Casteel withdrew, pressing our hands together, palm to palm. He threaded his fingers through mine as he guided our joined hands to the rings. Air hitched in my throat as I watched my blood—our blood—slide down our palms, to our wrists. A drop and then two fell, splashing the rings.
Jasper was quiet as Casteel eased his hand from mine. He picked up the smaller ring, his right hand still clasping mine. “I’ll put the ring on you, and then you’ll put the other ring on me.”
I nodded.
“Turn your palm up to the sky,” he said quietly. When I turned my hand over, my eyes widened.
The cut had closed, but across the center of my palm was a thin swirl of vibrant gold that shimmered even with the sunlight obscured by clouds. “How…?”
Casteel grinned at me. “Magic.”
It had to be that.
My hand was surprisingly steady as he slipped the dirt-and blood-streaked ring over my pointer finger. It was a little loose, but I didn’t believe it would slip off.
“Your turn.”
I picked up his and held my breath as I fitted it over his finger.
And then I watched in stunned silence as the dirt and blood seeped into the rings. The bands flared an intense gold and then faded, their surfaces now pristine.
“It is done,” Jasper said, rising. “You are husband and wife.”
The day turned to night.
My lips parted as I looked up. The gathering clouds had turned the sky the black of midnight, from the east to the west, to the south and north. Not a single trace of sunlight could be seen, even though it couldn’t be more than an hour or two past noon.
“My gods,” Vonetta whispered.
Casteel rose swiftly, bringing me with him. He pulled me to his side as he stared up at the black sky.
“Is this an omen?” I asked.
“It is,” Jasper confirmed, his voice rough. “I haven’t seen anything like this since…Gods, since your mother and father married. And even then, Casteel, it wasn’t like this.”
Casteel lowered his gaze to the wolven.
“This is an omen. A powerful one.” Jasper shook his head in wonder. “A good one from the King of Gods.” The unnatural clouds started to scatter, and sunlight broke through as Jasper smiled. “Nyktos, even asleep, approves of this union .”
The gold band glimmered in the sunlight cascading through the windows of our bedchamber. Slowly, I turned my hand over. The swirl of shimmering gold followed the line closest to my fingers. I dragged my thumb over the curling line. The heavy dusting of gold didn’t disappear, and I…I couldn’t believe I was married. That I’d gone from being Penellaphe Balfour, to the Maiden, and now, Penellaphe Da’Neer.
“I hope you’re not already having second thoughts. But if so, it’s not going to rub off.”
My head jerked up as Casteel strode out from the bathing chamber. “I’m not trying to rub it off.” I watched him walk around the bed, my heart already tripping in my chest. “And I’m not having second thoughts. I just don’t understand how this is possible—the gold on my hand. How the blood and dirt just…sank into the rings and disappeared.”
“When I said it was magic, I was only half teasing.” He sat beside me, taking my hand. The contact sent a jolt of awareness through me. “It’s the gods. Their magic.” He ran his finger along the mark. “And this is like a tattoo but goes deeper than ink. All married Atlantians have this imprint until their marriage ends.”
“Through death or decree?”
Dark waves tumbled over his forehead as he nodded. “The mark will then disappear.”
That would be a terrible way to discover that someone died. I shivered.
Casteel’s gaze lifted to mine. “Did you not believe in the gods at all?”
I started to say yes, that I did, but it was more complicated than that. “I believed what I’d been taught about the gods by the Ascended. The only magic was the Blessing. Other than that, they were like…silent sentinels who watched over us, and that it was our duty to serve them through the Rite.” I laughed—laughed at myself. “Now when I say that out loud, I recognize how ridiculous it sounds. How blind I’d been.”
“It only sounds that way to someone taught differently from birth.”
“We thought their magic was the Ascension. That the Ascended were proof of that power,” I said as Casteel trailed his fingers to the ring around my pointer finger. I realized something. “It surprised me when you placed the ring on my pointer finger. In Solis, the ring is worn on the fourth finger, but the line the imprint is on is closest to the pointer finger.”
“Clever girl,” he murmured, brushing back the strands of hair that had fallen over my shoulder. “The line in your palm is believed to be the one connected to your heart. That is why the imprint is made there.”
“It’s sort of beautiful,” I admitted.
“It is,” he said, and I could feel his gaze on me. My breath caught. “I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling all kinds of special,” he added as he skimmed his fingers over the back of my neck and then the delicate chains of the necklace. “It has been several hundred years since Nyktos has made his approval of a union known.”
My pulse skipped. “Not since your parents.”
“So I’ve heard. My father would boast about it. Tell any who listened that the day turned to night when the ceremony was completed. I don’t think Malik or I believed him, but he wasn’t lying.”
“And Nyktos hasn’t done that for anyone since then?”
“Apparently, not. That is good news, Poppy.”
“Unlike the Blood Forest tree that appeared in New Haven?”
“We don’t know if that was good or bad,” he replied. “We just know it was really weird.”
I laughed, unable to help myself, and it felt good to do that. To not fight a laugh or a smile, and to be happy.
That look crossed Casteel’s features again. The one he wore when I approached him before the ceremony. The one he wore every time he heard me laugh or smile. “Why?” Curiosity filled me. “Why do you look like that when I laugh? Or smile?”
“Because it’s a beautiful sound and smile and you don’t do it nearly enough.” A slight flush crept across his cheeks as he looked at my hand. “And every time I hear it, it feels like I’ve heard it before—and I mean, like before I even met you. Like deja vu but different.”
That made me think of what Kieran had shared. “What does heartmates mean?” I blurted out.
Casteel’s gaze returned to mine. “How have you heard of heartmates but not the marriage imprint?”
“Well…” I drew out the word. “You see, you have this bonded wolven that often says very vague, mostly unhelpful things.”
He laughed at that. “He does, doesn’t he? He spoke to you about heartmates? When?”
“A few days ago.” What felt like an eternity ago. “He said he thought we were heartmates, and I thought he was crazy. He didn’t tell me what it meant other than something about it being more powerful than bloodlines and gods.”
“That was vague.” A smile played across his lips. It was a tired expression, but real. I saw a hint of both dimples. “Heartmates is…it’s almost more of a legend than Nyktos giving his approval for a union . Not fable, but so rare that it has become myth.” He toyed with a diamond teardrop as his lashes lowered. “It started at the beginning of recorded time, when one of the ancient deities fell so deeply in love with a mortal that he pleaded for the gods to bestow the gift of long life on the one he chose. They refused, even though he was one of their favorite children. And they refused each and every year, as the one he loved grew older, and he remained the same. Then, when his lover was old and gray, the body no longer able to support life, his lover left to join Rhain, where not even he could travel. Heartbroken, the deity did not eat or drink, and it didn’t matter that the gods pleaded with him. Even Nyktos himself came to this land and begged him to live. He told him that he couldn’t, not when a piece of his soul had left him when his lover died. It was a piece he would never get back, and without it, he had no will. Eventually, he became dust.”
“That’s…that’s really sad.”
“Some say all great love stories are.”
“Some people are stupid.”
He laughed again. “But I’m not finished. The gods realized their mistake. That they had underestimated the capacity for love—of two souls and two hearts that were somehow meant to be joined. They were heartmates. The gods knew they could not bring their child or his lover back, but when it happened again, with another of their children, an ancient daughter who’d had many lovers come and go throughout the years, they relented. When she came to them to ask that her mortal lover be given the gift of life, they agreed, but on two conditions. Both were presented with nearly impossible trials designed to prove their love. If they succeeded, the deity had to agree to be the source of her lover’s life. Her lover would need to drink from her to remain by her side. Of course, she agreed, and they completed their trials. They would do anything for the other half of their souls and hearts.”