Page 63 of The Kraken Bride

Preening, I traced my palms up his chest. “I see you brought your charm with you.”

“I cannot leave home without it.” He pulled me to a wall and pressed my back against the stone, towering before me. “Now listen up, Brona. You said you own my heart. Very well. But you will give me yours, too.” By the end, he was practically growling. “I want our bond made visible. For you to wear my mark. Today. Now.”

My pulse leaped. “You want… to marry me?”

“I do. I can. I will. I submitted my change of vote to the royals this morning.”

“Sebastian,” I rasped, affection for him swelling to new heights. He’d done that, not as a bargaining chip or payment; I hadn’t entirely met my part of our bargain yet. He’d simply... done it and mentioned it the way someone else might mention a dinner reservation, because it wasn’t the prize to him. It was the paperwork.

Inter-faction marriages. Exactly what I’d come here to win, and I could hardly bring myself to care. He was standing in front of me, offering something I wanted more than I’d ever wanted anything. Recognition as his chosen.

He cupped my face. “Whether you are here, or elsewhere, the mark will announce to all that you are mine. My queen. My firebrand. Any harm done to you is done to me, and there will be devastating consequences.”

Longing nearly choked me.

“Your blood could turn blue, like mine,” he continued. “If it does, you’ll be tied to the dome. This will be your home.”

“Your greatest prize,” I said, a lump in my throat. His entire kingdom. His family.

“Nei. I prize you most.” He grazed his thumbs over my cheeks. “You’ll have kraken armies devoted to your protection for the rest of your life.” His expression darkened. “But once the mark is given, it can’t be returned, no matter what happens at convergence. Know that.”

The warning should have frightened me. If we didn’t find another way to kill Jokull, and the rune claimed Sebastian’s heart, I’d be bonded to a man with no emotions.

Gaze fierce on me, he asked, “Do you still wish to proceed, Brona?”

Sebastian was worth any risk.

I jutted my chin. “Ja. I want this. I want us.”

The walls pulsed again, harder, faster, as if trying to find a new heartbeat after outgrowing the first.

He smiled slowly. “Then that is what I shall give you.”

With his gaze hot on mine, he withdrew a dagger and cut a line across his palm. Not even a flinch. Then he handed the hilt to me. Taking a deep breath, I cut a slash against my own palm.

Blood welled. His blue. Mine red.

Then we clasped hands, the contact wrenched a gasp from me. The burn. It hurt at first, but then… then it was good. So, so, so good.

His power surged into me, an undertow beneath my fire. It crashed through me like waves as sweat beaded along his forehead.

My inhalations turned shallow, strength and weakness flowing into me in opposing currents. I didn’t fight it. Whatever he needed, I gladly gave. Whatever he gave, I eagerly received.

With my next inhale, I felt him. In my head. In my blood. My bones. I sensed him, as if an invisible rope tethered us together. I knew what weighed on him. The worry threaded through his resolve. But I also basked in his desire for me. A frothing, churning tide with depths I could explore for centuries without ever reaching the bottom.

My dragon roared, smokewings flapping.

His kraken made no sound, but it writhed, wrapping its tentacles around the dragon. Not in battle but need. Two puzzle pieces together at last. Then there was only Sebastian and me, and the light, and our clutched hands.

“You are mine,” he rasped so sharply I felt his possessiveness in every cell of my body. Felt it burrow deeper as he dragged his hand from my grasp and flattened his palm against my chest, as if he needed to feel my heart beat.

My skin heated under and around his hand, and we both went still.

He canted his head, as though trying to work through a mystery. “You are branding my print into you?”

“My dragon,” I rasped. My dragon was accepting his claim and ensuring there was a visual mark.

Wonder filled his eyes. “My queen. Now. Always.”