Chapter 8 #2
It took every ounce of stubbornness I had in me to step back, to stop reaching for fire and lightning and icy blades.
This wasn’t that sort of battle. I was a creature made for war, and every instinct screamed to end this with fire.
But war wouldn’t help her here. Rage wouldn’t hold her together.
I had to be the thing I never thought I could be—still.
So I swallowed my power and anger until my chest ached with the taint. Using force meant risking more harm to the only person I couldn’t bear to lose. I stood there, completely empty, holding nothing but my name and the echo of her laughter. And the fates help me, it had to be enough.
She was the only person who could make me feel real. Without her, I was a collection of borrowed pieces stitched together from mistakes that meant nothing without her fire beside them.
I turned my hands outward, showing the raw cuts on my arms from her restraints.
“You’re wrong,” I said to the room, to her, to myself. “I failed you, Reyla. I wasn’t fast enough when the borgon rushed toward me. I wasn’t strong enough to stop Prager. When I was supposed to protect you, I could not.”
The air shifted as if it was listening.
“I’ve hidden things,” I said. “I let the curse eat at me, holding it all back, thinking this would protect you from the insecurities that drove my every action. All that did was rob you of the truth. That I’ve been scared, too.
Scared I wasn’t what you needed. Scared you’d see the man behind the crown and just… walk away.”
What did I have to offer her other than more pain?
The chains hissed, but I sensed they weren't angry. Maybe curious. Watching.
“You think your love, your very essence, makes you weak? I see you, Wildfire. I see how you care for everyone, but very rarely yourself. The way you held strong when your father tried to steal what belonged to you alone. I saw the way you fought the borgons with nothing but steel and grit. The way you nearly fractured when you knelt beside me in the marketplace and begged me to stay with you.”
A link slackened, the tiniest twitch.
“You won’t say it, but you blame yourself for every tiny thing you couldn't fix in our court. Every person you couldn’t save from the borgons. You hide your fear behind plans, but I see you. I always have, and I love you even more for all that you are.”
I stepped forward and stroked her cheek, infusing my touch with the honest, unconditional truth, the emotional core of who I was.
Her bindings shuddered again.
A memory.
“Remember when we sat together on the tower roof, and I told you stories about the stars? You said pain kept you alive, but you still held onto a scrap of hope. That was the moment I knew. You weren’t only surviving. You were burning. And I will follow that fire anywhere.”
I reached toward her chest, through the whirring of enchanted steel and the beat of her old, aching pain.
“Your hope is like a flower that only blooms once in a lifetime. It's real and pure and no one else can ever touch it, not even me.”
Daring, I stroked her cheek. Along her throat. Hoping she’d feel my love in my touch. Then I took a breath and spoke the only words that mattered. “Reyla Jarrn Weldsbane of Evergorne. Lorick Thorne Damaris Shadowhart.”
Not names. Truths.
Bound by blood, by vow, by every broken piece we’d handed each other.
One soul, always.
When I laid my hand over her heart, I nearly cried, because her body was still warm.
“I memorized your voice when you spoke of hope. I filed it away like a secret weapon to use when I needed it most. That's now, Wildfire. Now. And it’s yours. I’m handing it back to you.”
I wouldn’t cling to her hope I’d swallowed on that roof. I flung the precious feeling into the void. And I felt it reach her. Her skin warmed even more, and her eyelids fluttered.
Her chest rose once and relaxed. Her lips moved, whispering things I couldn't understand.
“You don’t need to fight this alone,” I said. “You’re allowed to carry guilt. We all do. But hold it while I carry you.”
Her heart quivered beneath my hand. The next memory I chose was strong enough to stand against anything.
“Never forget, Wildfire,” I croaked. “That night you climbed across the outside of the ship? And you called me reckless? It was brilliant. You made me believe in impossible things again. We kissed for the first time not long after that. That was the night I knew I’d ache for you forever.
You looked at me like I was worth burning for.
Fates, Wildfire. That moment meant everything.
” My lips curved, even as my throat tightened and my eyes stung.
I leaned in, resting my forehead against hers.
The restraints throbbed. Light flashed from them. A wind swept through the soulplane, dry heat and ice mixed together. A storm was coming, but I would face its fury with everything I held in my heart.
Colors bled from the walls. Gray shadows tore free from the corners, stretching long only to snap back and melt into the surface again. The scent of scorched flowers churned through the chamber.
“I’m not leaving you here.” I gripped her hands. Squeezed gently. “I’ll fight this storm with nothing but my bare hands if I have to, because you are worth it.”
The wind howled. Thunder boomed, echoing around us.
“You stood on the ship’s deck with the wind in your hair and flames in your eyes, and you spoke your wedding vows without a single tremble.
You looked me in the face. Fates, Reyla.
I could read the fury in your eyes, but I could also read the hope.
It undid me and sealed me back together again.
I would've given anything for you to know that you were marrying all of me that day.”
I poured the memory into her, let every single word sink into the broken links binding her to this wretched place. “I never wanted devotion or duty from you, but you gave it anyway. You gave me you.”
A shudder rippled through the slab below my feet, the bones of this wretched place fracturing.
“I’ll never forget when you realized we belonged together and climbed across the side of the castle.
Damn, love. Our suite is much too far off the ground.
” My laugh came out frayed and raw. “Your bravery, your endlessly giving spirit, is embedded inside you. It’s not going anywhere, and neither am I. ”
Another roar shook through the castle’s bones.
“You thought we betrayed you and you still chose us. You burned like vengeance and love all at once. I never loved you more than when you tried to kill me that night.”
The storm cracked open a chunk of the ceiling. Wind whipped around us, tasting like iron. Everything pressed down, except the heat between us and the soft glow now blooming beneath my hand on her chest, warming the frozen place inside her.
She sucked in a breath.
Her lashes fluttered. Her lips parted. And her voice, weak and tortured with pain, reached out to me. “Lore. I can see you.”
The bindings loosened.
Her fingers found my face, traced the scar that ran from temple to jaw. “You’re here.”
I nodded, pressing my forehead against hers, meeting her eyes. “Told you I’d be here for you always.”
Light shimmered across her body, silver veins threading out from where I touched.
Only one chain remained, still binding her to her pain, and we grabbed onto it together.
“Ready?” I whispered.
Her gaze locked on mine, she nodded.
We yanked. The world itself tore. The sky howled. The soulplane screamed. And her name echoed through it like a vow cracking open the dark. The chain disintegrated, and the residue left behind was caught by the wind and swept away.
Light exploded around us, hot and red gold. The castle walls crumbled and bled shadows from every crack. The soulplane turned wild, untamed, like it had been forced too long into quiet and finally let loose to scream. Floor tiles buckled and shattered underfoot.
“We need to get out of here,” I rasped, tightening my grip on her hand.
She was already pulling me toward the hallway that was now smooth silver, forged from the memories we’d made.
Hand in hand, we ran. Each step thundered, a heartbeat trying to outrun death.
The storm howled behind us, but the path burned with memory and meaning.
Warm air coasted across our skin. The storm behind us still shrieked, still tried to chase us, but it couldn’t touch the light blooming underneath us.
Reyla’s hair streamed behind her like flames. The shadows sank back into the stone and vanished.
She didn’t stumble once, and I watched with pride as she reclaimed herself with every step.
Every time she glanced at me with warm eyes and a steady jaw, I saw the whole person. Not a woman tangled in guilt or pain or bound by duty, but one standing free in the fire and choosing to burn it all down with her rather than let it burn her.
The last of the castle groaned.
We reached the end of this world and leaped through a wall of golden light—
I gasped awake, finding myself lying on our bed, curled around Reyla. The room spun with warmth.
She was breathing.
“Wildfire,” I whispered, my voice cracking wide open.
Her eyelids lifted, and there she was. Clear. Bright. Warm. Not the hollow shell I worried she’d remain, but my wife. Whole and breathing and real in my trembling arms.
The dragon mark on my forearm flashed before fading.
My throat closed as relief crashed through me in waves. I framed her face, brushing away tears. Her skin was warm, so beautifully warm, and when she leaned into my touch, the last of the ice around my heart shattered.
She traced her fingers along my jaw and up the scar she'd kissed too many times to count, her touch featherlight.
“Lore.” Her gaze remained locked on mine, and the emotions there undid me completely. “I love you.”
The words hit me like a physical blow. I couldn't stop the shudder that ran through me.
Tears hit, wetting my cheeks. I pulled her closer and held her.
“You meant it,” she breathed against my skin. “All of it.”
I tightened my arms around her. “You remembered me, and I will remember you. Every breath, every scar, every vow. Always.”
“Promise me something,” she whispered against my neck.
“Anything.”
“Love me like this forever. Like I'm worth saving.”
“Wildfire, you're worth everything.”