Page 109 of Queen of the Night
“I love you too.” He kisses my hair, his lips lingering for a moment.
Just to be facetious, I add, “Would you love me if I weren’t a Tulip?”
I feel the growl in his chest. “I already did before I knew you were, and it nearly broke me, imagining living my life withanother woman when the only one I wanted wasyou. My magic wasn’t the only thing you captured with that cuff; you took my heart as well.”
His words remind me of my time in Renton’s camp. “That was a motivation, you know.”
“What was?”
“To escape from Renton. You’re so blasted noble that I knew you’d find another Tulip if you had to… if you lived. The thought of another woman in your arms, just like this, made me sick.”
“It wasn’t the dreams?” he asks, stepping back slightly and ducking his head to find my face in the moonlight.
“The dreams?” My eyes grow wide. “Those were reallyyou?”
My cheeks grow hot as I try to recall if I did anything untoward.
“I didn’t know until the third one, when you asked if I was alive…”
I nod, indicating he should continue.
“But Darvy told me it’s a bond calledNever Apart. Some even call it the soulmate bond because of how strong the connection is. It helps you find each other, both in reality and in sleep. Did you ever notice the gold mark is brightest when we’re together?”
He releases one of my arms and tugs my marked wrist from around his waist. I decide to be mature and let him. We hold our wrists up and see the gold shining as bright as ever.
“I’d thought it was some sort of tracking charm… but it’s asoulmatebond?”
“It does work for tracking. I’ve used it to find you, but we didn’t know about the dreams because, for a while, we never spent a night far apart. The days when I was injured?—”
“I couldn’t touch you.”He almost died.
He nods. “Until the one that woke me from what soldiers call the sleep of death, one where many pass to the other side of lucent after an injury such as that. I believe you saved me.”
I’m quiet for a long moment as worry builds. It all seems too good to be true; is this the moment it falls apart?
“What happens when it wears off?” I can’t help the tremor in my voice, and I wish for more confidence. Will he feel the same for me? Did the bond mess withmyfeelings? As I think back to that mate bond shop, I remember I already felt for Ikar in ways that had me ready to attempt to convince a criminal to marry me. I’m not worried aboutmine.
Ikar watches my expression carefully, sensing my concern. “I feel more for you than any mate bond could ever offer, Vera. Watch it wear off, and I’ll show you.”
There’s a challenge in his deep voice. A promise. It has chills racing lightly across my skin as I look up and meet his eyes. He seems utterly secure in my feelings for him, but I say it anyway with a bit of sass. “Back when you were my bounty, I already loved you so much I was going to wait for you to get out of jail. Help you reform your criminal tendencies. I wouldn’t do that for justanycriminal.” I raise a brow.
“Such devotion,” he says wryly. He pulls me tighter against his chest and plants another kiss in my hair.
“You’ll always be my criminal.”
“I’m not a criminal.”
I snicker into his shirt and squeeze him a little tighter. All is right in my world for the first time in my life.
Chapter 61
Vera
The thought of arriving in Moneyre has me nervous. My heart picks up in pace as the terrifying thoughts I’ve ignored since I told Ikar everything rise to the surface now that we exit the cave of the nymphs and enter into gloamy lucent forest. I don’t know how to be a queen. For that matter, I don’t even really know how to be a Black Tulip. Will I know how to bridge when it’s time? And how will people receive me once they know what I am? It’s all beginning to feel very real.
Ikar squeezes my hand, and it breaks me from the fearful thoughts. It’s then I realize how hard I’ve been clutching him.
He raises a brow. “Are you okay?”
