Shattered her.
Poured his molten essence deep inside her until the fullness nearly made her spiral one more time.Everything spun out of focus, and a ringing filled her ears.
She drifted.
Floating.
Rocking.
Until she realized she wasn’t dreaming.
She was in his arms.
He stroked her hair and kissed her cheek.
Whispered.
Crooned.
“Easy, love. Just breathe now.”
She shivered, and he rubbed her back.
A warmth built in the space between their souls. Mana, soft and golden, curled through the places where they touched. As he took a breath, she took one too. As his heart beat, so did hers. All stilled—
—and as life resumed, their hearts now beat as one.
She gasped. “Kai—”
Beneath her cheek, his chest rose with a sudden inhale. “You feel it too?”
The Bond between us.
It’s returned…I thought it lost.
“No…” she said, her voice trembling. “It never left.I just couldn’t hear it over the silence. For so long, I thought this Bond was what pulled us together,” she whispered, her voice cracking. “When it vanished, I thought I’d lost you. But now, even without it, even with so much missing, we still found our way back.”
He wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in her neck.
“Let’s stay like this,” she kissed his chest, his neck, his cheek. “Just a little longer.”
“As long as you want, sweetfire,” he said. “I’m not letting go.”
“You still see me,” she murmured, barely audible. “Not as a relic. Not as a thing to be worshipped. Just me.”
“Because you are mine. My Auryn. And that’s all that matters.”
5
Correction
The night the Resh'Agar returned from his Campaign was heavy with memory. The very first time the Sokâr had looked at her was vivid in Lu’ma’s mind. That silver gaze hadseenher—not as an Attendant, not as Hands, but as someone worth noticing. Worthknowing.
'This Nameless is honored to serve',Lu’ma had signed when she first met her Host.
But the Sokâr had only tilted her head, stepped closer, and said, “Everyone deserves a name. There was a time when I had none, and it was lonely.”
Her Radiance had leaned down, her silver hair falling forward—un-oiled, unbraided, vulnerable—and whispered against her new Attendant’s cheek.
