Viola Grace - - Return of the Nine 03 - Hiding Read Online Free PDF Page B

heard Apolan gasp.
    He kept moving forward with her, his footfalls eager.
    The crevice in the rock was invisible to anyone who didn’t know how to approach it. Daphne had been to the glade dozens of times before the hidden cavern had called to her.
    The crystals that lined the cavern walls lit as they walked between the trees and into what Daphne privately called the heart of Gaia.
    “I am guessing that the walls sense the electromagnetic field of living things. They wake when we enter, and they darken when we leave.” She kept her words quiet. He was too busy exploring the interior of the cave.
    The white flowers that marked the clearing above also grew in the darkness of the cavern. The scent here was heady. It woke parts of her that she didn’t know she had.
    With Apolan exploring the walls, she walked to the stone that took centre stage and watched him as he caressed the walls, stroked the crystals and murmured to himself.
    The large crystal in the middle of the stone tablet drew her attention. Idly, she stroked the flat panel before she delicately drew her fingers down one sharp side.
    “Daphne, what do you think this is?”
    His loud words in the silence startled her. She drew her fingers back, and the edge of the crystal drew blood. “Ow.” She put her bleeding fingers to her lips and sighed. “That has never happened before.”
    Apolan looked at the stone, and his eyes widened. “Oh, goddess.”
    The crystal that had tasted her blood was bright blue with light and power. It hummed.
    “Daphne, I believe that you have stumbled upon the original bonding chamber of the Nine.” Apolan looked at her fingers and the blood that still welled there.
    She looked around her in wonder as she realized where she was standing. Generations of the Nine had come to this place and joined together as one.
    The joy and warmth spilled through her over and over, and as she turned to imagine the couples that had stood in that place, searing pain ran through her hand.
    Apolan looked from her to the stone and back again. “This is coming on much faster than I anticipated, but since you started the ritual, I must complete it or you will suffer.”
    Her knees buckled as the pain coursed through her, and it radiated from her fingertips down her arm.
    “What do you have to do?”
    He smiled and kissed the back of her hand, helping her to her feet. “I have to marry you.”
     

Chapter Seven
     
     
    “What?” She wasn’t sure she had heard what she thought she heard.
    “You started the bonding ritual. We exchange blood, and it bonds us on a cellular level.”
    She blinked and clung to him with the unwounded hand. “Can’t I just get some medical treatment?”
    He sighed. “Does it feel like it is getting better?”
    Fire was spreading through her in waves. “I am sure I will be fine.” She gasped and held onto him, her nails gripping his shirt.
    “I have intended this all along. I was hoping that things could move at your pace, but it seems that you have taken matters out of my hands.” He supported her with one arm and focussed his attention on the crystal.
    He grazed his fingertips along the edge of the crystal, and it parted his skin as easily as it had hers. He turned his hand to hers, and his wounds matched against her fingers.
    She felt heat, but not the burning of earlier. They held their fingers together palm to palm, the wounds lining up on their hands.
    “Daphne Harrow of Gaia, I take you.”
    She blinked and remembered her late-night reading. “Apolan Leoraki of the Forest folk of the Nine, I take you.”
    The crystal sent streamers of light into the room, bringing Apolan’s face into bright relief. He was grinning a foolish, happy grin.
    She didn’t have much time to admire his smile. His kiss met her lips with a passion and conviction that stunned her.
    Being held against him sent her mind reeling. He wrapped one arm around her while his other hand slipped his fingers between hers. Her hand felt complete,