Page 144 of Queen of the Crimson Throne

“I’m serious.” She looked at me again. “My entire life everyone put me on a pedestal—they walked on eggshells and they tried to please me. And then there was you—stabbing me to make yourself feel better after we’d only just meet. You made me work for your love, your affection—I had to earn it, which has made it all the sweeter to know you have deemed me worthy enough to be cared for by you, Lennox Adair. Because as we know you do not give your love away easily. You are my everything, Lennox.” I pressed my lips to the palm of her hand. “I promise you will not regret choosing me tonight.”

I closed my hand around the dagger at my side, her eyes tracking my movement before she reached for her own.

“You ready?”

This was the ceremony we had planned for tomorrow, a combination of Blood Court and Star Court traditions.

I gave her my palm, wincing as she sliced her blade across it, before I repeated the action across hers. I pulled out the vile of stardust Luciana gave me earlier and shook the contents over our bleeding palms. The stardust shimmered as it fell before sticking to our bloodied palms.

I combined our bloodied hands, intertwining our fingers once again.

My palm tingled—the stardust already at work as our blood mingled together—tying us together for eternity.

“I, Luka Rossi, bind my life to yours, Lennox Adair,” I repeated the ancient words. “I vow to protect you, to push you, to stand by your side and love you for the rest of eternity,” I added. Lennox’s eyes glimmered at my additions to the vow.

“I, Lennox Adair, bind my life to yours, Luka Rossi. I vow to stand by your side, to care for you, and to protect you for the rest of eternity.”

The tingling in my palm intensified, the sensation moving from my palm and spreading up my arm, sending a shiver down my spine.

I met Lennox’s gaze again, her face telling me she was feeling the same sensations I was. I gripped her hand tighter as the magic continued to work through our bodies—working to bind us together.

Finally, the sensation subsided. We removed our hands, both looking at the twin marks marring our palms.

Not every married couple was blessed with a mark. It was all up to the Goddess and the Stars to bless a union with a marriage mark.

Lennox and I appeared to have been blessed. The skin where we had cut one another had healed, but was slightly raised—leaving scared skin behind in the form of a thick line of black ink shimmering in the moonlight. The cut extended up my palm before divulging into two lines that wrapped around my middle finger. At the bottom of the cut, the line extended down my wrist until it slowly faded into my vein.

A light wind whipped around us. Lennox and I both looked as Astria appeared beside us in a hardly corporal form. “Your mark is one of greatest significance. Your blood is now bound together as displayed by the ink over your cuts—so you shall never forget your commitment to one another.” She brushed her starry finger over Lennox’s palm, tracing the line as it snaked down her wrist. “It fades into your blood—a symbol of your blood now being one.”

She squeezed Lennox’s hand before releasing it. “I hereby bless your union, from now until eternity may your lives now be bound.”

And with that, she was gone.

“That’s it?” Lennox looked at me.“We’re married now?”

“There’s one last thing we’re forgetting.”

“What?” Her brows pinched together.

“We seal the marriage with a kiss.”

She smiled before my lips descended on hers. The kiss was soft at first before turning ravenous. I pulled back—only to be dazzled by the smile lighting up her face.

Mywife’sface.

She wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me back for another kiss. My arms wrapping around her waist before I lifted her off the ground and spun her.

Cheers and hollers broke out around us and Lennox laughed against my mouth as I swung her around.

Married.

Lennox and I were married.

57

LENNOX

Luka and I were married.

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