Chapter 40 #2
He couldn’t help how pleased that made him. It was enough to make up for everything else.
Her face reddened and she scowled. “Rune, this is serious. Why are you laughing?”
“Well, you, destroying everything in sight makes this so delightful,” Rune said, lips twitching.
She glanced at the outline of her footprints wreathed in flame and groaned, rubbing her face. “How can you find this amusing?” she exasperated. “This is terrible. Dangerous for both of us!”
The shadows writhed, lashing against the walls and splintering wood.
Rune didn’t hesitate this time. He took her chin, making her look at him. “Breathe.”
At his touch, she closed her eyes and took a shaky breath. The room settled and the candlelight brightened. He didn’t turn to ash or crumble beneath her power. Perhaps because she didn’t want him dead anymore, or she was simply too good to hurt anyone.
He looked into those honey eyes carrying so many worries. “You’re afraid of what the Courts will think?”
“I fear more what the Dominions will do,” she murmured. “They might try to…”
“Challenge me?” He smirked. “Even human, they are no match.”
He jested for her sake, because truthfully, he wasn’t fully composed.
His reign was already delicate, with half of his demons still loyal to their first king. Rune ruled by sheer fear and power alone. If the Dominions found out the God of Shadows had been disarmed by a single kiss, he wouldn’t live to reclaim it.
Yet he was secretly relieved.
That part of him that once terrified her to death was gone—or dormant.
He didn’t know the extent of what this meant, but he didn’t really care at the moment. Because even now, even stripped and broken and undone… he had never wanted her more.
He looked back at Alora. Admiring the way the darkness drifted around her like mist, her eyes gleaming like rubies. He could already see what kind of goddess she would become.
“You’ll learn to control it. That is, until I steal it back.”
Alora sat on the bed with a heavy sigh. “How?”
Rune rested an arm on his bent knee, studying her. “That begs the question, doesn’t it?”
A god’s bride would eventually change and grow stronger when connected to her husband’s magic. It had happened to the brides of his brother. He had seen it happen to Sunneva.
But this…this was something else.
She possessed his magic, Rune suspected it awakened what was already there.
Her own magic.
Magic, he suspected, that didn’t come from Salvia.
Whatever stirred in Alora’s veins had healed his burns, soothed parts of him that had ached for centuries.
Her scent had made his mouth water, but once he had a taste of her, she fed a deeper instinct in him…
one he did not like to acknowledge. A deep-rooted hunger.
Some primitive instinct whispered that if he devoured her body and soul, he would taste a power beyond anything that had ever walked these realms.
He forced that thought away, burying it beneath breath and bone, but the instinct lingered like a craving.
They sat in silence for a while. Eventually, Alora laid down on the bed, pulling a blanket around her shoulders like armor. She stared at the fire flickering in the hearth.
“What happens now?” she asked softly.
Rune didn’t answer.
Because he truly didn’t know.
Alora shivered under the blanket. “I… I feel cold.”
Yes, it had been that way for him too, for a long time. A consequence when one lives eternally in darkness.
“Will the daylight burn me?” she whispered, a little tinge of sadness in her voice.
“I suppose we will find out come the dawn.” Rune rose to shut the curtains tight and sat on the bed beside her. “But I doubt that it will.”
“Why?”
“Because you were not damned as I was, Alora. Your soul is still pure, and by default, so is your magic.”
Alora searched his eyes for a moment. Hesitantly, she brushed his fingers resting on the sheets. Her shadows were cool and gentle to the touch.
Rune sighed, secretly relieved. “See?”
She didn’t protest when he lay down beside her and pulled her against his chest, wrapping an arm around her waist. Her shivering eventually stopped, and she curled into him.
“We can’t return to the mountain like this, can we?” she whispered. “It’s not safe for you.”
Rune warmed at the thought that she would worry about him. He ran his fingers through her hair, murmuring in her ear, “Well, I am not opposed to spending several days in this cottage with you alone, songbird.”
She nipped his fingers with her new fangs.
He hissed, his grip tightening on her as he hardened. “Behave, or I will tie you up again.”
She retorted. “As if I couldn’t tie you up myself.”
Rune grinned and settled on the pillows, imagining all the fun they could have with him at her mercy. But he had questions to ask because something had certainly changed in their brief time apart.
“Did you find the answers you were looking for?”
“The Sleeping Curse…” Alora bit her lip, her brow furrowing. “Lady Zinnia said it began with my mother, but I can’t shake the feeling I have something to do with it?”
Rune frowned. “Why would you assume that?”
“Because I’m not human n-not fully. Clearly.” Alora waved her arm glowing white with her magic, shadows curling around her fingers. “She said my mother went to Khar Avalen and made a wish for me with magic of the Blood Moon.”
Rune stilled.
His blood went cold at the mention of that damnable place. There were things buried there that even gods feared to name.
“I was born of magic not of this world and my mother paid for it,” Alora said faintly.
Rune’s chest tightened as he listened to Alora share what she’d learned from her godmother.
“I need to find out more about who I am,” she continued. “Tomorrow, I’m going to the ruins.”
He opened his mouth to argue, having the urge to hide her away from the world and keep her safe. But Alora curled against his chest, her body finally giving in to exhaustion.
“Will you come with me?” she murmured sleepily, her eyes closing.
Sighing, he brushed the golden locks from her temple. “I will follow you to the ends of the earth, ra’ayati.”
“Hmm… you called me that before. What does it mean?”
“I will tell you once I rule the shadows again.”
“What if I don’t want to give them back?” she teased with a yawn. “I like you helpless. You’re not so terrifying.”
Her arm wrapped around his waist, palm lying flat on his back. He exhaled in wonder as the old ache there faded.
“Helpless?” he smirked softly. “Power or no, I am still the most dangerous thing in this Realm.”
A light bloomed in his chest as the bond reacted with Alora’s amusement. And he didn’t realize how relieved he was to feel it still intact.
She snuggled closer, her sleepy voice humming through his mind. So arrogant.
He watched Alora’s features relax as she fell asleep with a smile on her lips.
The one good thing about becoming mortal, was that he no longer suffered the maddening crave to devour her.
She still smelled like briar roses, but the primal nature that could smell the delicious magic in her blood had gone dormant, along with that other beastly side of him.
Rune settled on the pillows beside her. Alora was powerful. More than she knew.
More than him.
Whether she had stolen his power by accident or by instinct, it had saved them both.
“You changed our fate again,” he whispered faintly.
He reached out, brushing a strand of hair from her cheek and pressed a kiss to her forehead.
A current brushed his lips, electric and faint. The air stirred, a flicker of shadows curled over his skin, reaching for him.
Rune drew back with a sigh of relief.
“Well,” he murmured. “Let her keep it for now.”
From his pocket, he drew out Alora’s ring. The blood red ruby glinted in the candlelight. He supposed in some form or other, he’d forced it onto her finger. But if he hoped for his bride to one day accept him, it began with her choosing him first.
Nexus appeared at the window with a soft meow. Rune narrowed his eyes on the horned Vareth, which looked much bigger now. It blinked back at him indifferently, tail flicking.
“Be gone.”
The black cat ignored him. It leapt lightly onto the bed, circled once, and nestled into the pillow beside Alora’s head, purring contently as the shadows curled over its fur.
Rune glowered at the small beast. “You knew this would happen, didn’t you?”
Its eyes gleamed faintly in the firelight like moons from another universe. From another time. The thought sent a cold wash of dread over his shoulders.
He knew exactly what had answered Salvia’s wish.
And it was no mere god.