“Nervous?” Telal said so only she could hear.
“Yes.”
“Don't be, I love you.”
She sighed and some of the weight on her shoulders eased. “I love you too.”
The ceremony began announcing her as the new queen of the shahoulin demons and mate to King Telal Demuzi. Everything passed in a rush as the leader in the robe, a holy man, she learned, shared words of love, trust, honor, and commitment. Then he ordered them to stand across from each other and hold out their hands.
Lily's gaze was captivated on the design as their fingertips just met. The design perfectly mirrored by his and she smiled at it, her eyes meeting his in wonder. He looked so young and happy, as if the worries of everything that had happened were erased, if only for this moment.
The holy man turned to Telal and said, “It is your turn.”
Telal's smile faded into a solemn expression. “Lily Bellum, I vow to love and honor you in the ways a man should from now until forever. Let these designs be a symbol of the ties that bind us together, that were created out of love, anger, trust, and friendship. May these ties never break even after the paint is washed away. May our love never sway but grow stronger, tying us closer for the rest of our days.”
His speech ended and tears fell from Lily's eyes. He smiled gently at her and looked so humbled that she wanted to squeeze him in her arms and kiss him for a very long time. The crowd looked onto her now, waiting for her.
With help from him repeating certain lines, she performed her part of the vows feeling her heart pouring into every single word. The last word fell from her trembling lips and the crowd stood full of cheers and cries.
Telal smiled down at her, then pulled her into his arms in a smooth move, bent her over his arm, leaned down in a dancer's move, then kissed her in front of all.
“I love you,” she said against his lips.
“I love you, my lilit.”
They turned to the crowd and he held up their painted hands. The holy man behind them yelled in a great booming voice, “King Telal Demuzi and his mate Queen Lily Demuzi!”
Through the sea of crowded faces, one person stood out. She didn’t cheer but wore a small smile that caught her attention. Her breath stalled in her lungs. Telal noticed the change and looked at her in question.
“My mother,” she said, her voice strained. “She came.”
In the back of the crowd, dressed in a pretty dress stood her mother, not clapping or shouting but looking at her with lucid eyes and a smile. Lily cried hard, smiling at her mother the whole way though.
“You look so much like her.”
Lily blinked back the tears and waved to the crowd once more. “Let's feast!”
They stood there, watching the crowd disperse into the castle to celebrate. “I do, don’t I?”
Telal pulled her against him, flattening their painted hands together. “I love you, Lily.” He said it in such a serious voice she laughed.
“And I love you.”
His eyes flicked to the castle, his eyes darkening in a way that tightened things inside her, made her breath catch. “Why don't we sneak upstairs for a minute and...?”
She snatched him by the head, bringing his lips to hers. “I thought you'd never ask.” Then she kissed him and let him take her away.
EPILOGUE
Twigs and leaves crunched under his boots. Crunch, crunch, thump. He managed two more steps before he collapsed against a tree, panting.
His chest felt like it’d been shredded, ravaged from the inside out. His fingers prodded his chest expecting to find black blood, but alas, his skin was whole. It was his heart that hurt. That seemed to make every inch of his body heavy and ache with pain.
With heavy steps, he kept moving. Going further and further into unknown lands, out of the shahoulin territory. He kept seeing her. Alive one moment, gone the next. Blood-pumping rage pulsated inside him, demanding someone’s blood. Surprisingly, it wasn’t Telal’s he wanted.
He shook his head. That couldn’t be right. His mind was messed up, not acting correctly. He’d seen Telal’s spell tear into his Arianna, saw the life die from her eyes. He choked, tears wetting his eyelashes. He stumbled, tripped, and fell hard to the ground. He grunted, and pulled out a rock from beneath him that had jabbed against his hip.
Rolling onto his back, he stared up at the sky. Night had come. How long had he been walking?
“Arianna…” He choked on her name, saying it seemed to squeeze the pain around his heart even tighter until it reached an unbearable level. He wanted to curl on his side and cry until every ounce of his strength was sapped. Leave himself there to die. Let the animals get him. He didn’t need to live. He was a monster.
No. He had to move. Bracing one hand, then the other, he slowly sat up, put one knee on the ground then the other and pushed himself up. He wobbled but he kept walking. His mind was the only thing he had in the silent woods. And his mind was working overtime.
Telal hadn’t killed him. God, he wished he’d done it. Ended his unnatural, dark existence once and for all. Was that why he no longer felt anger at him? No…no. His thoughts spun, twirled, and came together slowly as he walked further and further, the sky growing hazier with night.
No, only one person deserved his wrath. Only one person was the cause of all this. The master manipulator using him, turning him from who he used to be. If not, then he’d still had enough goodness in him to heal Arianna.
I could have saved her.
His arms flexed, bunching hard until pain flared up. He gave a harsh shout and slammed his fist into a tree. The whipping crack and broken branches that rained down over him relieved his anger—if only slightly.
His eyes cleared from the tears. He stared off into the night with a clarity he hadn’t felt in a long, long time. The realization was so sudden, he quickly glanced down at his hands, wondering if they’d be golden again.
His hands curled into hard fists at the sight of the dark black color. No, it wouldn’t be that easy. Nothing was. His mother. She was the answer to everything. He had to find her, and he had to kill her.
A garbling sound, crackling like teeth clicking together stole his attention. Alrik’s head whipped to the side his ears twitching to hear. A high-pitched cry tore through the air, then running steps came straight towards him.
Fuck. Alrik tore off to the side running as fast as his weak body would take him. The sounds, the cries came closer. Idummi. He focused as his chest pumped hard and his lungs burned. Four of them, eight feet stomping into the ground after him. He had no goddamned weapons on him or he’d relish the fight. Alrik slowed at the thought. A fight…the thought brought him to a stop, turning around.
With Arianna’s death fresh in his mind, he stood, waiting and let them come to their death.