Chapter 7 #2
Maddie barked a laugh, her ribs aching. “Seriously? How did they expect to go into battle with their, umm, well, goods so vulnerable?”
“Goods?” he repeated, amusement lacing his tone.
“Would you rather me use anatomically correct terms?”
“No,” Roan answered quickly, making Maddie laugh again.
“Okay, your turn,” Roan said after a moment. “Weirdest thing you’ve ever done.”
She thought and decided against several immediate situations because, no.
Then grinned when she found one that wouldn’t completely embarrass the crap out of her.
“I once tried to make a grilled cheese sandwich with a clothes iron in a hotel room. I was twelve. Set off the fire alarm. My mom was not impressed.”
Roan’s chest shook with silent laughter, and the sound made something warm bloom inside her. “Remind me never to leave you alone with household appliances.”
“Oh, you have no idea,” Maddie replied, grinning. “I’m a menace. Ask Lola. She still won’t let me near her kitchen.”
There was a pause, and Maddie felt the mood shift—a heaviness settling over them. “Do you think they’re okay?” she asked, voice small. “Lola and Katy?”
Roan was quiet for so long she wondered if he’d fallen asleep. “They’re fighters. If anyone can survive, it’s them. And they have help: Callon, Gage, Nico–even that damn demon. They won’t stop. Neither will I.”
Maddie closed her eyes, letting herself believe him. If nothing else, Roan never lied. He was too honest for that—sometimes painfully so. Okay, mostly painfully so.
She tried to keep her mind on lighter things, but the darkness pressed in, and her thoughts always circled back to Roan.
He was mysterious, brooding, ancient—and yet there was something vulnerable there, just beneath the surface.
She found herself wanting to know him, all the hidden parts he kept locked away.
At one point, she asked, “Do you ever get tired? Of being responsible for everyone else?” She’d gotten the feeling earlier when they’d talked about him being a representative for his kingdom that he wasn’t entirely happy with his life.
His silence was answer enough. She could sense the tension in him, coiled tight, as if he was bracing for a blow.
“It’s okay, you know,” she murmured. “To let someone else take care of you. Just for a little while.”
Roan didn’t respond, but his grip on her tightened, ever so slightly, and she felt a flash of something powerful and protective pass between them.
Heat filled her insides as she allowed herself to rest her cheek against his chest and soak up the moment.
Roan didn’t seem like the affectionate or gentle type, but she got the feeling that if he allowed himself to care for someone else, like a mate, she’d be the luckiest girl in the world.
Roan would protect her with everything he was, and she’d get to see a side of him that no one else would.
Maddie found herself longing for that and being jealous of that girl.
The girl that doesn’t even exist, or at least isn’t in his life, she told herself and then added yet.
It didn’t ease the longing in her. The heart wanted what it wanted.
And apparently hers was becoming quite attached to a brooding supernatural male old enough to be some distant, distant, way, way distant grandparent.
Okay, let’s not think about that either, Maddie.
Things off the table are body, heat, smells, and age.
Good grief. She was thankful that one of his superpowers wasn’t mind reading.
The next time the spiders came, with the small amount of light that pierced the darkness, Maddie watched Roan’s face as he drank the nectar.
She noticed the way his eyes dulled, the way his magic, if that’s what she was feeling, seemed to flicker and fade for a moment.
She filed it away—one more puzzle piece in a picture she was desperate to solve.
Hours passed and they both dozed in different intervals.
When they were both finally awake at the same time, Maddie asked, “What’s the first thing you’ll do if we get out of here?”
Roan’s answer was immediate. “There’s no ‘if.’ We will get out of here. And I’ll take you somewhere safe. Somewhere with sunlight and clean air. Then I’ll come back and burn this place to the ground.”
She was silent; then, “What if I don’t want you to leave?”
He hesitated before quietly admitting, “I won’t let those responsible for this, for causing you fear and pain go unpunished. I’ll come back. If that’s what you want.”
Maddie bit the inside of her cheek, trying to decide how much vulnerability she was willing to show, then decided what the hell, it’s not like she’d ever meet someone like Roan again. “I do.”
Roan’s head dipped and she swore he pressed a kiss to her head before saying, “I don’t think I could stay away even if you demanded it.”
Roan tried not to dwell on the ache in his limbs, the dullness in his magic, or the fact that Maddie’s body felt so perfect in his arms, even if they were wrapped up in spider webs.
He focused on her voice, on the stories she told—about her childhood, her mother, the tiny apartment in Queens where she’d learned to be tough and quick-witted and just a little bit wild.
He told her about the other kingdoms—their rituals, their rivalries, the way magic wove through everything like an invisible thread.
He found himself talking more than he meant to, sharing things he hadn’t told anyone in decades.
She was easy to talk to—when she wasn’t driving him crazy.
He realized, with some self-deprecation, that as long as he had her full attention and didn’t have to share her with anyone else, he wasn’t annoyed or on edge.
On the fourth night, sleep claimed Roan in fits and starts—brief, restless dozes interrupted by Maddie’s soft breathing and the low, ever-present hum of the web’s magic.
At some point, he found himself dreaming, though it felt more like falling, plunging into a darkness that had nothing to do with spiders or silk.
He stood in a field of stars, the ground beneath his feet shifting and insubstantial, like mist. The air was sweet, heavy with the scent of rain and wildflowers. And in the center of it all, a figure waited, tall, robed in white, eyes like silver coins.
Visata.
Roan dropped to one knee, instinct older than memory. “Creator.”
Visata’s voice was the sound of wind through leaves, soft but unyielding. “Roan, faithful warrior with the heart of a servant.”
Roan’s head bowed lower, heart pounding. “Why have you come?”
Roan saw the light around him brighten. “Because you are lost, you are afraid, and you have been given a gift, and you do not know how to accept it.”
Roan’s throat tightened. He knew immediately the “gift” his Creator spoke of. “Maddie—she’s . . . she can’t be. She’s human.”
“Is she?” Visata countered, tilting his head. “Or is she something new? Something the world has never seen before?”
Roan shook his head, frustration burning in his chest. “She can’t be my mate.
There hasn’t been a shaman mate since before we left our realm.
And for good reason. They are a distraction.
The kingdoms have to be tended to like a dumb flock of sheep.
” His words were harsh, but he was frustrated.
Shamans had come to the human realm because humans had been destroying their own world and each other, and here the humans were again in a mess because of Azure’s greed, not to mention anyone else in league with him.
Roan continued to speak, as if he knew better than Visata what was needed, or what was to be or not to be.
“The bond—it’s not supposed to work this way.
She deserves someone who can give her all of his attention.
” Just saying the words, throwing the idea out there that Maddie should belong to another, was rage inducing.
But the presence of his Creator calmed him.
Visata’s voice, though still deep like rolling thunder, softened.
“The rules were made for a different time, Roan. The world is changing. The magic is changing. Maddie is the bridge—a path between what was and what will be. She is yours because you need her, because she needs you, because together, you will be a catalyst for change. Just as the Sazzie are now Erosazzie, so shall the Nushawani be called. Together, you are stronger. Her weaknesses will have your strengths, and your weaknesses shall have hers. This union I am making between you shall not be separated by any being, not until death, when you come home to me.”
Roan swallowed, the weight of it settling over him. He dared to hope even as the words poured from his mouth, “I don’t know if I can do this. I’ve been a man with a singular purpose for so long. How do I change who and what I am?”
“You don’t change who you are,” Visata said.
“You grow, you improve, you cut away what needs to be cut away, and you graft each other into your lives, becoming one. You protect her. You care for her. You see her—not as a responsibility, but as a partner. That is what it means to be mated. Not to possess, but to belong. Not to rule, but to share.”
Roan closed his eyes, emotion burning raw in his chest. “What if I fail her?”
Visata’s hand landed on Roan’s shoulder, warm and solid. “Then you rise, and you try again. Love is not about never making mistakes. It is about never giving up.”
The dream faded, the stars dissolving into darkness. Roan woke with a start, Maddie still pressed against him, her breath warm on his skin. He let himself draw one long, slow breath, letting the words settle inside him like a promise.
He might fail her; in fact, he knew he would, because he was only flesh and blood.
But he would never give up on her—on them.
He pressed his lips to her head, something he’d dared to do one other time, and made a quiet vow, “I promise to be yours and only yours. I will live for you, die for you, fight for you, fight with you, by your side, at your back and in front of you as your protector. You will want for nothing. I will love you, not just as a feeling but as a choice. Day after day, I will choose you.” He pressed another kiss to her head and then whispered. “I hope you will choose me.”
And for the first time since the spiders had trapped them, Roan believed they might just make it out of this after all. He had a future according to Visata. That meant this wasn’t to be their end.