Bonds that Burn and Bind

Chapter 10 Part 2

"Are you Inanna?" he asked, and annoyance took over.

"No, for the hundredth time!"

Prince Derion's eyes went to my knife as if he were waiting for me to drive it through my hand.
When I didn't, he nodded his head slowly. "I had to be sure, your turn." He held out his open palm, which I placed the dagger into somewhat reluctantly, noticing for the first time that its hilt was a wolf with blue sapphires for eyes.

"Why did you issue a decree about taking a mortal wife and making her your queen without mentioning anything about the curse?" I asked.
"The curse can only be learned by those physically in The Kingdom of the Forest of Clouds. It's one of the rules the curse imposed upon me and my subjects. I suspect its purpose was to both cripple efforts to seek outside help and to create even more mistrust with the Mortals. But nothing in my decree was false. If a mortal woman does survive the tests, I will make her my queen. A queen does not always have to be the wife of the king, just somebody he chooses to rule alongside him.

He handed me back the knife. "Are you working with Inanna?" he asked and shrugged off my answering glare. "Answer out loud."

"I am not working for her. Again, today was the first day I learned she existed."

When my hand remained unimpaled, I passed him the dagger.

"You said you had rules you must follow for the curse. What are they?"

"I already mentioned the first rule—no one outside my kingdom can learn about the curse. The second is that me and my bride must marry before the test commences. If we do not, the curse will randomly kill several hundred of my subjects."

And just like the prince dragging me here, it didn't seem that extreme anymore. He was protecting those he cared about, although he could've also just explained that to me.

"The third is I can't directly help you with any of the tests, or you die. And if someone else tries, both you and them die. The fourth is that neither I nor any of my people can leave my kingdom. Even if we get through the barrier, our bodies get eviscerated." He held up his bloody hand.
"But I met Rhodwin in No-Land, and that land doesn't belong to Fae nor Mortal."

"She and Ash are not my subjects. They are here as my guests under my protection."

He passed the blade back to me. "Are you under Inanna's influence either willing or unwillingly?"
"No," I said, thrusting the blade back into his grasp with less hesitation this time. I sucked on my bottom lip as I tried to think of what I wanted my final question to be. I still had so many unanswered questions.

Prince Derion's eyes darkened, focusing solely on my mouth, and I reflexively covered it with my hand. He blinked and shook his head like a horse shaking off flies, looking ashamed as he averted his eyes to the wall.

"Why did you kill Alma?" I asked.

Prince Derion stiffened. "Why do you need to know that?" he asked, staring at a particularly large crystal like he wanted to murder it and its entire crystal family.

"I thought the one with the dagger only answers questions, not asks them."

"I answered all your additional questions."
"You chose to do that. I choose to do this." I didn't want to explain that I needed to know if Alma's, the mortal woman he supposedly loved, death was justified or not. I liked knowing how much I could trust my allies, especially if those allies had enslaved mortals at one point.

"Fine," he said, and I glimpsed that same sadness in his eyes— deep enough to get lost in. He suddenly looked so tired. I imagined falling in love repeatedly, only for it to always end in tragedy, would chip away at even the strongest person.

"To prevent the destruction of Dalmar," he answered at last.

"How did her death prevent that?" I asked, caught off guard by his answer.

"I do not need to answer that, seeing you do not feel obligated to answer all my questions." He passed the dagger back to me.

"Do you serve Istulu?" He asked, and his stare intensified, his jaw tightening.

"No, who is Istulu?" And as those words left my mouth, so did most of the hostility in his expression—replaced by weariness.

"Come, it's time we fulfill the second part of our bargain."

"Does this mean you finally trust me?" I asked.
"I do not have to answer all your questions, remember?"

Damn, maybe I should have just told him why I had asked that question about Alma, I thought, but my pride wouldn't allow me.

He led me into the pool, which only came to about my ankles to stand before the altar. Then he faced me, grabbing my hands like Frederick and I had at my wedding less than an hour ago. He was careful not to touch the dagger blade still in my hand. Instead, we held it between us, its tip pointing toward the water. Together, we made a strange portrait in the pool's rippling surface.
My eyes wandered up to the crystal star, while I pondered how the Star Mother felt about marriages with an already married woman.

"Okay, so what do we do now?" I asked, returning my gaze to the Fae Prince. Patterns of refracted rainbow light from the crystals played across his face, sparkling in his emerald green eyes.
"We say whatever vows we want to each other," he replied. "Then we ended with Star Mother bind us."

I nodded, and we lapsed into silence.
"You first," I said. My bare toes were growing numb in the pool's cold water.

He nodded. "I vow to be your husband. Star Mother bind us." He nodded at me.

Well, if he was going to keep it simple...

"I vow to be your wife. Star Mother bind us."
A vision flashed in my mind's eye of two ends of golden thread being woven together. Something deep within me reached out and grabbed onto something deep within Prince Derion and bound itself to it. And suddenly, I could feel Prince Derion's sadness, that he was famished, and he was enjoying the warmth of my hands almost as much as I was enjoying the warmth of his hands holding mine.

"What's happening?" I blurted out. "How can I tell what you're feeling?"

"The Star Mother bound us together," Prince Derion responded, matter-of-factly, as if he was telling me it was raining outside. "That's what happens when she marries you."

Panic flooded me as I stared up into his face. "I thought you said this wasn't a real marriage?"
"No, I said this wasn't a true marriage, but the marriage is real."

Damn the Fae and their deceptive nature!
"Relax," his voice softened, the small circles he made with his thumbs on my hand dispelling most of my tension. "If I was feeling his emotions, he was likely feeling my anxiety. "Since it can be easily broken. We're lucky this isn't a true marriage or a mating bond. Those are far stronger and far more difficult to shatter."
Then he frowned, and his expression hardened. Something invisible and solid came between us, cutting me off from his feelings. I exhaled in relief.

"Whatever you did, it worked," I said.

"I put up a mental shield. You'll have to learn how to put one up eventually, too. I'll take you back now," he said as the wind roared in my ears and the world blinked out of existence in a mesh of swirling colors, that swallowed my yelp of surprise. When the world came back into existence, we were in the bright circular room again.