Now I skimmed my hand up his chest and leaned into him as he studied his obvious bite mark with masculine satisfaction and primal pleasure.

I was falling in love with him. Swiftly and hard. It didn’t scare me as much as I’d thought it would.

“Brute,” I whispered, teasing. “What is it with you and marking me? Now I’ll feel everyone’s eyes on it tonight.”

“Good,” he rasped, taking my hand and continuing on our way. “At least the males will know to keep their distance.”

The nerves kicked up in the notch of my throat the closer we drew to the front of the keep. There were two keepers stationed at the private hallway doors that led to the main foyer, making sure no guests strayed into the private areas of the house. After they inclined their heads at us, they opened the doors, and a flood of noise and light and laughter briefly startled me enough that I forgot my fear.

We entered the foyer with little fanfare, slipping among the growing crowd, who were waiting to be let into the extravagant, massive dining room just beyond the entrance doors. A dining room that we never used, which had been cleared of the table that must’ve sat nearly a hundred guests.

I heard the murmurs as our appearance registered among the crowd. Villagers from Laras. Nobles too. Travelers from all around the Kaalium, for an entire portion of the village had been cleared for their traveling tents. The keep kept its doors open on this night for any who wished to attend, but that meant the line went out the doors and down the tree-lined path toward Laras. It meant Kylorr guards were out in full force tonight, guards I’d seen patrolling throughout the village on occasion, in case trouble arose, and who I’d later learned had dealt with the aftermath of the kyriv attack.

Azur smiled and greeted all who called out to us. And when we bypassed the line to step into the dining room, which had been transformed by Kalia and Neela into a ballroom, I was too entranced by the beauty to notice that most guests turned our way when Azur guided me inside.

Overhead, there was a projection of a starry scape. Gone was the towering, vaulted white-stone ceilings of the keep. In its place was the indigo night sky, dotted with twinkling stars that looked so incredibly real. The orb lights were soft and dim as they weaved and swayed around the room. Candles had been brought out too, old fashioned and tapered, black in color with golden flames.

Haunting music echoed through the ballroom with instruments that sounded like human harps and violins but were somehow muted, their notes drawn out and wispy like smoke. Beautiful. Couples were dancing on the floor, swaying and gliding across the stone. I was relieved to see that it looked like a universal dance, the basic steps of which I knew well.

Flowers spilled from all corners of the room. Decorating the food table or perched on tall columns, vines trailing down like ivy. Beautiful blooms. Starwood blooms, I saw too, likely in remembrance of their mother, mixed in with creamy white flowers with large, velvety petals. They had a wild look about that, but the effect was glorious. It looked like we’d stumbled onto a ball deep in the woods of Krynn, lit up golden and glittering in the night.

“Kalia has outdone herself this year,” Azur murmured.

“Neela too. It’s beautiful,” I said. I took a deep breath, finally registering the multitude of eyes on us and the speculative expressions on their faces as they whispered behind hands. I swallowed hard, squeezing his forearm, finding his presence next to me comforting. “Are your brothers here?”

Azur scanned the crowd, moving me forward, skirting the dancing couples and making his way toward the left side of the ballroom. He wore a cool expression, seemingly unfazed by the sheer amount of looks being cast our way. As if this were a common occurrence in his daily life—which, perhaps, it had been. Kalia had told me their mother had thrown all kinds of parties and dinners at the keep in her time as Kylaira.

I wondered if the same was expected of me. Somehow, the idea of it made a stone lodge in my belly. It didn’t appeal to me. At all. It was what human women were expected to do when they took over great houses just like this one, when they married into wealthy, respected families. I’d much rather be deep in the records room up to my ears in numbers or flying across the sea with Azur. Or pruning gardens and visiting the village and walking the terrace walls, admiring the crash of the waves below, with Ludayn and Kalia.

“Kythel and Kaldur are likely in the smoking room,” he told me. The smoking room? “I don’t see Lucen or Thaine. Mm, there’s Kalia and Rivin.”

He pulled me toward his sister, who was dressed in a stunning midnight-blue dress, the first dress I’d ever seen her wear. Simple and delicate and understated, but I saw the eyes of Kylorr males practically glued to her, males I recognized from the village.

Males who averted their eyes the moment Azur stepped into their path, and I bit back a smile.

“Alaire’s mercy, look at you,” Kalia breathed, practically squealing with delight when she saw me on her brother’s arm. “Estee’s shop will be booked for months after tonight.”

I flushed at her praise, sliding closer to Azur. Rivin, who had shown up at the keep just a few days prior, gave me a wide grin. “Kylaira,” he greeted, and I couldn’t help but notice that his eyes dipped to the bite mark on my neck before that smile widened. “Shall I claim your first dance of the night?”

“Only if you wish to greet Raazos,” Azur cut in smoothly, clapping his friend on the back, making Rivin wheeze. My husband bared his fangs, which he hadn’t retracted, and added, “Behave and keep your hands off my wife while I go make the greeting to our guests.”

Kalia stifled a snicker but took my hand as I watched Azur stride away, making his way toward where the musicians were plucking away on their instruments on a raised dais at the front of the ballroom. He signaled for them to stop and turned to face the crowd with a charming smile that didn’t quite match him as the noise quieted considerably.

“Welcome,” his voice rang out once the room fell silent. I could feel the energy pulsing in the room, the buzzing. The Kylorr, I’d found, loved the harvest season. Everywhere we went in the village, there had been a childlike merriment and joy in the festivities. “Welcome, friends of House Kaalium. You honor my family by being here tonight, whether you have traveled near or far.”

Heavy feet stomped on the ground, a trembling roar in the room. A way of clapping, I realized, for the Kylorr, as their wings began to flurry in time with the beat.

“This was a year of blessings for our country. Our greatest lore harvest in our history. For Erzos, for Kyne, for Vyaan, for Salaire, and for Laras.”

Choruses of cheers rang out when Azur listed off his brother’s territories—cheers from their residents who had traveled to be here tonight—but the wing flapping and foot stomping when he said Laras drowned them all out. Azur waited patiently until the noise died down once more.

“Another blessing of this year is that Laras welcomed its new Kylaira.”

I froze as seemingly thousands of eyes swung to me, squeezing Kalia’s hand in my own, but I only watched Azur when his own red gaze locked with mine.

“My wife. My kyrana,” he said as whispers broke out among the crowd mingled with cries of exclamation and surprise, possibly from those outside Laras, “who will bring prosperity and perhaps reflection to our keep and to my family.”

There was a softness in those last words as he regarded me from across the room.

“I introduce her to you now, our friends. Gemma of House Kaalium, Kylaira of Laras.”

I pasted on a smile as the ground quaked my very soul, as the cheering echoed throughout the massive room. But I only watched Azur as shock reverberated through me. I’d never heard my name any differently. I’d always been Gemma Hara. And to hear my name attached to his own, to his family, to Krynn and this keep…it made me want to be alone with him. So I could feel the steady heat of his arms and savor the feel of his wings wrapping tight around me.