Chapter 5 #5
Theira didn't ask him again, letting the conversation move back to practicalities.
She gave Fabiana a jewel that would send a message to the house, and Fabi promised to send updates.
More rebels and disaffected soldiers joined them, and Varius tried to both reassure them but remain firm that he was absolutely not staying, no matter how much his now-aimless soldiers would love for him to.
Theira engaged in quiet conversations with the sorceresses, too.
So Varius and Theira stood guard over the course of an afternoon as the sun began to set and Fabiana and Lysithea signed a nonaggression agreement and arranged for future communications.
Varius moved the golems into position, forming a barrier around the border city—from Korossia and the rest of the empire alike.
And then, somehow, it was done.
The war was done.
Varius looked at Theira.
Theira looked at him.
Sorceresses, rebels, and soldiers all waited on them with bated breath.
Varius smiled.
Theira had opened the door for him.
It was on him to walk through it.
He held out a hand to her in invitation—then lowered it slowly toward the ground like the golem.
Theira's lips quirked, and she stepped forward, took his hand, and transported them both away.
In instant later, they stood in her forest.
Not the house.
Theira didn't wait. "I can make that message jewel connect to one that's portable. You don't have to stay at the house, though I'm sure their believing you're with me is an added deterrent."
He didn't misunderstand. She wasn't sure he'd still want her when they weren't bound together by circumstance and duty. He didn't assume that when she'd opened her door she'd meant it to be forever.
Varius squeezed her hand, and he also didn't wait.
No more. He'd already waited a lifetime.
"I want to stay at the house," Varius said. "I want to stay with you. If you'll have me."
Theira's eyes flashed with deep emotion, and she didn't answer right away.
But she stepped closer to him, and cupped his jaw with her free hand.
Varius pressed a soft kiss into it.
Theira purred, "And if I won't have you, Varius? What then?"
"I'll make a fantastic nuisance of myself," Varius teased. "Giving your garden all manner of challenge, which you know I can do even without a golem. Leaving strange objects on your doorstep to tempt you into opening the door—"
Laughing, she kissed him.
Varius wrapped his arms around her, full of her, and himself, and allowed himself to believe, for the first time, that he could be happy like this forever. They both could.
That was his new responsibility.
Walking through the forest was different now, hand-in-hand with the most powerful sorceress alive.
Literally brighter, with the lingering daylight and the path the golems had cleared through the trees.
Theira was too mentally tired from her battle with Tychon to do much for the forest now, and Varius was too braindead after controlling all the golems to do much more than let her lean on him, which he was happy to do forever.
But there was a hot cup of tea at the end of the road, and a bed, with the person he loved inside it.
At the sight of the house, Varius felt like he might burst. From hope, from rightness. From happiness.
Their house, now. His and Theira's.
To relieve the pressure in his chest, he asked Theira, "That hill above the Tridentis. How many explosive spells did you set up there, anyway?"
"So many."
Varius erupted in laughter, the joy breaking free of the dam. He threw caution to the wind and said, "If you can dig some more clay out of the garden, I think I can fix that mug."
Theira cast a fond look at him. "Varius. Do you really think I dug all that clay for a golem army out of my garden?"
"Of course not," he said. "I figured you had to dig out the earth from below your house to put the reinforced level in, and then had an idea you had to try since you had all that dirt handy."
Theira's crack of laughter was the best music. "I'll make you all the clay you need." She paused and added, "My love."
Varius whirled to her and had them both on the ground in an instant, laughing and crying as he professed his love over and over and over.
No more waiting.
And on second thought, there were structural advantages to a golem-cleared forest, and perhaps—much later—he could persuade Theira to leave some of them: no sticks under their bodies, light to see his lover by, and no worries about breaking anything or activating defensive spells if the Sorceress Transcendent happened to release an uncontrolled burst of sorcery in the throes of passion.
There would be all the time in the world for that mug in their house later.
Next time.
Forever.
Don't miss the spicy bonus story set a year after the events of The Sorceress Transcendent with Theira and Varius trying their best to take care of each other on the anniversary of their reunion in… ahem, Different Ways, which you can read when you join my newsletter at
For more rebellious romantasy blending with epic magic and cozy vibes, check out Sage's Sanctuary, a spicy cozy romantasy series with an overpowered mage who just wants ice cream, a dragon shifter, and an isolated mountain cottage with only one bed.