He didn’t know the extent of what this meant, but he didn’t really care at the moment. Because even now, even stripped and broken and undone… he had never wanted her more.
He looked back at Alora. Admiring the way the darkness drifted around her like mist, her eyes gleaming like rubies. He could already see what kind of goddess she would become.
“You’ll learn to control it. That is, until I steal it back.”
Alora sat on the bed with a heavy sigh. “How?”
Rune rested an arm on his bent knee, studying her. “That begs the question, doesn’t it?”
A god’s bride would eventually change and grow stronger when connected to her husband’s magic. It had happened to the brides of his brother. He had seen it happen to Sunnëva.
But this…this was something else.
She possessedhis magic, Rune suspected it awakened what was already there.
Herown magic.
Magic, he suspected, that didn’t come from Salvia.
Whatever stirred in Alora’s veins had healed his burns, soothed parts of him that had ached for centuries. Her scent had made his mouth water, but once he had a taste of her, she fed a deeper instinct in him… one he did not like to acknowledge. A deep-rootedhunger. Some primitive instinct whispered that if he devoured her body and soul, he would taste a power beyond anything that had ever walked these realms.
He forced that thought away, burying it beneath breath and bone, but the instinct lingered like a craving.
They sat in silence for a while. Eventually, Alora laid down on the bed, pulling a blanket around her shoulders like armor. She stared at the fire flickering in the hearth.
“What happens now?” she asked softly.
Rune didn’t answer.
Because he truly didn’t know.
Alora shivered under the blanket. “I… I feel cold.”
Yes, it had been that way for him too, for a long time. A consequence when one lives eternally in darkness.
“Will the daylight burn me?” she whispered, a little tinge of sadness in her voice.
“I suppose we will find out come the dawn.” Rune rose to shut the curtains tight and sat on the bed beside her. “But I doubt that it will.”
“Why?”
“Because you were not damned as I was, Alora. Your soul is still pure, and by default, so is your magic.”
Alora searched his eyes for a moment. Hesitantly, she brushed his fingers resting on the sheets. Her shadows were cool and gentle to the touch.
Rune sighed, secretly relieved. “See?”
She didn’t protest when he lay down beside her and pulled her against his chest, wrapping an arm around her waist. Her shivering eventually stopped, and she curled into him.
“We can’t return to the mountain like this, can we?” she whispered. “It’s not safe for you.”
Rune warmed at the thought that she would worry about him. He ran his fingers through her hair, murmuring in her ear, “Well, I am not opposed to spending several days in this cottage with youalone, songbird.”
She nipped his fingers with her new fangs.
He hissed, his grip tightening on her as he hardened. “Behave, or I will tie you up again.”
She retorted. “As if I couldn’t tie you up myself.”
