“Loving you was always inevitable, my réalta. You are perfect for me. Your fire, your dedication, your love, your playfulness, your acceptance. I was on a crash course to loving you from the moment you put that knife to my throat. The bond only confirmed what I already knew. That in any life, you will always be mine.”
“You love me,” she stated. Not a question, but I nodded anyway. Her eyes shone with tears, and a part of me panicked. Until I felt for the bond.
The feeling coming from it nearly bowled me over. I knew I was unloading a lot on her, and that before this, she hadn’t been ready for what an immortal bond meant.
But now…
Chapter Twenty-four
Asteria
He loved me.
Me.
Soren had said he loved me once, as we said our goodbyes. I was well aware even then that he didn’t truly love me. He might have thought he did, but he’d never reallyknownme. How could he, when I had never opened myself up to him? To anyone?
Calix was the first.
He’d come into my life like a cataclysm, destroying everything that was there before… but making room for something new in the process.
He was a dragon, after all. Destruction was his forte.
My new life was shaped around him in many ways, but he was careful to ensure it wasn’t only centered on him. I had friends who were practically family, a purpose, freedom, and so much more.
But through it all was Calix.
He was the moon of my life, in the center of my sky, lighting it up any time he was around.
I’d been fighting tonotfeel for so long, that opening myself to the wild torrent of emotions I felt for him was more frightening than anything else I’d faced. But I couldn’t live my life in chains anymore. Not now, when I was finally free. And what was life without fully experiencing everything it had to offer?
Holding myself back from him was just another chain, keeping me in the slave mentality that nothing was truly mine.
Buthewas mine.
And I was tired of fighting it.
So what if I was scared? I’d been scared before and pushed forward anyway. It was time to face my fears. To embrace the future I knew I wanted. I would let no one and nothing stand in my way.
Even if I honestly did fear what the future holds for us. The war terrified me. How we’d manage the future of two kingdoms frightened me.
But we’d figure all of that out later.
For now, I let my walls crumble, and let Calix feel the breadth of love I felt for him. A wave of it releasing from where I’d kept it locked up deep inside.
I watched him sway, his eyes wide as he watched me wildly.
“I’m not sure I even really knew what love was before,” I told him, laughing slightly. “But what you feel for me? It lights up my entire chest. You may be the darkness, Calix, but you’re what makes me truly shine.”
I tried to say the words, to vocalize what I felt, but they caught in my throat. Fear didn’t disappear all at once, I supposed. I’d let my walls down and let him feel the truth. Maybe that was as much exposure as I could take today. Because no matter what I did, I feared letting the words pass my lips. As if he’d be torn away from me immediately should I dare.
But he could feel that too.
So when he reached for me once more, I threw myself into his arms. My lips finding his and latching on. I kissed him with everything I had. All the passion within me pouring out into him. He reached down and grabbed the back of my legs, and I jumped up to help him, wrapping my legs around his waist as his tongue swept confidently into my mouth.
Fuck, I’d missed this.
I’d tried not to dwell on my lack of sex, what with all the insane changes in my life. But being around Calix, day after day, with no relief but my hand under the covers at night, had been agony.
