Her fire isn’t pain.
It’s … something else, a strange, spreading numbness. Every nerve holds its breath, unsure if I’m being broken open or blessed.
When she comes again, I can feel it like a crack in the universe, and before I can even breathe, I see them. Massive copper antlers rise from the top of her head, bone-wild and radiant, crowned by the horned god and anointed by the goddess of wild things.
I stay buried in her, my hips twitching with raw worship, as a delicate crown of red-thorned sweet briar winds its way between her glowing antlers.
Aurora has finally claimed her power. And she will be a force beyond reckoning. I feel it through our connection, and it eclipses anything I have ever known.
As I watch the sweet briar crown bloom, tension surges through me, my shadows shuddering like they’ve been waiting for this. They slither down her body, curl over her ribs, and stroke the tines of her antlers.
One lingers at her neck, trembling, in awe of what she’s become.
Ours. Finally.
Heat coils low in my spine, and when I come, I spill inside her with a force that rips the breath from my lungs.
I’ve seen beauty and horror in equal measure. I’ve lived long enough to stop believing in wonder.
But this?
This is what brings me to my knees.
Not because it was earth-shattering, but because it was hers.
And now I don’t know if I’ll ever be whole again without her because when I fractured, she held every ugly, broken piece of me and made me hers.
She’s trembling, the storm inside her finally burning itself out.
Her antlers still shine, and her hellfire still rages, but the moment I pull out of her, she curls into a ball and starts softly snoring.
A stupid smile tugs at my lips, the kind I’ve always despised in others. It’s the look of a weak, desperate fool who’s given up everything for someone else, who’s let their heart and soul slip through their fingers.
But this is different.
Neither of us has given anything up.
We only make each other stronger.
Leaning down, I give her a soft kiss on her bruised lips.
“You’re mine, Aurora. Forever. There’s no turning back. You’re everything, little lupine. My anchor, my undoing, and my peace.”
When the goddess turns away from me, I go still. Something’s there—something new.
A tattoo now spans the upper half of Aurora’s back. It’s brutal. Beautiful. And undeniably hers.
A white-tailed deer skull rests between her shoulder blades, crowned in thorny sweet briar. The antlers stretch wide, their tines curling up her neck like scorched filigree.
At the center, cradled between them, burns a flickering, vivid orange sphere of hellfire.
For a moment, the world goes still. And so do I.
Only Pin and Thread could’ve left something like this behind. Meddling little fuckers.
Even after everything we read, I never saw this coming. But it makes sense. She can shift now. The magic had to carve itself into her somehow.
I kiss the space between her shoulder blades, then slip away to the bathroom. I run a washcloth under warm water, soaking in the silence, then return to the bed to wipe her clean.
