“I was arguing with Mormor about why I refuse to take the Jarldom right now… when I felt your call,” Ström says as he touches me. His every move is intense as live-wire energy sings all through him now, that I called him with my light.
And he responded.
He touches me now; skating his fingertips down my bare collarbones, he strokes my upper chest, marveling at how everything inside us is on fire now, our very blood and bones razed by this towering brightness we’re feeling.
It’s not just inside my magic—it’s in his, as well. Despite his inner darkness, my bright realization about family, love, and friendship just now has spoken to Ström, deeply.
Because he understands all those things. Even though his heart is broken, mourning all the people he’s lost, something else inside Ström sings for all the love he’s had in his life.
That part of him resonates with me now, as that searingly bright sensation rises inside us. I feel it scald out through our fingertips as we touch. I feel it raze through both our bodies now as we press close, not kissing yet, as Ström whispers his lips over mine.
Marveling at what he has found.
“Your Bloodwalker magic. It’s calling to me.” He breathes hard now, as if it’s taking everything he has not to tip over into that massive brightness, and fall right in.
“So why are you resisting it?” I ask him, because I know how much this isolated place he’s in just isn’t Ström.
“Because… I’m broken.” But even as he says it, I feel how my power pours inside him, lighting him up from the inside out.
“Are you?” I ask him point-blank then, as I place my palm on his chest. Feeling his strong heartbeat, I press my point home to him. “This heart I feel in here, Ström, it’sgrieving, not broken. Your beautiful light is still in here. I know you feel it, just like I do, that abandoning yourself to darkness is not your way. Even when you were trapped by Alfhild Fey, killing people and doing horrors during her heists, you still built a beautiful friendship with the twins. You still lived life as much as you could, evenwhile you were shackled. So why are you cutting yourself off from us, and your people, refusing to step into your rightful Jarldom?”
“I was refusing my Jarldom… because I wasn’t there to protect them, Yava,” Ström explains with a slight frown now, but still also awe, as he touches me. “I felt like I had failed them; and I could not be their Jarl until I redeemed myself, killing the Black Dragon and our enemies who wield it. Then I would ascend to my Jarl’s seat and lead our people… once I proved myself worthy. Worthy of them. And worthy of you.”
“You know that’s stupid, right?” I say with compassion as I place my palm on his heart. “We’re all in this together, Ström. Not just you and me, or your people, butall of us.They need younow, Ström—just like we do. Not tomorrow, not next week… not after we’ve killed the Black Dragon, butnow. Your people need hope; they’ve just been decimated in a battle so heinous most of them are gone. They’ve lost homes, families, loved ones… They’re in exile, and you and I both know all about exile. They need the hope that only strong, true leadership can provide right now. Loving, compassionate leadership—likeyoucan provide.”
“My righteous drakaina, always giving me truth-bombs.” Ström chuckles as he sighs, though that riveting tension between us is not gone, as he spreads his hand over my thigh—gripping it gently but possessively, like he has talons. “I thought I was going to come in here and break down right now, sob my heart out to you. I thought I didn’t have the heart to lead my people; that I couldn’t find the heart to do it, when I can’t even find my own heart right now.”
“Your heart is far from gone, Ström,” I insist, as I press my palm harder to his heart, cupping his cheek in my other hand. “You and I both know it.”
Ström is serious as he stares me down now, something amazing in his vibrant green eyes as a vivid ring of white shines in them, that I’ve never seen before. I feel an intense heat scald through us, flowing upon the tide of this immense brightness we’re both sharing.
Roaring between us now, as we take each other in.
“I see you, Rikyava—I seeus. Ifeelyou, and me, together. If that makes any sense.” Ström’s lips are only a half-inch from mine now as this intense heat rages between us, wild.
“I see you, and I feel you, too. Not just in our hearts, but in our souls, as well…” I stare at him, everything inside me careening now, so bright. “I think with everything we’ve accomplished in our Bloodbond, we have become one in a way that goes beyond anything we’ve ever achieved before. And it’s fucking cosmic.”
“Cosmic…” Ström chuckles now, as he grins wide at my words.
Then kisses me.
Ström seizes me in his arms, unable to stand it anymore as this powerful magic roars between us. I feel his beautiful heart open up as wide as the sky as he kisses me. Though he’s realized so much because of this powerful love flowing between us, I also feel his vast heartbreak still darkening him.
He’s not broken, but his heart is in pain. His heartbreak isn’t hammering him down anymore from the immense weight of all that’s happened, but there’s so much heartache and tenderness in him now that I hitch a sob, feeling it as he kisses me.
Because Ström has always been buoyant before. Despite everything he’s gone through in his past, he’s always held onto his beautiful heart. He can’t find that buoyant place right now; he doesn’t know he can make it through this, with everything that happened with his family, and how disastrously the Black Dragon wrecked his people.
But I do, as I feel my heart shine for him. Because I have the heart to support him, and show him all the ways he is so bright and beautiful in this world. As something amazing bursts from my heart now, thundering in through my palm pressed to Ström’s, I feel my Bloodwalker magic in it.
As we kiss, Ström grunts from the massive power hitting him. Ineffable sigils spiral out all over us now, lighting up the room bright as day, as something massive shines from my heart—directly into his.
It’s insanely bright and beautiful, as that sensation pours from meinto Ström, diving into his heart and flooding him like a key to a lock. Because something inside Ström is locked right now; and I can unlock it, as my power pours all through him now, unrestrained in a tide of roaring light.
And unlocks all the curses from within Ström’s deepest heart.
Those curses were not of the Black Dragon’s make, but the curses of human emotions, devouring him. Like Lærke, Ström’s had a place deep inside his heart where he could never open up; never trust anyone to help him do so, because he had been so terribly wronged by a lifemate in the past.
But I feel my love, and my power, pour into the place where he was damaged. As something deep inside me unlocks those terrible, ancient curses from around Ström’s heart, as well as the newer ones from his family’s deaths, a massive wave of energy bursts in a thunderclap from Ström’s heart.
