pace that was so much slower than normal. Everyone’s voices blurred together in a stream of incoherent words and shouts, a discordant melody. Their movements were drawn out and disorderly. Sedated. Solarius watched, catching only air as Trysta uncorked the vial of honeysting and swallowed it in one gulp.
The vial slipped from her hand, shattering against the hardwood floor.
Seconds bled by in an excruciating pace. It was as though time was nonexistent. There was only a collective breath of shock and the in the next moment, Trysta crumpled to the ground in a heap of bones and heavy silks. Her body twitched once. Then twice. A spasm jerked her leg and shoulders, causing her brittle form to flinch. Her final breath wheezed out of her in a wet, sucking sound, and then the matriarch of the Starstorm bloodline was no more.
A strange sense of calm passed over Solarius. There was no sadness, no devastation, no gaping loss. Only a quiet understanding of retribution. He scooped Narissa’s sleeping form into his arms, cradling her against his chest. Words were lost to him, for all he cared about was taking her home and waiting for her to return to him.
He would wait for her forever.
Lady Aria gently placed her hand on his arm, a ghost of a smile edged around her lips. “She’ll awaken, my lord. I promise you, she’ll awaken.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Narissa woke to the gentle hum of Solarius’s voice floating over her and a spear of warmth spreading through her chest. Her eyelids felt heavy, as though she’d slept for a thousand years, but the familiar bloom of affection, of love, pulsed along the bond in time to the beating of her heart. His touch was gentle, his thumb tracing idle circles across the back of her hand as he patiently waited for her to wake from her slumber. A soft, languishing sigh escaped her, and she gradually blinked her eyes open, the corner of her lips curving as Solarius finally came into view.
He was seated by the edge of the bed—his bed—and Narissa swore she’d never seen anyone more forlorn in her life. Faint lines of sorrow lanced across his forehead, and there was a deep, ardent yearning in his eyes. He continued to hum her favorite song, the words replaced by the reverberations in his chest echoing through her soul. One by one, he laced her limp fingers through his own, and when she squeezed his hand, his gaze snapped to hers.
“Rissa love,” he breathed, relief filling the lines of exhaustion on his face. He opened her palm and pressed a kiss to its center, trailing them down the length of her arm. With his other hand,he cupped her face, his eyes searching for something she no longer possessed.
“Sol.” Narissa clutched their interlocked hands to her chest, drawing him close. She needed to apologize, to make amends for failing to warn him. For simply failing him. For not telling him the truth. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“You havenothingto apologize for, Narissa.” He lurched from the chair and moved to the bed, seating himself beside her. “You’re entirely without fault.”
She shook her head, tucking a few golden waves back from her face so she could see him clearly. “You’re wrong. I have much to regret. You see, I had my suspicions of your mother, and I should have given you some kind of notice, or at the very least made you aware, but?—”
Solarius pressed one finger to her mouth, hushing her.
“You were right about the bracelets. About many things. I stopped trusting my mother long ago, and for good reason. But for what she did to my father, for what she did to you…the fact that she attempted to end your life.” He brushed his lips across her knuckles once more. “For that, her name will be erased from the stars. Her memory forgotten. Her life nothing more than a void of time.”
He stroked the line of her cheekbone, tracing it to her mouth. “Never apologize for that.”
Narissa worried her bottom lip and his gaze tracked the movement. There was still so much she wanted to say, so much she had yet to admit. Her heart ached for him, longed for him, and she’d kept the truth of her feelings hidden because she feared that if she dared to admit it, then Solarius would walk away from her again. And she would be alone. Abandoned. But the way he was looking at her now, like he kept her soul and owned her heart, made all the words she struggled to find evaporate on the tip of her tongue.
His brow arched.
“Get out of my head.” She scowled and amusement painted his handsome face. “I hate it when you do that, it makes it impossible to keep my feelings from you.”
The corner of Solarius’s mouth upturned into a cocky smirk. “Oh, I am well aware. You’re terrible at keeping your thoughts hidden from me.”
Then his smile vanished.
“But what you don’t know is that love pales in comparison to how I feel about you.” He brushed a few strands of hair from her eyes, then slowly lowered his forehead to hers. “You are an ocean made of fire, and my soul burns for you. I would gladly drown in your tumultuous sea of emotions if it meant you were only ever mine. Moonrise to moonfall, so long as the tides continue to kiss the shore, I will forever in this life, and every life thereafter, love only you.”
Something cavernous and empty inside of Narissa healed. Solarius’s words, his vow to her, slowly stitched closed the wounds left behind on her heart. From the death of her parents. From her own loneliness. From him.
“I never truly hated you,” she blurted out, and the burdensome weight she’d carried for so many years finally lifted. “Mating bond or not, I have wanted you, pined for you, since I first laid eyes on you. And I hated myself for it because I thought you didn’t want me.”
Solarius kissed the corner of her mouth, then whispered, “Say the words, Rissa love.”
“I love you, Solarius Starstorm Celestine.”
