No one said a word when Fordham and Kerrigan left their room later that evening, but everyone had knowing smirks on their lips. The house wasn’t big enough to hide their actions, and they hadn’t exactly been quiet. Kerrigan couldn’t even be embarrassed. It had been necessary. Long overdue in fact.
The tension that had built between them had to come crashing down at some point. There was still so much unknown, but the mating bond had snapped back into place. And now, she was certain of at least one thing—Fordham.
“Well,” Vera said with an arched eyebrow, “are you ready to eat?”
“Famished,” Kerrigan admitted.
Cleora and Danae exchanged a look as they settled at the dining room table. Keres was nowhere to be seen.
“Where did Keres go?”
“She said she had an errand to run,” Vera said. “Eat, and then we’ll talk.”
Kerrigan wanted to argue, but then Vera set a pot of some kind of thick stew on the table, and all her arguments went out the window. The ritual had taken everything out of her. She was beyond hungry. She needed the nourishment down to her very bones if she wanted to be recovered enough to face what was coming next.
She was finishing off her third bowl while Fordham chewed on the end of a loaf of bread with amusement when Keres returned. She pushed back a white hood as she stepped into the house. Rain had soaked into the shoulders, and her red hair frizzed like a halo around her face. She wiped off her sandals and then, on inspection, stepped out of them entirely.
“You’re up,” Keres said with a warm smile.
“I’m up.”
“And eating me out of house and home,” Vera muttered.
“Unsurprising.”
“What errand were you running?” Kerrigan asked.
Keres smiled as she slung the cape onto a hook by the door. “Why don’t we start with your tale, and we’ll end with mine? Are you prepared to tell us what happened?”
Kerrigan took a long sip of the provided wine. Fordham’s eyes caught hers, and he just smiled. The gentle tug on the bond was enough to fortify her.
“Well, when I went under, I entered a sort of spirit plane.” Cleora’s head popped up in excitement at that. “Not like the one that I had gone to willingly. This was more a way to commune with the … dead.”
Keres remained impassive, but everyone else sat up a little straighter. Clearly, there were questions.
“I saw Cyrene.”
Vera rose to her feet. “But Cyrene is alive!”
“I know. I was concerned about that too. She said that I summoned her there and she was there to help me. I was escorted to a sort of tribunal before deceased Doma. Or at least, I think most of them were Doma because Helly was there. She was my mentor,” Kerrigan explained. “But fully Fae as far as I know.”
“How do you know the rest were Doma?” Keres asked.
Kerrigan shrugged. “Cyrene said so.”
“And who is Cyrene?”
Vera waved her hand. “She was my prodigy. She lives in the other world.”
Keres nodded, as if satisfied with that answer, but Kerrigan couldn’t leave it at that.
“She was my idol. I looked up to her. She was just a human, and yet she was changing the world. I wanted to be more than I was because of her.”
“Cyrene makes everyone feel like that,” Vera whispered.
“She does,” Kerrigan agreed. “I miss her.”
“As do I.”
“What happened after she took you to this tribunal? What was the court assembled for?” Keres asked.
“They were debating whether or not to return my magic. Because I … I’m descended from He Who Reigns, and he has done much damage.”
Keres’s lips pursed. “I see. But they finally agreed. Why?”
“The leader of the group was his mother.”
Keres took a step backward. “You saw my grandmother?”
“Yes. She never gave her name, but she said that she birthed He Who Reigns and she wasn’t punished for it. So, I shouldn’t be either.”
“I see.” Keres turned her back on the group. “Did she give a name for herself?”
“No.”
Keres gulped. “He struck her name from memory. Even I can’t remember it. I was hoping …”
“He can do that?” Danae asked softly in wonder.
“Yes. He can do so much worse.”
Kerrigan’s heart went out to her mother. She and Kivrin had never really gotten along, but he wasn’t a monster. Not like He Who Reigns. What must it be like for Keres to have divided loyalty to a man like that?
“Continue,” Keres said, swallowing back the emotion she was choking on.
“I bled.” She turned her forearms over and was surprised to see matching scars. They were old now. Almost silvery but still very real. “And then I went for my magic. I met … a star goddess. I don’t know how else to explain it, but she told me I was taking too much and to stop. When she touched me, I woke up in the water again.”
“A star goddess?” Vera asked in confusion. “Have you heard of such a thing?”
“No,” Keres admitted.
“Nor I,” Cleora said.
“Though it explains the pool,” Fordham said.
“It, uh … sounds like an Andine tale,” Danae interjected.
All eyes turned to her, and she flushed at the attention. She had made herself so small since coming along with them that it was hard to remember the bold girl who had stood up for herself before her father, a king of Andine.
“I’m not familiar with Andine tales,” Keres admitted.
“Nor am I,” Cleora agreed.
“Well, we had many tales about our gods and goddesses. After the war, we weren’t to speak of them anymore. But back home, I kept an altar to our gods. I tried to keep the stories alive in me, even when they were being wiped out.” Danae sighed. “I don’t know how much it matters, but our gods weren’t like the Doma. They were powerful beings that existed on another plane. And the star goddess was one such tale. She and her husband and lover held power over the stars, planets, and moons. Together, they kept the celestial bodies moving, and you could wish upon her benevolence whenever you saw a shooting star.”
“I had heard that story,” Keres admitted. “I hadn’t taken it at face value though. I thought it just a story.”
Danae shook her head. “Not to Andine.”
“Interesting.”
“Well, whether I met your star goddess or not, I have my power back,” Kerrigan said, holding a small flame in her hand. “And now … now, I think it’s time to go home. Any thoughts on where to find a portal?”
Cleora sighed. “They’re heavily guarded. There’s only three in Domara, and He Who Reigns uses them exclusively. Even the other Doma aren’t allowed to use them without permission.”
Kerrigan glanced at her mother. “Is that true?”
“Yes,” Keres admitted.
“So … how do we break in and use one?” Kerrigan asked.
Fordham sighed at her side. “Why did I know that was going to be the way your mind worked?”
“Because it’s obvious. If we need a way back home and there’re only three portals, then we go to the nearest one, infiltrate the area, and walk through it.”
“And the guards?” Fordham asked.
“And dragons,” Cleora added. “They’re not like your dragons. Ours are beasts.”
“Keres,” Vera said with an arched eyebrow.
Keres put her hand into the pocket of her white toga and removed a small gold bangle. “That brings me to my errand.”
“Is that what I think it is?” Cleora asked in awe.
“What do you think it is?”
Cleora was half to her feet, reaching for the piece of jewelry before remembering herself. She snatched her hand back. “It’s an artifact of the time before He Who Reigns. The same people who built the aqueducts and coliseum in Carithian. I’ve read about them. The seven bangles of old.”
“Indeed. This is one of the seven. It was given to me when I reached my maturity.” Keres stared down at it with profound sadness on her face.
“What does it do?” Kerrigan asked.
“What I ask it to do. But for our purposes, it can open a portal to another world.”
Kerrigan’s mouth dropped open. “That little bangle can open a whole portal?”
“Yes. Though … it is not without its difficulties. It requires equal amount of power as the destination to which I am delivering you to. So, an immense amount for another world, which I will provide for us, as it would kill most people who attempted to use it.” Keres’s eyes moved to Kerrigan. “As my daughter, you could wield it, but … I am not sure anyone but Doma would survive.”
Kerrigan frowned. “Then, we should use it together.”
“No,” Keres said at once. “I will do this. I need to do this to make amends.”
“You don’t have to …”
“But I do. Allow me to do this.”
Kerrigan nodded. “Okay. You’ll open the portal, and we’ll all walk through.”
“Yes. Good,” Keres said. Her eyes were downcast before she sighed and looked up at her again. “And I have one other offer. Now that I better understand your power, I believe that I can pass the Daijan bond from myself to you.”
Fordham rose to his feet swiftly. “You can pass the bond?”
“Why didn’t you say so earlier?” Kerrigan demanded.
Keres smiled sadly. “Without your magic, I never could have done it. Breaking the bond is nearly impossible, but transferring that bond is permissible. However, I can only do so to someone who could handle such a responsibility. And I can sense … that there is already something between you two. Something that rings of truth.”
Kerrigan and Fordham glanced at each other. She could sense the mating bond. That had to be it.
“There is,” Kerrigan agreed.
“Yes, I can see it there between you. An old sort of magic.”
“What would giving Kerrigan the bond do to us?” Fordham demanded, crossing his arms over his chest.
“There is little known about this. I have transferred bonds before, and they were much the same as what I already held. She would have power over your magic, and you would be bolstered by her magic. But I have never transferred a bond to someone who is already bonded. I can’t say what will happen. Only that I assume you would prefer your love to have this power than a stranger.”
Kerrigan swallowed. “It’s your choice. I know you want to get rid of it.”
“Yes,” he growled. “Yes, I want to be rid of it.”
“I’d never use your power.” Not as Keres did. The words went unsaid between them. “You know me.”
Their eyes met. “I trust you.”
“Then, we should do it.”
Keres nodded and led them out of the back door. It was still drizzling outside. Kerrigan’s hair immediately puffed up to three times its original size. Rain always did that to her locks. Fordham looked as perfect as ever. Even as he walked toward the celestial pool as if he were walking to his doom.
They stopped before the pool where Kerrigan’s magic had forever changed. It was incredible to see it again in the dying afternoon light. The way the stars seemed to swim, as if they were still caught in the sky.
“Why here?” Kerrigan asked.
“It has already worked great magic,” Keres explained. “I’d like to use the energy here since we have it. It might or might not help, but I prefer to think that it will. Are you ready?”
“Yes.”
Fordham nodded.
Keres set them up so they were facing one another. As she had done in the arena, she crossed their wrists, one over the other. Only this time, she put Kerrigan’s wrists on top of Fordham’s upside down and had them clasp each other’s forearms.
“Ready?” Kerrigan whispered to Ford.
He nodded once, his gaze only on her. Keres had ceased to exist. The words she was speaking made no sense, and at the same time, it didn’t matter. Kerrigan was prepared to take on this bond. She wanted every part of her to belong to him and every part of him to belong to her. So there was nothing but the bond that remained.
“I love you,” she told him.
Balls of light appeared in Keres’s hands, illuminating the space.
“I love you too,” Fordham said.
The light danced into each of their hands. They lifted them upward as one, not to their own foreheads, as had happened during the Daijan bond ceremony in the arena, but straight upward. They were still linked. Kerrigan didn’t know if it was even right to do, but she couldn’t break away from him.
Mirrored balls of light conjoined into one large ball over their held wrists. Keres broke off her words, staring up at the light in shock. Something must have gone wrong, and yet it felt so right. So very right.
They dropped their hands together. The ball falling to the ground. Wind and shadow rushed out across the clearing, rippling the celestial pool and blowing debris from the edge of the trees.
Kerrigan could feel his magic then, the shadows that crept along his body, that he barely held at bay. She could sense every inch of his magnificent power and how it could be doubled and tripled and quadrupled under her own power. But beyond that, the magic was a thread, a tether. Not one directional, but two.
Fordham could feel her power as well.
She gasped at the first touch of his shadows against her deep well of magic. The way his eyes lit up as the magic went two directions down the mating bond.
Keres hadn’t known what would happen to someone already bonded the way they were. She’d assumed it would work the same way. She had been wrong.
As one, they reined in their magic until nothing but a soft current of air and shadow swirled around their bodies. The mating bond and Daijan bond becoming one tether that linked them together completely. A new sort of bond that made them both more powerful than they had ever been alone.