Rune froze, staring. “You woke?”
Her fingers brushed his lips. “When I could stand again, I tried to find you. I saw the battle and your defeat. I was desperate to reach you…” Vines of light flickered along her arms as memory surged. “And when the Heavens opened, and I heard your scream…” Her throat tightened. “I was desperate to stop that moment. To go back to the past before everything went wrong. And we did.”
Rune stared at her, speechless.
Alora smiled through her tears as she lowered in front of him. “I don’t know how or what power it was. Perhaps it was simplyfate giving us a second chance to fix our mistakes. Not only with each other but with Argyle and the future of the world.”
“You stopped the lightning bolt meant to take my life…” Rune stared at her with such wonder.
She nodded.
Shadows whisked them away, carrying them into his chambers. They reappeared at the center of the vast, darkened room. Rune’s hands curled at his sides, uncertain and hesitant, even now.
“I want to believe this is a second chance,” Rune murmured. “But I am the source of wickedness in the world. I am vile, evil, cruel, and committed far too many unspeakable acts to be spared any leniency by fate.”
Alora stood before him, barefoot and silent, the remnants of dawn still glowing on her skin. She reached up, brushing her fingers along the fading scorch marks on his cheek. “You are all those things,” she agreed. “But you are not evil.”
Rune laughed, quiet and broken. “That is only because you have not seen all the things I have done.”
“In my name,” she said.
“Do you forgive me?” he asked, voice rough with exhaustion and something rawer still.
And she knew he meant about that morning.
“Yes,” she said softly. “But I am still miffed. If you had been in my place, you most certainly would have rendered a past lover to ashes. Did you not threaten to remove Caelum’s head? And he had not even been a suitor.”
“Fair,” he rumbled and possessively pulled her closer.
“Then you understand my frustration.”
He chuckled against her throat, inhaling her scent. “Songbird, you are a trueborn goddess and something more, with a power that even rivals mine. You most certainly could turn Sunnëva to ash if you wished.”
Alora smirked faintly. “Don’t tempt me. I dare not start another war between the gods.”
“I would war against the Heavens for you.”
Rune kissed her like an apology, it was slow at first, gentle and adoring, his mouth fitting to hers as if memory itself had weight. Alora’s hands fisted in his shirt, the last of her anger melting into heat as his lips lingered, pressed, then deepened with a quiet hunger that said you are mine and I am still here. His thumb traced her jaw, when she sighed into him, he followed the sound, kissing her until the past loosened its grip and the present burned bright and undeniable between them.
When they paused for air, Alora rested her head against his chest. “Please tell me you never kissed her like that.”
Rune hesitated. “Ah…”
The shadows lashed outward like a whip, the table splitting clean in half, chairs bursting into splinters.
Alora gasped, startled. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean?—”
But Rune’s laughter made her jump, the sound warm and surprised. “Don’t be. If I am being honest, a part of me enjoys your jealousy.”
She glowered. “I think I preferred it when you lied. Why do your shadows respond to me now?”
Rune’s smile softened. He reached up and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, his touch tender as breath. “We are bonded, Alora. They accept you because you accept me.”
She couldn’t speak. Her heart bloomed into something too large for her chest, threatening to split her open. Tendrils of black mist curled around her, as if to whisper,Welcome, Queen of the Dark.
Yet still, she found herself asking, “Did they… accept Sunnëva too?”
Rune cupped her face with both hands, his red gaze fierce with sincerity. “That right has only ever been yours. The past Ishared with Sunnëva was brief and it holds no meaning to either of us now, except perhaps a sliver of regard. She has found her mate, and I, at last, have mine.”
