Her body sagging heavier in his arms.
The light around her faded.
Kael pulled her closer, shadows wrapping around them like a cocoon.
He pulled at her leathers trying to get to wound. To fix this.
But his hand caught at her neck, on a silver chain.
He pulled it from its rested spot tucked beneath her leathers.
At the end of the chain he saw something that ruined him fully.
Hanging like a pendant was a ring of moonstone and white gold.
His promise to her.
And for the first time since he was crowned,
The king wept.
Chapter seventy-seven
The Space Between
-Maris-
There was no pain here.
No weight.
No body.
Only light, soft and endless, flickering around her like stardust suspended in water.
Maris drifted through it, untethered.
Not falling.
Just… floating.
Somewhere between what was and what might be.
She didn’t know how long she’d been here. Time didn’t work the same. There was no heartbeat. No breath. No fear.
Just stillness.
A voice then.
Not harsh or cruel.
“You are not done.”
Maris turned, though she had no limbs to move, no eyes to see and the space around her shifted.
Four figures emerged.
The gods.
