Page 82 of Bright Soul

Lucas needed rest for the moment, so I flagged down a nurse while my men helped him back into bed. Mom answered the call button and drew me into a brief hug. “Thank God you’re still all right. Did you know your demo—” She caught herself and cleared her throat. “Dimensional boyfriend is the reason Lucas woke up?”

“Pretty amazing, right?” All I could do was beam. Even with Lucas having an uncertain future with his magic, that was worlds better than being in a vegetative state. Phaeron had done this without any expectations of praise, which meant I needed to be the one to sing it for him.

He glanced over his shoulder like he sensed us talking about him. “One good turn deserves another.” He crossed the room in a few strides and reached out to take my hands in his. “Now if you all will excuse me, there’s something I need to show Cress.”

I met his slitted gaze. “You don’t mind if I steal you away, do you?” he purred more quietly. I had a feeling…well, ahope, that I knew why he wanted a moment alone and agreed wholeheartedly.

30

CRESS

Phaeron whisked me away in an embrace of shadows. By the time I blinked away the dizzy spell that followed my sudden relocation, I noted that he’d placed me on the couch in one of the library’s private rooms. It was his room at this point, with the tatters of the clothes he’d shredded off me still lying beside the bed and his night air scent lingering around us.

I took a deep breath and released it in a happy sigh. That smell clung to his skin, magic and man combined.

It took me a heartbeat longer to realize there were bags cluttering the floor by my feet. Phaeron had an odd expression, something like chagrin tugging at his dark gray lips as he looked at them. I recognized that he was about to apologize about something, so I stood and kissed him before he could.

He cupped the back of my neck and stroked down the sensitive column. His lips caressed mine at a slow, measured pace, at odds with the frenzy that usually lit in him at the brush of my mouth. It was such a small tell, but also an immediateneon sign that suggested something had changed. He was in control, just as he’d promised, his soul healed.

So that meant…maybe this really was the moment he’d claim me in the ways he’d promised. Pulling back, he met my gaze. Warmth danced in the otherworldly facets of his eyes, and I stood mesmerized by them.

“Can I tell you something?” he murmured.

He could tell me a lot of things with that voice of his. By his serious tone, I had the feeling this wasn’t a sexy kind of something and sobered myself. “What is it?”

He smoothed his thumb down my cheek, tender despite the weight of what he was about to share. “My brother showed me a memory as he was dying. A prophecy of Myuna’s fate that he bore witness to,” he said.

“Was it an accurate prophecy?” I asked, huskier than I intended. The roughened textured of his callused fingers brushed featherlight down my jaw and the tender skin over my throat.

A hint of pain sparked in his gaze. “It was told by the Void, so it has the chance of being accurate one day. Listen to this and tell me if you think you know who it speaks of…” He took a breath and intoned it from memory. “Another shall ascend to rival you, and she will bring about your death. She who would mate the son of night and fight you alongside his daughter. She will defeat you before you have a chance to spread your influence on a new world.”

There was a knot where my heart should be, beating erratically against my ribcage. “Wait…no,” I said. His touch under my chin tilted my head up so I would notice the way he was looking at me. “It couldn’t be me.”

“It could be you,” he echoed.

I considered the prophecy’s wording again. There was one step I hadn’t taken, one close enough that I felt my toes restingon the precipice, itching to take the plunge. My heart thudded. Iwantedto be the one to kill Myuna. Why would I back away from my destiny just because a dimensional had seen it in the Void?

“Keshora and Ravai died because of that prophecy. Myuna has been sure of my identity as ‘the son of night’ before I even knew what Earth was,” he continued, like he mistook my pause for doubt.

“It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. Myuna is causing it to come true because of her reaction to it.” If only he could feel how much I wanted to take care of her menace once and for all. Not only for my own sake, for things to go “back to normal,” but also to give him the closure he so clearly needed with this goddess who had ruined his old life. “She meets her deathhere, on a new world, at the end of my sword.”

He released me and stepped away, working the buckle of his belt. Was he getting naked already?He went for that fast!

Phaeron pulled his sheathed swords free from his hips and sank to his knees in one graceful motion, laying them at my feet. He cupped my right hand with both of his, brushing a kiss over my fingertips. “Cressida Rollins Darkmore,” he began. “From this moment forth, I swear my blood, blades, and magic to your service.”

There was adoration in his gaze as he said this oath. I reminded myself to breathe, caught up in how special it was to see such a private glimpse of his culture. Of course he wouldn’t immediately undress and take me to bed. He was an old-fashioned prince first, and I loved that about him.

“You have captivated me from the moment we met. For what is a soul but a manifestation of a person’s core truth? How radiant you are, my True Light in the purest sense. I swear to be your Shadow, a loyal protector. The one to come running to fulfill youreveryneed.” He ended this with a suggestive lift of his brows, and I shivered with awareness.

But he wasn’t finished speaking. He gestured to the pile of bags by the couch. “Though I have little by way of material wealth, I have found for you a patchwork gift. I hope you will accept a more proper offering that I will make for you by hand when we are again in a period of peace.”

I wanted to say that he didn’t have to give me anything, but this was a dance I was just learning the rhythm to. Perhaps all shadowborn made their mates custom gifts. Ah, shit. I didn’t have anything to give him in return. “Phaeron, it’s okay, I—”

“Let me finish,” he whispered. “If you accept me as your mate, it would mean everything to me and my new life here. Your family and friends will be mine too. Your other mates will be my brothers. But you, Cress, shall be the only goddess of light I answer to. Will you wear my mating mark openly, without regret?”

He waited expectantly for my answer, and I bit my lip. I hadn’t gotten him anything or prepared any fancy words. If I was going to be a good mate, at least I could try to offer the latter. Phaeron watched my expression and smiled wide enough to show his fangs, amusement creasing around his otherworldly eyes. “A simple yes or no will suffice,” he added.

“Yes,” I rushed to say. “Of course it’s a yes. I’ve wanted this since…” A dark containment room in Moongrove Library. I pictured the viciousness of his desire when he let it off the short leash of his self-control.

---