Not because I’ve been dragged here. Not because fate stamped a label on my forehead and called it destiny.
Because I choose this.
Back home, what did I really have?
A job that ate my nerves and my nights.
An empty apartment with a couch that sagged in the middle and a fridge full of takeout.
A couple coworkers, a handful of casual friends, and no one who’d notice if I disappeared for a weekend—let alone a lifetime.
That’s not a life.
That’s treading water.
That’s surviving, not living.
Here, the ground hums beneath my feet with the pulse of a world that needs me.
Here, healers smile when I ask questions, miners nod when I pass like I matter, and a Demon Lord with fire in his veins looks at me like I’m the first good thing that’s ever happened to him.
Here, I have the chance to belong.
So yeah. I’m his.
Utterly.
Willingly.
Let him worship.
Let him burn.
Let him love me—please, yes.
Because I’m going to do the same.
For him.
For the Broken Plains.
For Nightfall.
But mostly for me.
It’s too late for anything else.
Chapter 19
Thorne
The Healer’s Pavilion, The Ember Vein Mining Camp
There is much to do to reinforce the wards protecting The Ember Vein before my fellow Lords return to their dominions.
The breach we uncovered must be sealed, every ward and protection spell re-threaded and fortified.
But I do not begrudge them their departure.
