Twelve
DESMOND
The second the portal opens, I throw myself through it.
Someone shouts behind me.
Perhaps Lord Alaric.
Perhaps one of the Ladies.
I do not know.
I do not care.
Only one thing exists.
Josie.
The space between realms attacks immediately.
Pain explodes through my body.
The Void hates intruders.
After three hundred years away from Nightfall, it hates me most of all.
Invisible blades slice into my flesh.
Magic lashes around me.
My wings snap open instinctively, shielding my body.
My tail whips around me like a weapon.
I force my way forward.
One heartbeat at a time.
One thought.
One prayer.
Please.
Please don't let me be too late.
The moment I break through, I crash into Earth with enough force to split the ground beneath me.
Blood covers my hands.
My vision blurs.
But I feel her.
Not joy.
Not love.
Pain.
Devastation.
Grief.
My mate is drowning.
And I caused it.
I transport immediately.
The house welcomes me.
The wards recognize me.
But I already know where she is.
The bedroom.
I materialize—and my soul shatters.
She's curled into herself.
Clutching my pillow.
My scent surrounds her.
And she is crying.
Not quiet tears.
Broken ones.
The kind that comes from the deepest part of the heart.
“Myrrin,” I whisper.
My voice breaks.
She doesn't move.
“My love?”
Nothing.
I move closer.
“Josie.”
At the sound of her name, she stirs.
Slowly.
Her swollen eyes meet mine.
And I watch hope and disbelief wage war across her beautiful face.
No.
No, my love.
Do not doubt.
I fall to my knees beside the bed.
“I'm here.”
Her lips tremble.
“You're not real.”
The words nearly destroy me.
“I am.”
“You can't be.”
“I swear to you.”
A sob escapes her.
And then suddenly she launches herself across the bed.
I barely have time to catch her before she collides with me.
She wraps herself around me so tightly I can scarcely breathe.
Not that I require air at the moment.
I require her.
She buries her face against my neck.
And then—she hits me.
Not hard.
But enough to make me blink.
“You absolute jerk!”
Another smack.
“I hated you!”
Another.
“I missed you!”
Another.
“I was terrified!”
I gather her hands in mine and press frantic kisses to her fingers.
“I know.”
“No, you don't!”
Her tears soak my shirt.
“You have no idea what that felt like!”
“I do.”
She freezes.
I rest my forehead against hers.
“I felt every moment of your pain.”
Her face crumples.
“I thought something horrible had happened to you.”
The pain in her voice cuts deeper than the Void ever could.
“It did.”
She blinks.
“What?”
“I left and I couldn’t get back to you.”
The words taste bitter.
Because they are true.
For three hundred years I survived exile.
Loneliness.
Heartache.
But those few hours separated from Josie?
They nearly destroyed me.
Her eyes widen.
“What? Desmond—”
“Just for a few hours, I left you. I swore to protect your heart, and instead, I broke it.”
I hate myself for it.
Hate the tears in her eyes.
Hate that she curled herself around my pillow because she thought she had lost me.
My mate grips my face.
Actually grips my face.
“Will you do it again?”
The fear in her voice nearly undoes me.
“Never.”
I answer without hesitation.
Not because it is the answer she wants.
Because it is truth.
“Can you forgive me? Please say you'll forgive me. I will do anything to earn your trust, I swear it.”
“Shhh.”
I blink.
Because somehow—
Somehow my sweet nurse is comforting me.
Again.
I fall silent immediately.
“Tell me what happened.”
“I was called back to the realm of my birth, and the rulers there—they granted me pardon.”
Her eyes widen.
“What? They lifted the banishment?”
“They did.”
I cup her cheeks.
Press my forehead against hers.
Breathe her in.
Chocolate and tears and Josie.
I almost lost this.
I almost lost her after finally finding her.
“But you came back?”
The disbelief in her voice makes me pull back.
She genuinely doesn't understand.
My poor mate.
She truly cannot imagine being chosen.
Josie says it like it's impossible.
Like I had some great decision to make.
She pushes gently against my shoulders, wanting to see my face.
I allow it because part of me needs to see her too.
“Of course I came back.”
“Why?”
The question stuns me.
Not because she asks it.
Because she means it.
She truly does not know.
“What are you saying?”
“I thought I explained this already, my love.”
I smile softly.
“You are my home.”
“But you could've stayed there, and instead, you chose to come back here to me?”
Gods.
She looks so bewildered.
So beautiful.
So heartbreakingly unaware of her own worth.
“There was never another choice, Josie. None that I wanted.”
Fresh tears spill down her cheeks.
I wipe them away.
“Nightfall gave me back my old life.”
I place her hand over my heart.
“But this?”
My voice breaks.
“This is my life.”
She looks at me like she wants to believe.
Like she's terrified to believe.
“I love you, my beautiful mate. And I know now it will take time to prove it to you, but I swear I will.”
“I'm sorry,” she whispers. “This is so new. I don't understand how or why I feel so strongly about you. It doesn't make sense.”
I shake my head immediately.
“Do not apologize.”
“But—”
“No.”
I kiss her forehead.
“My people have songs about this, Myrrin.”
She blinks.
“Songs?”
“Entire libraries filled with stories. Poems. Legends. Lovers who crossed worlds. Warriors who fought wars. Mates who met and knew immediately.”
She stares at me.
“Love at first sight?”
“Yes.”
“But that's impossible.”
I smile.
“Is it?”
I gesture around us.
“Sweetheart, yesterday you met a winged Demon on a train.”
Despite herself, she snorts.
Fair point.
“I knew the second I saw you and inhaled your precious scent. Just a moment before you first touched me. You own me, Myrrin.”
“When you talk like that, I can't think.”
“Then don't think.”
I stroke her cheek.
“Feel. Trust in me.”
My hand settles over her heart.
“And trust in yourself,” I whisper. “You know this is real, Josie Bennett.”
“My heart says yes, but my brain says none of this is possible.”
“Then trust your heart.”
I kiss her nose.
“Your brain has only had one day to adjust.”
A laugh escapes her.
“But your heart?”
I smile.
“Your heart recognized me the moment you touched my hand. You were made for me. And I was made for you.”
She closes her eyes.
“I think…this might be crazy.”
“You were frightened.”
Her eyes open immediately.
“You scared me so much.”
“I know, I’m sorry, my love. You scared me, too.”
That earns me a confused look.
I smile weakly.
“When I felt your grief, I thought perhaps you no longer wanted me.”
Her mouth falls open.
“What?!”
“I have very little experience in relationships.”
She stares.
“Desmond.”
“Yes, Myrrin?”
“You crossed dimensions and fought cosmic horrors to get back here.”
“Obviously.”
“And somehow your conclusion was that I dumped you?”
I hesitate.
“Perhaps.”
She laughs.
Actually laughs.
Through her tears.
And the sound is so beautiful I nearly cry again.
“Oh my God.”
“What?”
“You are insane.”
I smile.
“So I've been told.”
She cups my face and kisses me softly.
“But if you’re crazy, then I am too. I love you, Desmond.”
Everything inside me stops.
Three words.
Three simple words.
Yet after three hundred years, nothing has ever felt so good.
Or important.
In fact, no one has ever spoken those words to me.
Not like this.
Not with such tenderness.
Not while looking at me as though I am something precious.
My eyes burn.
“Say it again.”
She smiles through her tears.
“I love you, Desmond.”
I close my eyes.
Magic swirls around us.
My emotions simply overflow.
The lamps brighten.
The curtains stir without wind.
Tiny sparks of silver light drift through the room like stars.
Josie gasps softly.
And I smile.
“See?”
Her eyes widen in wonder.
“See what?”
“Even my magic believes you.”
I open my eyes.
And after three hundred years of loneliness—
For the first time in my existence—
I finally understand what every poet, every dreamer, every hopeless romantic was trying to say.
Love at first sight isn't impossible.
It happens every day.
People simply forget to call it magic.
I reach for her, cradling her neck with my hands, brushing my fingertips across her mate mark.
She gasps, and I treasure the sound.
Memorize it.
Store it away with every lonely memory that came before.
Because now—now I have her.
My mate.
My love.
I close my eyes against a wave of emotion and press my lips to hers.
And when I finally open my eyes again, I whisper the truth I've carried inside me since the moment she touched my wrist on that train.
“I have waited centuries for you.”
She strokes my cheek.
“And I waited thirty-seven years for you.”
I kiss her neck.
Then pull her close.
And as I hold my mate in my arms, surrounded by our home and her scent—I realize something.
The old Prime stole three hundred years from me.
But if it was a punishment, then he failed.
Because in the end? I won.
I found my true mate.
And I am never letting her go.
“I love you,” she murmurs against my lips, and my heart soars.
She loves me.
My mate smiles through her tears, and I swear the universe itself becomes brighter.
Magic dances around us again.
Silver sparks drift lazily through the room.
The curtains billow.
The lights glow warmly.
Even the shadows seem softer.
Josie gasps softly.
“You're doing that again.”
I blink.
“Doing what?”
“The magic thing.”
I glance around.
Ah.
Right.
“Sorry, my love.”
She laughs.
“No. Don't apologize.”
Her fingers trace my cheeks, my hair, and my horns—which constantly make appearances around her.
“I like it.”
Gods.
I love this woman.
Not because fate commanded it.
Not because magic demands it.
Because she is kind.
Because she is brave.
Because she rushed toward a terrifying stranger on a train when everyone else ran away.
Because she cries over elderly patients and worries about leaving hypothetical cats alone for too long.
Because she is part of my very soul.
“Desmond?”
“Yes, Myrrin?”
Her eyes search mine.
“You're really here, right?”
The question breaks my heart all over again.
I gather her hands and place them over my chest.
Over my heart.
“Feel that?”
Her smile trembles.
“Yeah.”
“I’m here, my love, and my heart beats for you.”
Fresh tears fill her eyes.
“You're never leaving again, are you?”
“Never.”
The answer comes without thought.
Without hesitation.
Without doubt.
“Nightfall can summon me a thousand times.”
I kiss her forehead.
“The stars can fall from the sky.”
A kiss to her nose.
“The realms themselves can crumble.”
Another kiss.
“And I will still come back to you.”
She wraps her arms around my neck.
“I don't know what I did to deserve you.”
I pull back immediately.
“No.”
“No?”
“Never say that.”
I cup her face.
“You do not need to earn my love, Josie.”
Her breath catches.
“I love you just because you are.”
Another silver spark bursts above us.
She laughs softly.
“Your magic agrees with you.”
“It has excellent taste.”
That earns me another laugh.
Gods.
I could listen to that sound forever.
I lower my forehead to hers.
“My beautiful mate.”
“Yeah?”
“This time.”
I kiss her gently.
“And every time after this.”
Another kiss.
“For all the years we are given.”
Another.
“For every tomorrow.”
I wrap her in my arms.
“You are mine.”
She smiles softly.
“And you're mine.”
Joy explodes inside me.
“So I am.”
I bury my face in her hair and simply hold her.
Because after three hundred years—I finally understand.
Forever isn't frightening.
Forever is a gift.
And I intend to spend every second of it loving her.
My mate.
My Josie.
And I will never stop—that is my vow.
The silver lights swirl around us like blessings from the stars themselves.
And wrapped together in our bed, surrounded by magic and love and the quiet promise of forever—we begin again.