45. Naera
Naera
The world doesn’t come back in light.
It comes back in breath. Slow, shallow, warm—ghosting across my neck.
Not mine.
Hers .
But something’s wrong.
There’s no hum beneath my skin. No soft whisper from Selene, no divine thread stretching taut through my bones.
Without it, I feel empty somehow.
My limbs are heavy. My fingers twitch against something rough and wool-soft. A cloak, I realize. Her cloak.
I smell smoke.
And leather.
And her.
I open my eyes.
I’m curled in the crook of her body, tucked beneath her cloak like she folded herself around me. One arm slung over my waist. Her legs tangled with mine. Her heartbeat a steady rhythm I didn’t know I’d been listening for until now.
Selis is still.
Not asleep. Just… quiet. Her eyes are open, staring somewhere distant. Watching the shadows shift in the trees above us. We’re un der a canopy, soft leaves and filtered gold painting everything green and flickering.
We’re in The Grove… The trees tower over us.
Everything feels hushed. Hollowed out. Like we’re the only two people left in the world.
Maybe we are.
I glance down at my hands. They aren’t glowing. My breath catches, and for a moment, I’m certain I’ve died after all. That Selene has left me, emptied me out and walked away.
My skin is pale. Not silver. Just skin. Just me.
It shouldn’t scare me. But it does. Because it means something’s changed. Because it means… it’s over.
And yet—there’s a flicker of something else.
Hope.
Maybe I can be just Naera, whoever that is. Even if it’s strange to see myself without the light. Even if I don’t know what comes next.
Selis shifts beside me, just enough to brush her thumb across my ribs. A gentle pass, like she’s checking I’m still real.
I don’t move. I just breathe.
And for the first time in what feels like a lifetime, no one is asking me to be holy.
“Selis,” I breathe. Her name scrapes out of me, dry as dust.
She doesn’t startle. She just blinks once, slowly, like she’s surfacing from somewhere far away. Then her eyes find mine.
“Still breathing, starlight?” she murmurs, looking relieved. “Good.”
“Where are we?”
“Somewhere in The Grove. Past the south wall,” she says after a beat. “Well, what’s left of it.”
A pause stretches between us .
“I didn’t carry you far.”
I shift to sit up, but my body protests.
She steadies me without another word, just a hand at my back.
My gaze climbs to her face, piece by piece. There’s blood dried along her temple. Ash clings to her lashes like soot-dusted snow. A fresh cut splits the skin at her jaw. But she’s breathing.
Alive.
And I’m not alone.
The memories slams into me like a wave.
The altar.
The fire.
Her lips.
Her kiss.
My breath catches.
“You came back,” I say softly.
Selis huffs a sound that might be a laugh—low and frayed around the edges.
“Yeah, well,” she mutters, brushing soot from her sleeve. “Didn’t feel right letting you hog all the dramatic exits.”
I almost smile. Almost. But when I look up, her eyes are already on me. Not teasing. Not smirking. Just steady and soft in the way only she can be—like steel that’s chosen not to cut.
She shifts closer, her hand still warm against my back. “I’d come back again,” she says, quieter now. “As many times as it takes.”
The words wrap around my ribs like a tether.
Gentle.
Unbreakable.
I reach for her hand and our fingers weave together. No glow. No gods. Just us.
“I saw you,” I whisper.
Selis doesn’t move. She’s quiet, so I keep going.
“Your blade in your hand. Blood on your face. Eyes locked on me like nothing else existed.” My voice trembles. “And I knew. Not because Selene told me. Not because it was fate. But because it was you… ”
She doesn’t speak—but I feel the shift in her, the way her grip tightens, just slightly.
“I knew I wasn’t going to die up there,” I breathe. “Because you were below me. Bleeding. Fighting. For me. ”
A pause. My throat tightens.
“And I knew if anyone could reach me… could save me… it was always going to be you.”
Selis goes still, like the words hit somewhere she didn’t know could still hurt. Or heal. She exhales through her nose—soft, shaky.
“Yeah, well,” she mutters, trying for casual but not quite landing it, “if a god wants to keep you, she’d better come with a fucking army.”
Her hand tightens in mine. Then—quieter, like a vow buried in the flame of her breath, “I’ll always come for you, Naera. God or no god.”
My breath catches.
Not because I doubt her, but because I don’t. I believe her—more than I’ve ever believed in gods or visions or stars scrawled across my skin.
Her thumb brushes across my wrist, like she doesn’t realize she’s still touching me.
Then, she adds, “The Guild’s gonna come for us. Eventually.” Her voice is flat. Tired. Knowing. “But if we can look a goddess in the face and tell her to fuck off…” She glances at me. A grin flashes, crooked and sharp. “…we can handle those assholes. ”
We.
Not you.
Not me.
We.
I clutch the word like a lifeline. Like a vow I didn’t know I needed.
“Selis,” I ask, “Am I yours now?”
She doesn’t answer at first. She just moves. One hand to my face. Rough, callused palm against my cheek. Then her forehead leans into mine, eyes closed.
“You were always mine. I just took too long figuring it out.”
The words settle deep into the hollow of my throat, the space behind my ribs.
Our foreheads press together. Her skin is warm. Her breath is slow and steady—but I can feel how hard she’s working to keep it that way. As if stillness could anchor her. As if one wrong move might break the spell and send me vanishing like smoke.
The heat between us pulses like a second heartbeat.
“I love you,” I whisper.
It’s barely a sound. Just breath wrapped in truth.
But her whole body reacts. A sharp inhale.
The twitch of her fingers. Her forehead dips more firmly against mine, like the words knocked something loose inside her.
Her hand slides from my cheek to the back of my neck. Not rough. Not forceful. Claiming.
Then she pulls back just enough to look at me. Really look. Her eyes are shining—not soft, not teary, but alive. Like the storm in her finally found its center.
“Don’t say that lightly,” she says roughly, voice hoarse.
I almost flinch. But then I see it—the tremble in her jaw. The way she grips me tighter, like I just handed her something precious and breakable .
But I don’t look away. I won’t.
“I love you,” I say again, stronger this time. “Not because you saved me. Not because you burned it all down.” A pause. I breathe. “I loved you before The Garden burned. Before the altar. Before Selene ever woke inside me.”
Her eyes close. Just for a beat. Then she mutters, “Fuck.”
I smile.
And then she kisses me. Not messy. Not desperate. Just… sure. Like something found. Like something finally safe.
When she pulls back, she presses one last kiss to my forehead and breathes, “You’re mine, starlight. You always were. I love you too… And though it’s fucking terrifying, it’s true.”
Our breaths mingle again.
And then—I lean in.
I’m not glowing anymore. I’m not Selene’s vessel. I’m not a prophecy. I’m just Naera. And I want her.
Her lips meet mine like she’s been waiting her whole life for permission.
And I give it.
It’s not a kiss meant for holy places. It’s not prayer. It’s the kind that happens after the end.
Smoke still on our skin. Ash still on our hands. But none of it matters, not when her mouth moves with mine—hungry and quiet and trembling. Reverent in the way no prayer ever was.
And for the first time in my life, I want to be held like this. Just Naera, just Selis, just this hush between heartbeats that makes me feel like I might never need light again if she keeps touching me like this.
Her thumb traces beneath the edge of my ribs, and my breath shudders in my throat. I lean into her, nose brushing hers, a small laugh caught in my chest. I don’t know if I want to cry or kiss her more or both.
Probably both.
Her lips part against my jaw—and then she stiffens.
“And… we have company,” she mutters, groaning softly as she pulls back just enough to glance past me properly.
There's a small smile on her lips though, and I don't understand why. I blink, dazed, then turn. And there they are.
The girls.
They’re peeking out from the edge of The Grove—wide-eyed and barefoot, clustered in twos and threes, staring like we’re ghosts.
And none of them are glowing anymore.
Imara stands at the front, chin high despite the dirt on her cheeks, cradling Vess in her arms with Callen beside her, arms crossed and braids tangled. Yla peeks around the tree trunk, holding a crushed flower in her fist. Liri’s fingers are curled into Siven’s sleeve, and—my breath catches.
Siven. Siven, who hasn’t spoken in months, not since she told us she dreamed of Selene…
She’s the one who speaks.
“Is it over?” she asks, voice raspy but clear.
Emotion slams into me like a tide. Selis exhales hard behind me, half a laugh, half a sigh. “Depends on who you ask, kid.”
I look over my shoulder at her. She meets my gaze and then offers me, then Siven a little smile.
“But yeah. Let’s say yes,” she adds.
I stand and run to them.
Liri flings herself into my arms first, her small limbs wrapping tight around my middle. Callen grabs my sleeve and won’t let go. Imara’s eyes are glassy, but she nods, as if she knew I’d come back. Yla presses her flower into my palm like a peace offering.
And Siven—sweet, strange Siven—edges forward toward Selis.
Selis raises an eyebrow. “What, still think I’m Selene?”
“No,” Siven says simply, and then holds out her hand.
Selis stares at it. Then takes it. Her rough fingers close gently around the small one.
I smile through the tears I didn’t know were coming. I walk back to them and lean into Selis’s side, wrapping my arms around her waist.
She kisses the top of my head.
The Garden is gone. The goddess is quiet.
But I’m still here.
Not glowing. Not chosen.
Just bright.
Just breathing.
With her.