The Name I Should Have Called Chapter 08
The mating ceremony took three full months to prepare.
On the morning of the ceremony, I was woken before dawn to begin preparations.
The attendants styled my long hair into an elegant twist, securing it with a feathered pin and fastening pearl earrings to my ears.
The woman in the mirror had red lips, soft roses in her cheeks, and a light in her eyes I had never seen before.
At the altar, I held white winter roses and looked at Darian.
He wore a dark charcoal suit, a crimson ceremonial sash pinned to his chest.
Grandmother sat in the front row, laugh lines creasing around her eyes with joy, clutching a handkerchief as if ready to wipe away tears at any moment.
Just as we began to recite our vows, the iron gate creaked open.
Kieran stood there.
His coat was wrinkled, his collar crooked, his hair wildly disheveled by the wind. His eyes were red, filled
with exhaustion and pain.
The garden fell utterly silent.
“Elena,” he said, his voice hoarse and broken. “You can’t do this. You waited fifteen years. You said you
would only bond with me.”
“I was wrong. I see that now. Come back with me. Next year, I’ll answer your call. Even if the pass is buried in snow, I’ll come.”
He took a step forward. The bag in his hand slipped, spilling a cloak and gloves onto the stone floor.
He bent down to pick them up. Then he stopped. He just crouched there, looking up at me.
“See? I bought you new things. I was wrong before. Whatever you want, I’ll give it to you. Wherever you want to go, I’ll take you there.”
I looked at him, but my heart was calm.
The face I had pictured in my mind so many times now seemed completely unfamiliar.
“Kieran,” I said quietly. “Do you remember the avalanche? When I was pinned under the rocks, and you me to hold on?”
told
He free, his lips parting hot fit sound coming out
“Lield on,” I said. “From seventeen to twenty five. Froff the day my parents died until today.”
“You said I belonged to you. That everything I did was owed to you. But Kieran. I never belonged to you.”
A sharp cry cut through the garden’s peace.
“Elena, you useless…”
