Chapter 15 Ezra
Liv led me up the stairs and down a quiet hallway to her chambers.
Though my heart raced, I found myself content simply to hold her hand.
The moment she opened the door, I understood why Helena had described it as a jungle.
It wasn't untidy. It was alive. Vines climbed the walls, their blossoms spilling every imaginable color across the room.
The windows stood open, inviting butterflies to drift lazily between the garden outside and the sanctuary within.
It was peaceful. It was so very her. Somehow, I had expected nothing less.
The door clicked shut behind us. I reached for her immediately, desperate to close the distance between us.
I'd ached for her touch every moment we'd been apart.
She stepped back. The distance between us stung more sharply than the burns still aching across my chest.
She didn't have to look at me. I already knew the disappointment waiting on the other side of her silence.
“Stellina, please…”
She did not speak. She crossed the room, every bloom closing as she passed. The butterflies fled through the windows before she closed them sharply. Then she settled onto the edge of the bed, pressing two fingers against her brow. She pointed toward the mirror opposite her.
“Ez, when you look in the mirror, what do you see?”
I hesitated, unable to imagine where this conversation was leading. She waved me forward.
“Humor me.” Her voice was lower now. Resigned.
I stepped in front of the mirror and looked over my appearance.
My shirt was singed nearly to the shoulder.
Dirt streaked my trousers, and soot clung stubbornly to my skin.
My hair stuck out in every direction, and several days' worth of stubble shadowed my jaw.
I explained each detail to her, just as I saw them.
“Is that all you see?” She let out a sigh and stepped next to me. I nodded, unsure of exactly what she was expecting of me. “Can I tell you what I see?” She did not wait for me to answer before turning to face me.
“I see the man I love. A leader carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders and allowing no one to help. A mortal who keeps offering his life as though it belongs to everyone but himself. Someone willing to surrender the life that I treasure. But more than anything,
I see the other half of my soul.”
Tears bloomed in her eyes. This wasn't anger.
It was a fear no battlefield, priest, or god could have placed in her heart.
I had done that, and I could not find the words to respond, to comfort her.
“Do you understand what it would do to me…if you did not return to me?”
Her voice cracked under the weight of it all.
“You must have some inkling, some understanding of what your sacrifice costs the people who love you.”
The tears that had gathered in the corners of her eyes now slipped free.
I did not know what to say. So instead, I pulled her in, cradling her head against my chest.
I stayed like that as her body began to shake with sobs, and let her pour all of her fear, all of her worry into me.
I stroked her hair and pressed a kiss to the crown of her head, hoping the steady beat of my heart beneath her cheek said everything my words could not.
“I know, Stellina. I don't think I truly understood until I saw the fear in your eyes. But now I do.”
I rested my cheek against her hair. “And if one day the gods see fit to take you from me, I will follow you beyond this mortal coil and into whatever lies ahead.”
I held her a little tighter. “No matter what awaits us... I will find you. I will always choose you.”
She looked up at me, her deep blue eyes rimmed in red.
Recognition flickered across her face as she realized I had echoed her own words back to her.
Then, a faint smile trembled across her lips before they crashed into mine.
The kiss was not gentle. It was fevered and starved.
I did not break it as I lifted her into my arms, cradling her body against my chest and carrying her to the bed.
I lowered her onto the bed, resting her head against the pillows as I hovered above her.
Our tongues tangled against each other, and she let out a small satisfied moan.
Vines twisted the bedposts, and the flowers that had retreated bloomed brilliantly now, more vibrant than I thought possible.
My shadows were no calmer. They twisted through the vines, weaving ribbons of darkness around us as though they, too, needed to be closer to her.
Small tendrils curled around the hem of Lavinia's skirts, coaxing the fabric higher with every unsteady breath we drew.
She clumsily gathered my shirt with frenzied fingers and lifted it over my head. Her eyes roved my body, falling on the bandage that still covered my chest. A small gasp escaped her.
“What is…” Before she could finish, I peeled back the bandage and her eyes widened in shock. “Why?” Her fingers ghosted the outline of the mark. “Why would you allow them to do this to you?”
I winced slightly at her touch. “I could not stop them; there wasn't time.”
I did not know how to explain it to her.
But I did not need to. Understanding settled in her eyes, followed by a heat I had never seen in them before.
She placed a soft lingering kiss against the mark.
Then she hooked her arms around my shoulders and pulled me into her, allowing her legs to settle around my hips.
Her lips followed the line of my jaw, and she giggled a little as the stubble tickled her skin.
The sound broke something open within me.
I slammed my lips into hers in a consuming kiss, and she followed suit.
Her hands were everywhere, as though she needed to feel each inch of me to ensure I was truly here.
And I needed the same. My lips traced a slow path down her neck and across her chest, leaving a trail of warmth that bloomed into a blush wherever they lingered.
We rocked together as our powers found the same rhythm.
Her legs wrapped around my hips, locking me in place as she reached for the buttons on my trousers.
She fumbled with them for a moment before finally freeing me from them.
I pulled them off with haste, then tangled my fingers in the laces of her corset.
No painting, no prayer, no dream had ever prepared me for her.
She looked impossibly real beneath my hands, and for one irrational heartbeat I feared that if I blinked, she might disappear again.
Her bare porcelain skin revealed every touch we shared.
“Gods,” I said, a silent prayer to thank them for tying my soul to a goddess.
For a moment I did not move, my arms locked, holding me above her, starved, as though she alone could quench every thirst I'd ever known.
And she did quench every thirst. I pulled her free of her skirt, my shadows wrapping up her legs and around her thighs.
She let out a moan of approval and urged me on. But I held still.
“Are you sure?”
She nodded up at me, eyes heavy with lust. “But I have never…”
“I know, Stellina. I will be gentle.” She nodded once, certainty replacing every trace of hesitation.
I smiled against her forehead before drawing her back into my arms, and the rest of the world disappeared beneath the quiet rhythm of our hearts and the gentle hum of our intertwined magic.