“Peeble showed me.” She took a shaky breath. “Kaelren, Peeble isn’t just a beetle. They’re the First Elle. The original marked one, transformed by the Root into something that could persist through iterations, always watching, always hoping someone would finally break the cycle.”
The revelation should have shocked me more, but after everything we’d seen, everything we’d survived, it made a terrible kind of sense.
“Where is this seed?” I asked.
“Deep beneath the ritual chamber. There’s a passage that branches off the main tunnels—you’ll know it when you feel it. TheRoot’s presence is stronger there, older.” Her eyes searched mine. “You have to get it, Kaelren. When the Convergence comes, when Auradelle tries to force the merger—the seed is our only chance to break the pattern.”
“I’ll find it,” I promised. “No matter what it takes.”
She stood on her toes and kissed me, soft and desperate. When she pulled back, tears tracked down her cheeks. “I love you. I need you to know that, before everything goes wrong. I love you so much it terrifies me.”
“Elle—”
“Julian made me afraid of this feeling. Afraid of being vulnerable, of trusting someone with something this precious.” Her voice cracked. “But you… you’ve never asked me to be anything other than what I am. You’ve never tried to dim me or control me or reshape me into something more convenient.”
I pulled her close again, burying my face in her hair. “I love you too. With everything corrupted and twisted in me, I love you. You’re the only real thing left in my life.”
“Then show me,” she whispered against my neck. “Before we face what’s coming, before everything falls apart—show me.”
I pulled back to look at her, needing to be sure. “Elle, you don’t have to—”
“I want to,” she said fiercely. “I want this moment with you. Something that’s just ours, untouched by prophecy or politics or poison. Please.”
How could I deny her anything?
I kissed her again, deeper this time, pouring every ounce of desperate love into the contact. Her hands found my hair, tugging until I groaned against her mouth. When we finally broke apart, we were both breathing hard.
“Let me worship you properly,” I said, voice rough. “The way you deserve.”
The dreamscape shifted around us, responding to our combined need. A rustic treehouse formed around us with a vast valley below and a sky full of constellations above. A bed appeared, carved from oak and covered in velvet and violet colored petals. I guided Elle to it, laying her down with reverence.
“You’re so beautiful. I know I’ve said it so many times, but it never doesyou justice.” I murmured, tracing the path of her marks with my fingertips. “These marks—they’re not corruption or curse. They’re you claiming your power, becoming who you were always meant to be.”
She arched into my touch. “Kaelren, please—”
“Patience, love.” I kissed the hollow of her throat, feeling her pulse race beneath my lips. “I’ve missed this. Let me savor it.”
I took my time undressing her, my hands trembling slightly as they found the hem of her shirt. I lifted it slowly, my fingers trailing against her skin like I was memorizing the feeling—the softness, the warmth, the way she shivered under my touch. When the fabric was gone, my lips followed the path my hands had traced, pressing soft kisses to her collarbone, her shoulder, the sensitive spot where her neck met her jaw that I’d discovered made her breath catch.
“You’re a miracle,” I murmured against her skin, meaning every word. “Do you know that? Everything about you is impossible and perfect.”
She opened her mouth—probably to argue, to list all the ways she thought she was flawed—but I kissed her before she could, swallowing whatever protest she’d been about to make. We moved together, clothes disappearing with dream-logic until we were finally skin to skin.
The feel of her against me, nothing between us, nearly undid me completely.
“Wait,” I said, pulling back with visible effort. An idea had struck me, something I’d never tried with anyone else, something that felt right for her. For us.
I reached up to the tree that formed the walls of our dreamscape sanctuary, to where golden sap leaked from the bark. It came away on my fingers like honey, warm and sweet-smelling, glowing faintly in the amber light.
“What are you—” Elle started.
“Trust me,” I said, meeting her eyes.
“Always,” she breathed, and the simple trust in that word made my chest ache.
I traced one finger, slick with sap, across her collarbone. She gasped at the warmth of it, the slight stickiness. Then I leaned down and followed thepath with my tongue, lapping up the sweetness, tasting her skin beneath it—salt and Earth-rain and something uniquely Elle.
“Oh,” she breathed, her back arching slightly.
