“You okay?” she asked, her voice muffled against my skin.
“Yeah,” I said with a sigh. “I just wish we could stay in this bubble for a little while longer.”
“Mm, me too,” she replied.
We rocked back and forth to some melody only we could hear, to the rhythm of our matching heart beats.
In sync.
That was the feeling. I was in sync for the first time in my life. I’d never felt like I fit in before—everyone had always wanted and waited for me to live up to my Magik, my designation, my name. Here in Ignareth and out in the rest of Lundaria, I was never enough of what they thought I should be.
Until now.
Sage saw me. Sage loved the soft bits. The funny bits. The quiet bits. The bits that I’d always tamped down, afraid to show others for fear of rejection.
She embraced them all.
They weren’t bugs to her. They were a feature.
I couldn’t help but wonder if being mates meant that we had been made for each other from the start, or if the gods matchedus after they saw our souls, pairing us up once they knew we were perfect together.
Sage gave me one kiss in the middle of my back, between my shoulders, and then shuffled off to the bathroom, closing the door and turning on the shower.
I finished my tea so I could join her, when movement cutting across the sunrise caught my attention. A helicopter, flying low, slow, and deliberate, headed in the direction of my house.
With a heavy sigh, I grabbed my phone from where it was charging on the nightstand, opening the news app for the first time since the car ride here.
It was no surprise that our attack in Noctis was still dominating the front pages.
PREMIER CORVANE CONFIRMED DEAD IN MANSION INFERNO
NOCTIS—Victor Corvane, Premier of Noctis, was killed last week following a private meeting at his home with Premier Asmodiel Hellmora of Ignareth, sparking a cascade of conflicting accounts, political fallout, and unanswered questions across the city-states. Hellmora’s office maintains that the Ignareth Premier departed the Corvane residence prior to the violent attack, a claim disputed by multiple eyewitnesses who allege his presence at the scene during the incident.
Authorities have confirmed that Victor Corvane’s wife, Accalia Corvane, and their young son, Alaric, were not in the residence at the time of the attack and were unharmed.
The Corvane family has requested privacy as they grieve, while investigations continue into alleged Oniguro familyinvolvement and the unexplained disappearance of Sage Hexwood, Victor’s claimed mate, whose whereabouts remain unknown.
Fuck.
It wasn’t like I hadn’t known this would be news, or that we’d be implicated. I mean, we’d done it, after all, and we’d left a lot of witnesses. If anything, my dad was probably happy to put the Oniguro stamp all over this.
But we couldn’t escape the drones or long-lens cameras that would snap pictures of Sage with me from within our compound. Until the truth came out about what Victor did to her, she’d look like a villain.
And I couldn’t let that happen.
I texted Maia.
Tell Hellmora to release the statement.
Maia replied almost instantly. It was six a.m., and I was surprised she was even up.
Done. Looking forward to meeting my new sister.
Sage came out of the bathroom in a cloud of steam, towel wrapped around her head and body drowning in a plush, terry cloth robe.
She looked adorable, and I told her so.
Cheeks blushing, she turned on the coffee maker. “I guess we’d better start packing, huh?”
