Free Ember by Mindy Hayes

explained.
    Allura appeared at Declan’s side and hugged both Cora and Desmond. “You two are just a match made from the Fates,” she said.
    My eyes found their wrists now adorned with identical bands about an inch wide. Their light wooden bands were carved with matching ivy vines.
    “So do we exchange bands rather than rings?” I asked no one in particular. For some reason I was fascinated by the identical bands.
    Desmond and Cora looked at me in confusion as if they thought it should be something I already knew. The others nodded, accustomed to my incessant questioning.
    “Why do we hold wrists in a Root?” Declan tested me, and I felt like a five year old answering my teacher.
    “Our veins are our lifelines,” I repeated what I remembered like a good little student.
    “She’s my lifeline now.” Desmond gathered Cora into his arms, kissing her forehead.
    “It’s nauseatingly symbolic, is it not?” Kai commented. My eyes shot to the sound of his familiar voice and saw him leaning against the nearest trunk. Though I knew he was always near, he definitely made it a point to keep himself undetected when he was.
    “I actually think it’s kind of sweet.” I looked pointedly at him. “What’s wrong with having a reminder of your reason for living?”
    “Wow, Queeny,” Allura interjected with the rise of an eyebrow. “I didn’t take you for such a romantic.”
    I shrugged. “I just think it’s nice to get to be with the one person you love more than anything and know they feel the same way.”
    “It is,” Cora agreed, peering up at Desmond. “Des, how about we dance a little bit and then head home?”
    “Whatever you want, Cora.” He took hold of her hand, and they faded into the crowd.
    “It only made sense for them to be the first,” Allura dreamily said as we watched them retreat. “It’s about time they finally get to be with each other.”
    “Yeah,” Declan said somberly as he watched his brother and, now, sister mingle blissfully with everyone. Watching their happiness left an ache in my heart. Would I ever get the opportunity to be as happy as they were? Would any of us?
    I shifted my gaze to the tree and saw Kai’s eyes were not on them but on me. His eyes didn’t shy away, and neither did mine. I wished I could read his thoughts to know what was running through his mind when he looked at me like that. There wasn’t any way to really describe it. It wasn’t any one emotion I could pin point. It was everything all at once, drowning me in an ocean of sensations of which I never wanted to let go.
    Finally, he broke the connection, altering his stare to the gathering of fae with indifference and then left in the opposite direction without a word.
    “Let’s get in on this celebration, shall we?” Allura beamed. She reached out and took my hand, dragging me into the crowd to dance. If dancing would clear my mind, I would dance all night.
     
     
     

Chapter Seven
     
     
     
    A ll night long I had stayed awake in bed thinking about bonding. As a Royal what colony was I allowed to bond with? Kai and Declan had made it pretty clear that because of the law, I would never be able to be with either of them, not that I had let my thoughts wander that far into the future with one of them anyway. We were never going to be possible. But after Desmond and Cora’s bonding, it was as if I couldn’t think of anything else.
    Cameron normally would have been my first call when I couldn’t sleep. He would have talked me through this and listened. I wouldn’t have even cared if he didn’t have anything useful to say. I just wanted to hear his voice and to know someone had my back—someone understood how inadequate I felt. Gosh, I missed him.
    As Evan rambled on about I couldn’t even tell you what, that question started to nag at me. Who was I supposed to be bonded to? I hadn’t wanted to seem so eager before when talking about bonding, but this felt like a pretty important topic. How long would