Mia sat down across from him instead of running, though every instinct told her to. She'd spent weeks preparing for this conversation without ever letting herself imagine what it would actually feel like to have it.
"There's a ritual," she said, and once the first sentence left her mouth, the rest came faster, like a dam that had held far longer than it should have. "Bound into your bloodline. It's been growing for generations — your father had it too, before you. It needs a night powerful enough to complete itself, and a bond strong enough to anchor it. The wedding was moved to this exact date because someone wants both of those things to happen at once."
Kade didn't move. For a long moment he said nothing at all, just stared at some point past her shoulder, and when he finally looked a
