We continued pampering ourselves through the evening and I headed to bed at midnight, smelling like vanilla and looking forward to waking Orion. I’d put on a silk blue teddy which was nearly transparent, and I closed my white dressing gown around it as I jogged down the cool corridor to my room. I’d bribed one of the rebels to get me some more fancy underwear on their last supply run too to replace the ones Orion had destroyed, but he’d already massacred a few of them. It would have been kind of annoying if it wasn’t so hot.
I stripped out of the gown as I made it to our door, tossing it onto the floor and taking a moment to draw my hair forward over my shoulders and fluff it up a little before stepping into the room. The bedside light was on but I frowned as I found the space empty.
I grabbed my Atlas from the nightstand, typing out a message to Orion but I got distracted as a drumming started up inside my head and I was bathed in the absolute feeling of needing to go somewhere. I just wasn’t sure where that somewhere was…
I threw my Atlas on the bed and turned towards the door, hurrying out of it as the urgency intensified and I walked down the icy tunnels on bare feet, too distracted to will fire into my veins to warm me.
I blinked and I was outside, my feet sinking into the mud left behind after last night’s storm and guards shouting to me beyond the rising drums in my head. I’d somehow lost track of the time it had taken for me to walk out here and though I knew deep down that something about this could be dangerous, I still couldn’t tear myself from the path of fate which was guiding me forward.
“Princess!” one of the guards cried, trying to run forward and grab me as I headed to the barrier, but I flicked a finger, knocking her back with a gust of air.
I headed through the boundary and let my wings burst from my back as I stared up at the impossibly clear sky, the stars seeming to shine brighter than I’d ever seen as I took off towards them. They were whispering, plotting, speaking my name and beckoning me onward as I flew far and fast, pushing myself hard as I sailed over the dark and sleeping land below.
I lost track of time once more as I found myself flying above a city, the lights twinkling and glittering in the windows.
I circled down, the pull in my chest intensifying until I spotted a grassy hill rising up behind a tall building at the edge of the city with trees dotted across it. I wasn’t afraid as I landed, my feet pressing down on the golden leaves and crunching under my weight. The wind picked up and carried the fallen leaves around me in a circle, marking out a ring that seemed to hum with expectant energy.
My wings flexed against my back as my gaze rose to the stars and I felt their unimaginable power weighing down on me, making my heart beat to a beautiful, hungry pace.
Destiny was calling to me and I knew I stood right where it wanted me to be. I could feel fate wrapping around me, binding me to this moment. And for once, I was sure this wasn’t some curse or cruel twist of fortune. This was a gift from the stars, and they were about to ask something of me which I had to answer. And as I watched the sky, it started to shift, the heavens rearranging until the Gemini constellation sat right next to the Libra constellation, glittering so brightly it was hard to keep staring.
My breathing became shallow as it pooled out before me in a fog, because I suddenly knew what was happening. I’d been taught about it in class, Tory had described it to me, I’d even dared to wonder if Orion and I might be Elysian Mates too on occasion, but to actually find myself offered this bond with the man who owned my heart still left me speechless.
“Hello, Blue.”
I dropped my head, finding Orion there before me, his breaths coming heavily as if he’d run all the way here and I supposed he had. He stepped into the circle of peace carved out for us and suddenly the world beyond the ring of leaves blurred and we were captured in a dome of starlight, standing before one another with no one but the stars to watch. The air was perfectly still within the bubble of calm, and everything was so quiet it was like the world had been wrapped in cotton wool.
I stepped forward, our hands clasping and his eyes igniting as his gaze fell down me. “You must be freezing.”
“I can’t feel anything but this moment,” I whispered, staring up at my soulmate. The Fae chosen for me, perfectly designed to match me in every way. And as I looked up at the stars, I had to wonder if they were truly spiteful, or if they just had a twisted way of leading us to our destinies. “They made us for each other.”
He nodded, a smile spreading across his face as he drew me closer and I could hardly breathe with how much I needed him in that moment. The stars were whispering our names, driving us together, offering us a life united, bound and promised to one another in every way. And though I didn’t need the stars’ acknowledgement of our love to be happy, now we were here I couldn’t deny the rush I felt at the idea of having him marked as mine. Of laying a permanent claim to this man who had brought so much good into my life that it made me feel like rays of sunshine lived within my flesh.