Page 39 of An Arrow to the Heart

“I love you,” he breathed into her skin.

“I love you too,” she responded and everything in the world was right.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

-Sylvie-

Sylvie’s heart was full and her body sang from the way he ignited it as they lay there, limbs intertwined, bathing in the afterglow of their bonding.

With each thrust their connection had grown brighter and stronger, bonding them forever. She had felt it then, when their bodies were joined.

Their bond, they were like an undimmable ray of sunshine, a perpetual sunrise.

He was hers, and she was his.

They were one.

For a while the world lay still around them, nothing but silence except for the sound of their breathing. The forest appeared otherworldly for the way rays of morning light spilled through the treeline, casting pools of golden light all around them. The chill of the morning air rendered to nothing from the heat of their merged bodies. Nothing else in the world seemed to matter as though they were the only two folk in the world.

“Can we just stay like this forever,” Ardál whispered into her collarbone.

Sylvie brought her fingertips into his hair as she said, “no.”

Ardál lifted his head slightly, an eyebrow scrunched as those sparkling amber eyes peered right into her soul.

Sylvie smiled as she said, “I want to live Ardál. I want to experience it all with you. I want you to take me places I’ve never been. I want to share new experiences with you. I want to live a completely ordinarily content life with you by my side. I want to do it all, feel it all. I want to bear your children. I want to watch as you love and care for them. I want us to fight, just so we can make up again. I want you to push me to my limits. I want to grow old with you by my side and I don’t want to miss any of it.”

She could have walked away, refusing to let down those walls she’d spent decades reinforcing. It would have hurt but in time she would have been okay, after all, she had been for hundreds of years.

But that’s not what she wanted.

She wanted him, she wanted the life they’d share.

So she chose to let those walls down, letting their bond snap into place.

She chose Ardál and the life they'd share.

She chose love and happiness.

She practically melted as he leaned in and kissed her softly before he said, “I promise you all of that and more,” and he kissed her again. For the first time in over a century she saw a future where she didn’t have to worry, she knew he’d love her unconditionally as she would him. Their love was like a sun in a boundless sky, unwavering and steadfast.

“I want you to know that every piece of me, the healer, the dragon, it all belongs to you,” she said in unwavering truth as she beheld him, this beautiful human man.

“I’m yours as you are mine. I love you with all my being and I will until the end of time and beyond,” he said, bringing his arms behind her back in embrace.

It was only then that she’d realised he was no longer injured, “wait, your injury?”

He stammered slightly before he said, “it’s all gone, the pain, all of it. Not just my shoulder but my knee too, I’ve never felt as strong and healthy.”

“But how?” Sylvie’s words were a mere whisper. She thought she had felt a surge of her magic but she had attributed the feeling to their bonding. She hadn’t dared use her magic in so long she had almost forgotten what it felt like.

“I think it happened when, well when..”

“Our bond snapped into place,” she said in astonishment.

“Our what?” Ardál asked.

“Um, it’s this thing that happens with fae, when you bond with someone your souls become intertwined, kind of like mating for life. At least I think that’s what it is. I’m not really certain because I’ve never known anyone who’s experienced it. But I suppose, part of my magic transferred into you, healing you.”