A rebellion brings Elyas Roverik and Sayra Olloria in a marriage that could destroy both of them.
Elyas had no choice but to choose a side in war, and he chose to support the bastard son of King Sylas. After almost dying, Elyas has no desire to kee...
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Sayra followed the priestess as she led her outside. She knew the ceremony by now. She had never forgotten it. Sylas didn't allow it. He said it was a stupid tradition and that she should have been preoccupied with the nobles.
" Sayra Kamari Olloria, descendant of gods, choose."
She knew the words by heart. All the way to Ashinora, she had repeated them in her mind, knowing she couldn't get it wrong. After the wedding, when Sylas forbade her from doing the ceremony, she told them to herself before sleep. It didn't help. She still felt as if she had turned her back to her gods, as if she spat at their feet.
She thought of all the women before her who had done that. Her mother, her aunt, her grandmother, and so many others. It was a tradition in Felloria. The royalty usually chose one of the main goddess, although her mother had chosen Rivya, the goddess of crossroads. She had done it because she had been at a crossroad when she married Sayra's father.
Like Sayra herself, Levaya didn't want to marry a stranger. She did it, though. But her mother found happiness Sayra never managed to find. She wasn't going to be foolish again. She doubted happiness was something she was going to have in her life. Maybe that was the price for being a Princess, and then a Queen, for having so much when others have so little. Maybe it was the balance of life. She had a title, gold and even power. But she wouldn't have happiness. Yes, that had to be. The balance given by gods.
" I choose Itziar, the Queen of gods."
The priestess took the golden paint that had been left there before the wedding and started drawing the symbols. The paint was cold on Sayra's skin, but she waited for the priestess to be done. Two ravens had been drawn on her wrists, and a star on her chest as much as the dress allowed it. The final symbol was a constellation, the Crown, signifying who Itziar was as well as Sayra's title.
She could feel the power of the symbols and could feel the goddess' gaze on her. Sylas had always laughed at her beliefs, but Sayra knew the blood that ran in her veins. She knew who she was. She had not allowed him or anyone else to make her forget.
" From this day forth, you are under the careful eye of Itziar, Queen of Gods, Protectress of Slaves, Goddess of the Sky, till the world ends, the sky turn to fire and the seas boil, when the land is taken by darkness, and the world begins anew."
Sayra bowed her head. Although the ceremony had been made, it didn't help her, didn't ease her nerves. She feared the future and what it brought to her. Marrying Sylas, becoming Queen, she had been ready for that. But this... Being the wife of a lord whose goals were unknown to her, being a hostage to keep her brother in check. She was not ready.
As the priestess led her back to the throne room, Sayra wanted to run. What was she doing? She couldn't do it. She couldn't. Sylas was a known monster. She had been able to read him from the day she met him. Simple gestures could tell so much about a person. But this man who was now her husband? She had no idea who he was.
