She looked at their reflections, two ghosts layered over the moonlit fury of the sea. She saw herself, a small, slender woman with wide, haunted eyes. Her form seemed fragile, ephemeral, almost translucent against the vastness of the night. And beside her, his reflection was a column of solid, perfect darkness, a being of impossible heightand breathtaking power. His inhuman beauty was a stark, terrifying contrast to her mortal frailty. A woman who had been broken and the ancient force she had summoned to make her whole. They were a study in contradictions, bound together in the same silvered frame.
With a slow, deliberate breath, she turned to face him. The guarded weariness was gone from his face, stripped away to reveal something she had never seen before: a raw, aching vulnerability. The fires in his eyes were banked low, smoldering embers of a grief that was centuries old. The sight of it disarmed her, melting the hard edge of her anger and suspicion.
“Tell me,” she whispered, her voice barely a sound above the roar of the surf. “Not about the price. Not about the debt. Tell me about the fire. About Siklab.”
A tremor went through his massive frame, a barely perceptible shudder, as if she had spoken a name that was a wound. He looked down at her, and for the first time, his gaze held no power, no seduction, no judgment. There was only a vast, profound sorrow.
“Siklab was not a name,” he murmured, his resonant voice imbued with a new, melancholic cadence. “It was a function. A feeling. It was the thrill of the first spark struck from flint. The warmth of the fire that cooked the day’s catch. The cauterizing heat that sealed a warrior’s wound.” He lifted a hand, and in his palm, a small, gentle flame bloomed, its light soft and golden, dancing without heat or malice. “I was a part of the balance. I was the heat that gave life, and the fire that cleared the way for new growth. When a volcano bled onto the land, it was my blood, renewing the soil.”
His gaze became distant, turned inward to a world she could only imagine. “There was a… a song, then. A great rhythm. The rain sang its part, the roots of the trees sang theirs. The prayers of the people were a part of that song, a steady, powerful beat that gave me strength, that gave me purpose. I was not worshipped as a god to be feared. I was acknowledged, as a part of the whole. A brother to the stone and the sea.”
The gentle flame in his hand died, and his hand clenched into a fist. A cold fury, the one she had felt on the night of Ramon’s judgment, entered his voice. “They did not just cut down the trees and enslave the people. They silenced the song. They built their square, white churches and told the people that the rain was just water, that the fire was just a tool, that the spirits of the land were devils to be exorcised. They replaced the great rhythm with the sterile clang of a single, bronze bell. They taught the people to fear me. And a thing that is only feared… eventually becomes a monster.”
His pain was a palpable thing in the room, an ancient grief so profound it seemed to suck the warmth from the air. Lina felt an ache in her own chest, an empathy that transcended logic. She saw him not as a demon, but as a refugee, a being exiled from his own nature by the cruelty of men.
She stepped forward, closing the final inch of space between them. She raised her hands and cupped his face, her thumbs stroking the sharp, perfect lines of his jaw. His skin was scorching hot beneath her touch. “You are not a monster to me,” she said, her voice fierce with a conviction that surprised her.
He closed his eyes, leaning into her touch like a starving man offered a feast. A deep, shuddering breath escaped him. When he opened his eyes again, the fiery embers were molten, vulnerable. He was no longer a god, no longer a demon. He was hers.
This time, when their lips met, it was not an explosion of power or a declaration of control. It was a kiss of profound tenderness, a quiet, desperate search for solace. His hands came up to her waist, his touch gentle, reverent, as if he were holding something infinitelyprecious and fragile. She deepened the kiss, a silent offering of comfort, of acceptance, of a sanctuary he had never known.
There was a new urgency to their lovemaking, a frantic, almost sorrowful need to erase the centuries of his solitude and the years of her pain. It was not a battle for dominance, but a mutual surrender. As they moved together on the moon-drenched sheets, their bodies entwined, Lina felt the talisman flare against her chest. It was no longer her anchor alone. With every beat of her heart, it pulsed. And in the silent space between beats, she felt an echo - the slow, powerful thrum of his immortal heart answering back. Their life forces were synchronizing, the ancient artifact that bound him to her service becoming a bridge between their very souls. It was a connection deeper than flesh, more binding than any spoken vow.
Later, they lay tangled in the aftermath, the scent of their passion mingling with the salt on the night air. His arm was a heavy, comforting weight across her waist, her head pillowed on his chest. She listened to the slow, powerful rhythm of his heart, a sound as steady and eternal as the waves crashing on the shore below. The physical ache was sated, replaced by a deep, resonant calm. But the silence that settled between them was heavy with the weight of Rosita’s warning. She had touched the soul of the man he once was, but she was still bound to the demon he had become. The price was still out there, a shadow waiting at the edge of her perfect, impossible sanctuary. And as she drifted toward sleep in his arms, she knew that their desperate, beautiful attempt to imprint themselves on one another was not an ending, but a fortification for the battle that was yet to come.
Waning Season
The house was a miracle of polished marble and impossible views. It had risen from the cliffs overnight, a place conjured from moonlight and seafoam, its vast windows staring out at an endless expanse of dark water. For weeks, Lina had moved through its silent, echoing halls like a ghost, half-expecting it all to dissolve with the morning mist. It was her reward, her sanctuary, her gilded cage.
Tonight, a warm sea breeze drifted through the open glass doors, carrying the scent of salt and night-blooming jasmine. Lina sat curled on a low sofa made of some impossibly soft, white material, a book open but unread in her lap. The only light came from aconstellation of small, enchanted flames that hovered in the air, casting a gentle, golden glow. Beside her, Maruz was a statue of living darkness, his formidable frame stretched out with a languid grace that belied the power contained within it. He stared out at the ocean, his thoughts as deep and inscrutable as the abyss he watched.
She had grown accustomed to his silences, to the sheer weight of his presence in a room. It was no longer terrifying, but grounding. He was the anchor that kept her from being swept away by the memories of her old life. She reached out, her fingers tracing the subtle patterns that moved like smoke beneath his bronze skin. It was a familiar landscape to her now, these ancient scripts of his being. She felt the low, resonant hum of him, a vibration that seemed to calm the frantic hummingbird of her own heart.
He turned his head, his volcanic glass eyes fixing on her. A slow smile touched his perfect lips. “You are quiet tonight, *summoner*.” The name, once a formal, terrifying title, had become an endearment, a private joke between them.
“I’m happy,” she said, and the simple truth of the words surprised her. “It feels... strange. To not be afraid.”
“You need never be afraid again,” his voice was a promise that vibrated in her chest.
She smiled, a real smile that reached her eyes, and leaned in to rest her head against his shoulder. The warmth of his skin soaked into hers. It was in that moment of perfect contentment that the world stuttered. For a fraction of a second, his skin flickered. The swirling patterns vanished, and his arm became a translucent shape of smoky grey. Through the solid muscle of his bicep, she saw the dark blue of the ocean beyond the window.
She jerked back, a gasp catching in her throat. The illusion snapped back into place. He was solid again, the patterns swirling, his skin a deep, warm bronze.
“What was that?” she asked, her voice tight.
Maruz didn’t look at her. He continued to gaze at the sea, his expression unreadable. “A trick of the light.”
But she knew it wasn’t. The chronic, hair-trigger anxiety that had been her constant companion for years surged back with a vengeance. Her heart hammered against her ribs. She reached out again, her hand trembling, not in affection this time, but in a kind of desperate, scientific inquiry. She pressed her fingertips against his arm.
It felt solid. Warm. And then it didn’t. There was a sickening lack of resistance, a cold, unsettling give. Her fingers sank a half-inch into his form, the sensation like pushing through chilled, densely packed mist. A profound, unnatural coldness leeched into her fingertips. She snatched her hand away as if she had touched a corpse.
“Maruz.” His name was a blade. She scrambled off the sofa, putting distance between them. The enchanted flames flickered, mirroring the tremor in her hands. “What is happening to you? Tell me.”
He finally turned to face her fully, his expression one of infinite weariness. “It is the nature of the bargain, Lina. The season is coming to an end,” he said, his voice retaining its infuriating calm. “I am fading. My anchor to this world is temporal. It was forged in the heat of your desperation, sealed with your blood on the night of the full moon. It is a powerful magic, but it decays with the lunar cycle.”
She stared at him, the pieces clicking into place with horrifying speed. “The full moon,” she whispered, her gaze flicking toward the window, where a perfect, silver disc was beginning its ascent into the sky. “That’s next week.”
“Yes,” he said, his obsidian eyes holding hers, devoid of any emotion. “When the moon is full again, the bargain’s energy will be expended. I must return to the nethermost halls.”
