Darkly Wed (Darkly Devoted Series, Book 3)

Chapter 1 - The Thorne Boy

DARKLY WED

Chapter 1

WITH A SMALL FLICK of her wrist, Alesandra Janvier knocked the wooden practice sword out of Blake's hands again. She smiled as she advanced on him as he dove to reclaim his sword.

"If this were a real fight, I would have taken your hand off along with your blade," Alesandra said, jeeringly as she held her blunt sword to his throat.

"Then, I am thankful we have nothing to fight over," Blake said with a laugh. Although he had recently started cutting his hair close to his head, when she looked at him she could still see the toddler with gorgeous gold curls bouncing on her knee. Be careful with Blake, her father had always warned, although he might look like a normal boy, he's more fragile than other boys. Even back then, one look into his curious green eyes with that impish smile and one could forget all his physical shortcomings.

It was, therefore, hardly fair, that when Blake finally rejoined the social scene last year, that he showed up as a strapping, physically perfect, twenty-five-year-old snack who somehow had held onto his boyish charm. The high society girls would have had a feeding frenzy if he hadn't simultaneously announced that he was already married to a girl no one had ever heard of. Vivienne Thorne, she was the envy of every girl who was still holding out hope for a storybook fairy tale of their own.

Alesandra had no such delusions about love. As for Blake, after the events of last year, he probably didn't either. Vivienne Thorne turned out to be Melody Balan, the daughter of Gabriel Balan, the leader of the darkest House of the Manna City ruling class. On the night of Blake's cousin Octavia's wedding, his wife had attacked him and then ran away with his son. His wife hadn't been seen since, except to send her doppelgänger, the real Vivienne Minthe, to demand an annulment of her wedding from Blake.

"Your wedding band," Alesandra said as she watched Blake toss the sword from hand to hand. He was similarly clumsy using either. "It's an alloy of Janvier metals."

Blake nodded as he brushed his hair back. That was a nervous habit of his even though he had cropped his hair short. "It is. You have a good eye."

"Did you create it yourself?" Alesandra raised an eyebrow. Her family had supplied Pearl Tower with their chains to bind Orlins to their demonic masters for generations. The idea that they might not have a monopoly on forging the bonds between human and demon was unsettling.

"No, it was some old heirloom. It means nothing. Funny story, the only time I ever tried to exercise my ability in metal enchanting was on an old cameo necklace I found in my grandmother's attic."

"How did that go?"

"A very regrettable incident. I ended up destroying it."

Alesandra wondered if it was worth her time to press him to elaborate but then decided against it. It didn't matter. It wasn't worth the trouble. The ability to forge Janvier steel was worthless unless one could use it in battle. Judging by Blake's clumsiness with the blade, she wasn't worried that he was going to send enchanted knives flying into her chest.

"You should take it off," Alesandra said as she continued to study the wedding band. "Let the past die. I can get rid of it for you if you would like."

"No, I've grown accustomed to wearing it. But it means nothing, trust me."

Over the past year, Blake refrained from speaking about his reclaimed bachelorhood. This time as no different. He commenced with their sparring session by coming at her again, once again giving in to his tendency to strike with wide swipes of his blade. It was adorable that he had virtually no instinct for sword arts. Elaezer was similarly stunted on the battlefield, which was why he gave into whoring about and cultivating a drinking problem rather than to take on their family legacy. Alesandra supposed she was lucky, both her father and brother were too busy being hot-headed idiots to care much about what she did in her free time.