Chapter 23
Awareness returned slowly—not all at once, but in fragments. First came the warmth, the faint sensation of something solid beneath me. Sound soon followed—the sigh of a breeze that blew a willow branch softly against the window, the soft trills of birdsong, an insect’s hum.
Light flooded my vision as my eyes fluttered open.
For a moment, everything blurred together, shapes and shadows indistinct as I struggled to make sense of what I was seeing.
The details enfolded me, no longer distant and muted, but immediate in a way that felt almost overwhelming after the fragile unreality of the dream.
The air no longer felt frozen in time. Dust that had once hung motionless—waiting for the clocks to restart—now drifted freely, swirling through a bright shaft of sunlight that streamed through the window.
The once suffocating silence lifted, replaced by something quieter, but undeniably alive, as though the world had begun to breathe again.
Yet I held my breath, every sense attuned to the man who still lay against me, still and warm. A movement beneath my hand drew my attention downward—a subtle, almost imperceptible twitch of fingers against my palm, so faint I thought I had imagined it.
My gaze lifted to his face, every part of me stilled, as though the slightest disruption might unravel whatever fragile thread had just begun to weave itself back into place to pull him back to me.
“Evander…” His name left me softly, barely more than a breath. For a single, suspended heartbeat, nothing happened. I didn’t dare move, afraid that even the slightest shift might shatter the fragile miracle before it could fully form.
The stillness that held him began, almost imperceptibly, to loosen its grip. The shift was so slight it might have gone unnoticed if I hadn’t been watching him so closely, hadn’t learned the quiet language of his smallest movements, the details others overlooked.
His fingers twitched again beneath mine, the smallest motion, and yet it struck through me with more force than anything that had come before. I tightened my hold on his hand, as though I could anchor him there, keep him from slipping back into whatever place he had been lost within.
“I’m here, Evander,” I whispered, the words rushing forward now, no longer restrained. “You can wake up. Your kingdom is waiting for you…I’m waiting for you.”
A faint crease formed in his brow, the first true sign of awareness breaking through the stillness that had claimed him for so long. Hope surged.
“Come back,” I pleaded, my urgency giving way to something steadier, more certain. “Come back to me.”
For a moment, everything seemed to hover on the edge of possibility, the world holding itself in quiet anticipation, as though even the air had paused to witness what would happen next.
Then a shaky breath shuddered through him—shallow and uneven at first, as though his body had forgotten the rhythm and had to learn it again. The rise of his chest was slight, but unmistakable. My own breath caught in response.
“Evander…” His name left me in a fragile, disbelieving whisper.
His chest rose again, his breath deeper this time.
Then slowly, his eyes opened, those deep grey eyes that had become so dear to me.
He blinked blearily, like someone emerging from a long, endless night, as though he couldn’t remember what had happened or where he was.
His gaze didn’t focus at once, but shifted unfixed, as though awareness was returning to him in gradual, reluctant fragments.
And then he saw me. His breath caught and everything stilled. The confusion didn’t vanish, but reshaped itself into quiet disbelief, as though I were the one thing in this world he hadn’t expected to find.
“Mirelle…?” The sound of my name spoken in his voice enfolded my heart, causing something in my chest to give way all at once.
He didn’t move at first, save for the slight tightening of his hand around mine, as though confirming the reality of what he felt before allowing himself to believe it.
“You—” His voice faltered, rough with disuse, edged with something deeper than sleep. “You’re…here.”
My breath broke free before I could stop it. “I’m here.” My voice trembled despite my attempt to steady it. “I told you I would be.” The words softened as they settled between us, carrying the quiet weight of a promise fulfilled.
For a moment, he only looked at me—as though he didn’t quite trust what he was seeing, or that I might vanish if he blinked. And I could not look away from him either.
A quiet, almost disbelieving laugh escaped him.
“You…” He drew in a breath, as though testing it, feeling it fill his lungs.
“You’re even more beautiful than in my dreams.” Something shifted in his expression then—not confusion or disbelief, but something deeper that seemed to settle into place, as though it had been missing and had only now returned.
His gaze searched mine, desperate and uncertain all at once. “Is this real? Have we truly awakened?”
Emotion rose too quickly for me to contain. “Yes,” I whispered. “It’s real.”
He leaned closer, his gaze tracing my face, as though confirming that I was real—that whatever had separated us before no longer stood between us now. “You came back for me,” he said.
“You chose to come back,” I replied softly.
Something in his expression deepened at that.
His hand tightened around mine, no longer tentative, but certain in a way that left no room for doubt.
Real. Present. Here. The word settled into me slowly, as steady as the warmth of his hand within mine, the regular rhythm of his breath no longer something I had to search for or fear might vanish if I looked away for too long.
“It seems impossible that having you here with me isn’t a dream,” he murmured.
“It’s not,” I assured him.
For a moment, neither of us moved. Then slowly, he reached for me.
There was no hesitation or resistance this time, no distance left to bridge.
His hand came to my face, steady and certain, as though grounding himself in the reality of me—ensuring that this moment wouldn’t slip away as so many others had before.
“Mirelle…” And then suddenly, as if he couldn’t hold back a moment longer, he pulled me towards him with a groan of suppressed longing.
His arms wrapped around me with a force that stole the breath from my lungs, as though he feared I might disappear if he didn’t hold me tightly enough.
I clung to him just as fiercely. He was warm, solid, and very much real.
The reality of it washed over me all at once, too much and not enough all at the same time.
I found myself crying. I’d always prided myself in my stoic control of emotions, but now was too overwhelmed with joy to contain them. Judging by a tremble in his shoulders, I wasn’t the only one.
He pulled back just enough to look at me, his hands still resting at my arms, as though unwilling to let go entirely. One hand lifted to cradle my cheek, his thumb brushing lightly along my skin to wipe a tear away. I leaned into the touch, wondered why I had ever thought to resist this.
“You brought me home,” he murmured.
“We did this together,” I reminded him. “And now I’m home too…with you.” For a moment, we simply looked at one another. His gaze flickered briefly to my lips, then returned to my eyes, something unspoken passing between us that no longer needed to be hidden behind charm or deflection.
I moved forward again, closing the last remaining distance, and he met me there. I wasn’t sure how long we remained held together, only that it carved a new cherished memory, one I would never have to rediscover.
He leaned up, and this time when he kissed me, it wasn’t desperate or stolen in a fleeting moment that could vanish as quickly as it came. Rather it was chosen, real in a way that surpassed even the most beautiful dream.
His hand tightened slightly against my cheek, anchoring me there as surely as I anchored him.
The world around us no longer felt fragile or uncertain, but whole.
His fingers brushed lightly along my jaw, the movement unhurried, as though he too was testing the boundaries of this moment, confirming that it would hold.
“You’re still here,” he murmured, his voice quieter now, stripped of everything but the truth of it.
“I told you I would be.”
Though I knew he had reason to doubt. The longer I was awake, the more memories continued to surface from our past together before the curse.
Through every fleeting encounter and all the times I had left before allowing myself to get too close, he’d patiently forged a relationship until I’d finally allowed myself to accept what I’d wanted from the moment we first met.
But not this time. This time, I had finally chosen to stay. I nuzzled closer, silently offering my acceptance.
A smile touched his lips, softer than anything I had seen from him before. “It appears I’ve finally caught you. It seems I’m the victor in our game at long last.”
Despite everything, a spark of familiar defiance rose within me. “Don’t let it get to your head. I fully intend to win the next round, and all the ones that follow.”
His eyes lit, bright and warm, like sunlight breaking through after a storm and I saw for the first time glints of gold in the grey depths. “So there will be a next time. That sounds very much like you’re planning to remain captured.”
A soft laugh escaped me. “I’m daring, but not foolish enough to try escaping a prince. For now, let’s call it a draw.” I pressed a quick kiss on his cheek. “You turned out to be the man of my dreams after all.”