Page 56 of The Crown of the Last Fae Queen
“You don’t think they noticed us?” Astrid’s eyes were still wide. She placed both hands on her blushing cheeks. “Oh my gosh. I’ve never seen something like that before. Do you think they’re secretly inlove?”
“So it was General Agnarr?” Yrsa asked.
“Yes,” Kolfinna answered, the image of their fervent embrace not leaving her mind. “Agnarr and Freyja.”
Yrsa gawked at them like she hadn’t heard right. “General Freyja?”
“Yes, yes.” Astrid waved impatiently. “Everyone knows they both dislike each other, so what was that? Maybe they’re lovers?”
“They certainlylookedlike lovers.” Kolfinna was suddenly reminded that the cursed sword had told her that Freyja was carrying a child—was she pregnant with Agnarr’s baby? Just thinking it made a strange fluttering, fleeting feeling pass over her chest. Excitement? Unease? Shock? She wasn’t entirely sure. “They fought each other previously. I saw it, too. Agnarr sported a giant bruise …”
Astrid tapped her chin thoughtfully as they crossed into a familiar-looking hallway—they were close to Kolfinna’s tower. “They are mated with one another, so it shouldn’t bethatstrange. But I didn’t think that they … kept it up.”
Mated?
She thought maybe Astrid would elaborate, but she only continued, “I wonder how long has this been going on for? And why they didn’t just show their relationship. I mean, if they’re in love, everyone should know it, don’t you think? Why hide it?”
“Love?” Yrsa snorted like she had said something ridiculous.
Astrid’s eyes narrowed. “What?”
“You’re naïve.” The woman shook her head, her short hair brushing against her shoulders with the motion. They passed by an arched window, and the sunlight glimmered off Yrsa’s brown eyes and made them appear a lighter shade of honey. “They clearly just lust after one another, so why would they need to share it with everyone else?”
“You said they were mated with one another,” Kolfinna interrupted, her still-damp boots sliding over the glazed, reddish tiles. “What did you mean by that?”
“Oh. You don’t know? The fae have this marriage ceremony that binds the husband and wife magically. It’s also called a mating ceremony, and once you do it, you can’t mate with another person like that again. I mean, you can certainly have lovers, or get divorced and marry someone else, but you willalways be bound to your mate through magic. And even if he or she dies, you can never do the ceremony with another person.”
“You mean the Bryllup ceremony?”
A slow grin stretched across Astrid’s face. “Yes, that’s the official name for it.”
“So Agnarr and Freyja are … mated?” It sounded strange to her ears; why would they choose one another if they loathed each other? But her mind traveled to what she had witnessed, and she wondered if they truly hated each other or not. “Did they choose each other because they had no choice?”
“I’m not sure, but it only makes sense that they mated.” Astrid stared straight ahead. “Everyone in the army was encouraged to participate in the Bryllup ceremony since it increases our overall power. General Agnarr and General Freyja are extremely powerful, so they only became stronger once they mated. But I wouldn’t have thought that they would continue to …”
“Continue to … what?” Kolfinna entered the familiar wing that told her they were in her tower. They climbed up the spiraling staircase, flecks of water from her wet braid dampening her shirt as she brought it forward and fidgeted with the wet ribbon holding it together.
“Well,you know.” Astrid chewed on her lower lip, something flashing in her eyes. “Most of us have had to … mate with someone we don’t want to, in the name of increasing power. That includes, well,copulating. Kissing or holding hands might make some power spark between you two, but you need to consummate for the bond to actually work. Most people do it once, and then never speak to the other person ever again.”
“Oh.” Kolfinna could feel the heat rising to her cheeks. Was that why Blár and her hadn’t had any changes to their power? She had been wondering it for a while now, actually. Their powers hadn’t increased significantly, if at all, and the onlytime she had felt different was when they’d initially done the ceremony and kissed one another.
“What happened to your mate?” Yrsa asked when they reached Kolfinna’s door.
Astrid’s expression soured. “Please don’t refer to him as my mate.”
“What happened?”
“He was thirty years my senior.” She shuddered. “I didn’t have many options, since most people didn’t want to bond with me.” Her hand slipped to her white hair and she began stroking it nervously, her eyebrows knitting together as a faraway look entered her eyes. “He died in one of the battles, and I only knew because of our bond. I never saw him again after our initial … coupling.” She shivered again, this time in revulsion.
Kolfinna couldn’t help the sympathy that welled in her heart for her. She couldn’t imagine bonding to someone she didn’t care for, and then being forced to be intimate with that person in order to receive their power.
“Why didn’t anyone want to mate with you?” Yrsa asked, staring her up and down. “You’re not bad-looking.”
There was a hard set to Astrid’s mouth. “I don’t know.”
Probably because she had a little bit of elf in her, Kolfinna realized as she took in the woman’s white hair. But she had more pressing questions to ask about the mating bond—questions that could help her figure out if and Blár could use it to their advantage.
“You can tell if the other person is killed?” she asked.
