Page 158 of Enchanted Shadows
He first handed me a small, rectangular box before heading to the credenza to pour us each a whiskey. “Open it.”
I did, finding a dagger I had seen before. A dagger I knew well. “Krew.” My voice sounded shredded. My heart stunned and stuttering under the weight of this gift.
“It’s your turn to borrow that, Raikes. I couldn’t be happier for you.”
“Krew,” I repeated. This wasn’t just a weapon, this wasthedagger. The one used in his and Jorah’s bonding. The first soul bound pairing of a decade. The soul bound pairing which seemed to have broken the dam on countless others. And then this same dagger had been used in Keir and Esta’s bonding here on Wylan soil. “What if?—”
Krew shook his head, holding up a hand to stop me. “No what ifs. You’re family, Owen. And you have been long before you married my sister.”
It was always his sister, neverhalf-sister. Then again, King Krewan Valanova did not work in halves. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Say you’ll use it,” Krew replied simply.
I had to slide the lid back on the box, feeling a prick in the back of my eyes. Was it dusty in here? “Okay, but don’t expect?—”
“I don’t expect a damn thing, Owen.” He moved to put the whiskeys down and gave me a hug, a real honest to goodness man-to-man hug. “We’ve been to hell and back together. I found my joy and happiness. It’s beyond time you found yours.”
“Thanks.” I had much to be grateful for this day.
“I love you,” Krew said with one last slap to my back. “Jorah and the boys do as well.”
“I love you all,” I managed to get out.
He grabbed the whiskeys back, handing one out to me. “I’m going to want to get to know my sister better,” he admitted. “But you’re bonding and then training starts soon.”
I read between the lines. He was thinking we would be recovering from a soul bonding in the between. “She’s not going anywhere,” I told him.
“Good.”
“While we are being all sentimental,” I started, earning a snort from Krew. “Thank you for being the type of king she could seek refuge under. You’re a good king Krew, but an even better man.”
He looked to his amber whiskey, and I wondered if he, too, was feeling emotional. “Who would have thought all those years ago when the disloyal was formed, we’d be here today?”
I laughed, if only to keep from blubbering about. “Your sister thinks that love might be the greatest Enchantment of all. I’m leftto wonder if we hadn’t had some help along the way, the help we found in our loved ones—” I thought back to the sword, that purple tree which housed it, and all its odd ways, “we might not have arrived here at all.”
He smirked. “To love then. The great conqueror.”
I clinked my drink against his. “To love.”
“Owen!”my sister snapped.
I closed the door. “This is my room, thank you very damn much.”
“It’s your bonding day,” she argued. “You can’t see her before....”
I pinned them all with a look. Kessara looked ready to punch someone, and it made me smile. I wasn’t sure which of the two of us hated being the center of attention more. “Ialreadymarried her.”
“But—” Sam argued.
“Get out.” I was trying my best not to be too rude even as the words themselves were fairly straight forward. Did they not see how very small my restraint was in not kissing my wife? That this was the longest I had gone without her since I had her back? “Please get out. We have humored you by getting all dressed up again, you have been with her all day, but this is about the two of us.”
“Fine,” Wren whined.
“I don’t suspect we will see the two of you for a few days,” Molly said cheerfully as she patted me on the shoulder.
“God I hope not,” was Kessara’s response as she reached out to hug her.
Molly turned back to me. “I hate to say I told you so, but Ididtell you that fake relationships rarely work the way you want them to. So in that case, I did tell you so.”
