Aria woke with sunlight on her face and her husband's arm heavy and warm across her waist, and for a long moment she simply lay still, listening to him breathe.
They had been married twice now. Bonded once in the Blackwood with nothing but instinct and desperation, and now formally, in front of three thousand witnesses, with vows chosen on purpose. She had thought the second time might feel smaller, a formality layered over something already true. It did not feel smaller. It felt like the difference between knowing a thing and having it witnessed, and she had not expected how much the witnessing would matter.
Kael stirred beside her.
"You are thinking too loudly," he murmured, eyes still closed. "I can feel it through the bond."
"I am thinking about how strange it is to be married twic
