“I wasn’t going anywhere.”
She leans in, presses her lips to my sternum, then props her chin on my chest. “I don’t want this to be just a moment.”
“It’s not.”
She watches me for a long time, and I let her. Let her see whatever it is she’s looking for.
Eventually, she nods. “Okay.”
That one word does more to crack the walls around my soul than a thousand promises ever could.
She kisses me again, slow and lingering, and I know—no matter what happens next, this is the point everything changed.
We are no longer two creatures navigating a dead planet.
We aretogether.
And that changeseverything.
She kisses the side of my neck, just beneath my jaw, soft and warm and deliberate. Not testing. Not hesitant.
Like we’ve done this a thousand times.
She sighs.
And I swear it’s the most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard.
My arms tighten around her without thinking, and for a moment, I don’t breathe. I just feel. Her heartbeat against my chest. Her scent, sweet and real and unmistakably hers. Her hair tangled across my shoulder, her cheek resting in the crook of my arm.
She’s here.
With me.
Still.
“I half expected to wake up alone,” I mutter.
Her lips curve against my skin. “I told you. I don’t run.”
I close my eyes, exhale slow and steady. The storm outside has passed, but inside me… something’s still settling. Something tectonic. Like the shift of continents beneath old, cracked skin.
“I need to say something,” I whisper.
She draws back just enough to see my face, eyes still heavy with sleep but alert. Curious.
I stare at her for a long moment, memorizing every detail. The freckles scattered across her nose. The curve of her mouth. The faint mark where she bit her lip last night.
“You are…” I start, and the words stick in my throat. Too heavy. Too ancient. Too sacred.
But I force them out.
“You are myjalshagar.”
She blinks. “Your what?”
“Jalshagar,” I repeat, slower this time. “It’s… old. From my people. It means something like… soul-bound. Chosen. Fated.”
She lifts a brow. “Like soulmates?”
