The Bound (Ascension #2)(8)

“Because they’ll never let your kind marry such a lowly citizen. It doesn’t matter that I come from an aristocratic family. I’ll never compare to your magic. Is that it?”

“Viktor, no. Please! You’re distorting it.”

She yanked on her arm, and hysteria rose in her chest.

Cyrene wanted to knock him upside the head a couple of times until he realized what she was telling him.

“Will you marry me, Sera?” he asked, jerking her forward.

Serafina gasped. He was proposing?

Tears streamed down her face, and she couldn’t decide if happiness or despair had brought them on. She knew, as she knew nothing else, that she wanted to be with Viktor, and as certainly, she would never give her magic up for him.

“Viktor,” she croaked.

“Well, yes or no?”

“Give me time to think.”

“Think? You need time to think?” he cried. He released her wrist like he had been burned. “We’ve been together our entire lives, and you have to think about whether or not you want to marry me.”

“I do! I do, Viktor! I want to marry you, but…”

“But?” he roared. “The damn magic?”

“I can’t give it up for you!” she screamed, collapsing to the ground at his feet. “I can’t marry you. I can’t. I want to, but I can’t.”

In disgust, he took a step back, and Serafina let sobs rack her body. Her trembling hands sank into the cellar floor. She tried to control her breathing, but too much was warring within her all at once.

Cyrene felt the buildup before she thought even Serafina was aware of it. Where before it had felt like a river, now, it felt like a dam had broken, and a tidal wave was about to flood the entire city.

“I thought you loved me,” he cried.

“I do love you!”

“Maybe you never did.”

“Don’t say that. Please don’t say that.”

Viktor was silent for a second, listening to her sobs. He didn’t even offer her a hand.

But Serafina was starting to realize what was happening. Whatever she had been trying to do to tamp the well did no more good than adding a pebble to the barrier. She quickly grew frantic.

A few minutes later, Viktor knelt down in front of her. He placed his fingers under her chin and forced her to look at him. “You won’t marry me?”

She shook her head, unable to repeat the words.

“Very well.”

“Viktor—”

“No, it’s too late.”

“I love you,” she breathed.

“My father means to have me married by the end of the year,” he admitted.

Serafina’s mouth fell open. “Wh-what?”

“I wanted it to be you, but it must happen regardless. You’re forcing me to marry someone else, Sera. This is your doing.”

“No. Please don’t.”

He shrugged. “I have no other choice. Who would you have me choose? Tremlyn? Sauriel? Or should it be Margana?”

“How dare you ask me that! I will die if you marry someone else.”

“And I am already dead without you!”

The words crashed over her, and everything she had been holding back released in an uncontrollable wave. It knocked both of them back in opposite directions against the walls. Viktor slammed his head into the stone. Serafina fell in a heap against the shelving in the pantry. The walls shook, and all the food and supplies crashed down to the ground, destroying their safe haven.

“Viktor!” she cried, crawling out of the rubble and rushing to his side. “Are you okay?”

He groaned and tried to sit up. She helped him, but when her hand came back sticky, she realized it was blood. If she’d had any ability in healing, she would have helped him. But she wasn’t certain enough of her abilities as it was, and she had expelled so much power. She felt drained. She hadn’t had an explosion like that since she had been presented to the Doma court.

“What did you do?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” she whispered.

She could hear footsteps coming toward them.

Cyrene knew that this was wrong. This was all a secret, and Serafina couldn’t possibly get caught.

“You need to get out of here, Sera,” he commanded. He pushed her away and tried to lie back down.

“I can’t leave you here.”

“What would they do if they found you?”

“Nothing. I’m Doma,” she reminded him.

By the steely glint in his eyes, that was the last thing he’d wanted to hear. “You might get no punishment for using your powers here, but up in the castle, you might.”

Serafina tried to put on a brave face, but Cyrene could tell there would be a serious penalty. She was to be better than the law to be able to uphold it. The sneaking out to see a man would be enough to get her in trouble, but the outburst would cost her even more.

“It’s okay,” she told him.

She needed to be here for him. He was losing blood. He needed a healer.

“Sera, go! I don’t want to see you again.”

“Viktor, please.”

He turned his head away. “I’ll be married in a matter of months, and then what will we do?”