“You’re right. Of course you’re right. Wanting to keep you out of danger, then expecting you to be fine with me throwing myself into the thick of it, is wrong. I’m sorry. My instinct when the stakes are high is still to undertake a lone-wolf approach, despite my efforts to cure myself of that for you.”
I stroked his pectorals and they flexed beneath my soft touch. “No. You don’t need to cure yourself of it. I understand with your unique position in the supernatural world, you can’t really do that. Just… at least entertain a compromise when there’s one available. That’s all I ask.”
He nodded. “We are one now, we must act as one. What hurts me, hurts you, and vice versa. We will establish a link and I’ll channel you if it comes to that. You have my word.”
“Thank you,” I breathed, relief singing through me.
“It may not even come to that. It depends on the size of the construct.”
“I know, but I can’t risk you.”
“I understand, treasure.” He nuzzled against me. “I truly understand.”
We sank into one another.
And then I frowned to myself as through all this complexity and the emotional aspect of him and my family being involved, it’d had me missing something. “Your plan relies on a link between Ruxnoth and Winter. How do you know there is one?”
“That fiend would never have allowed him to go free. He went to great lengths to infect him beforehand to essentially ready Winter for that encounter he forced into being. Now he’s finally connected with him, he would have ensured it was maintained somehow, even across time and distance. Winter is essential to the survival of Sanctus and Ruxnoth’s overarching goal of forcing it onto the mortal plane, then reigning supreme over us all.”
“But when I cleansed Winter of every last vestige of that infection, I even cleared out the dormant aspects Ruxnoth had tried to keep hidden.”
“He has the ability to warp much. We wouldn’t even know what form it had taken, what we were even looking for.”
“Ah, until our spell locates the entry point to Sanctus and then you can determine it from that end of things and trace it back to Winter.”
“Precisely, my phenomenal magical scholar.”
I smiled and curled against him, pulling the covers up over us. “I really hope our spell can determine the location soon. The stakes are so very high.”
“I know, treasure. Keep in mind that we have endured through situations of a similar magnitude before, and we’ve emerged victorious, everyone intact. The threat may be formidable, but so are we all.”
“That’s true.”
I sighed, my eyes growing heavy.
“This is a lot, I know. Close your eyes all the way. I can tell you need to sleep a little more now.”
“I don’t want to waste this time with you.”
“It’s not a waste. I won’t leave this bed. I won’t stop holding you close.”
I smiled as my head lolled against his chest. “Okay, just a little more sleep.” My eyes fluttered closed and I breathed sleepily against him, “I love you, Ambrose.”
“I love you, too. So very dearly, Ketheron.”
It was the last thing I heard before I was pulled into sleep again.
14
~Winter~
“Is this locale to your liking?”
That smooth voice with the rich, velvety low timbre wrapped around me, pulling me from another dream I’d been having that I couldn’t recall for the life of me now, and drawing me into a new space entirely.
I blinked rapidly as my surroundings started to materialize.
I’d been brought to some sort of chamber with black marble vaults sweeping overhead, lines of midnight-blue enchantments tracing the many arches all around, pulsing soothingly.
