Chapter 23 #2
I threw a dish towel at him. He caught it with pure human reflexes, slower than before, but still quick.
He grinned.
I grinned back.
We ate together in comfortable silence. Or tried to.
Every few minutes, I found my gaze drifting back to him, still cataloging the changes.
The way his skin held more color now. The slight flush in his cheeks from the warm food.
The very human way he had to chew and swallow instead of just drinking.
"Stop staring," he said without looking up from his eggs.
"I can't help it. You're different."
"So are you."
That made me pause. Me? "I'm not the one who just became human."
"No, but you're the one who just pulled off impossible magic and saved your cousin." His dark eyes found mine. "You walked into a djinn's pocket dimension, broke ancient binding circles, and came back. Most threadwalkers die attempting half of what you did."
I hadn't really processed that yet.
"I had help," I said. "And you—"
"Take the credit, Talin." His voice was firm. "You're a stunningly beautiful, powerful witch. Stop diminishing yourself."
The words, coming from him, hit me hard. He was absolutely right. I'd spent my whole life feeling like a disappointment. The witch whose magic couldn't save her. The girl with the missing piece who would never be whole.
But I'd just walked between dimensions and lived. I'd stared down a djinn and won.
Maybe I was more than I thought.
"Eat your breakfast," I said, deflecting. "You need to keep your strength up."
"Bossy."
"Someone has to be, now that you're mortal."
His smile was slow and devastating. "Not quite mortal. And I like you bossy."
Heat crept up my neck. Even transformed, even exhausted, Elias could still reduce me to a blushing mess with just a look.
We finished eating and he helped me wash the dishes, but I could feel his feel his eyes on me. And when I turned around, he was standing right behind me.
"Come back to bed with me," he said quietly. "I don't want to leave you."
"Then don't." I took his hand and led him back to my bedroom. The sun had fully risen now, and I pulled the curtains halfway closed to block the direct rays while still leaving enough light to see. Elias kicked off his shoes and collapsed onto my bed with a very human groan of exhaustion.
"This is embarrassing," he muttered into my pillow. "I used to be able to go weeks without rest. Now my stomach's full and I'm ready for a nap."
"You also used to be undead. Things change."
I crawled into bed beside him, and immediately his arms wrapped around me, pulling me against his chest. He threw one heavy leg over mine, and I snuggled up against him with a sigh.
His hand stroked my hair. "Did you mean it? What you said in that dimension?"
I'd said a lot of things. Screamed some of them, actually. But I knew right away which words he meant.
"That I love you?" I tilted my head back to meet his eyes. "Yes. I meant it."
His breath caught, his dark eyes burning into mine. "Say it again."
"I love you." The words came easier this time. "I've loved you for longer than I realized. And I am sorry I said what I said." The confession tumbled out. "About you only wanting me because of the bond. I didn't mean it. I was scared and lashing out and—"
"I know." He pressed a kiss to my forehead. "I know why you said it, and I understand. But Talin, listen to me." He waited until I met his eyes. "I also meant what I said. I wanted you before fate intervened. The bond just made it impossible to deny what was already there."
"I've spent so long hating myself," I whispered. "My body, my scars, my lack of magic. I convinced myself no one could truly want me. That the mate bond was the only reason you'd even look at me."
"Then I'll love you enough for both of us until you learn to see what I see."
Before I could respond, Elias rolled us so I was beneath him. "Let me show you," he said quietly.
Elias's mouth claimed mine, the kiss a gentle storm of tenderness and desperation. He whispered against my lips, "I'm just as scared, little witch. You terrify me, complete me, make me feel human again."
Our bodies moved in slow harmony, no urgency driving us, just the gentle exploration of each other. The world narrowed to the soft caress of his skin, the beat of his heart, the love that flowed between us like a river.
And when he entered me, our bodies moved together like we were always made to be joined this way. Tears pricked my eyes as my emotions overwhelmed me, then slowly rolled down my temples.
Elias paused, his dark eyes locking onto mine, reading every flicker of emotion as if my soul was laid bare.
"You're everything," he murmured, his voice breaking ever so slightly, raw with the pain of his own guarded heart finally cracking open.
I clutched at him, my fingers digging into his back, pulling him closer as sobs built in my chest, not from sorrow, but from the overwhelming rush of being wanted, truly wanted, for the first time.
Each thrust was a promise, a silent vow that my broken pieces didn't make me less, but somehow more, his rhythm slow and deliberate, like he was etching his love into my very bones.
He buried his face in my neck, his breath ragged against my skin. "I've been so empty for so long," he confessed, his words muffled, but laced with a heartache that mirrored my own. "You fill me up, Talin. You quiet the chaos inside of me."
My heart shattered and reformed in that moment, emotions crashing like waves.
Fear giving way to fierce joy. Self-doubt dissolving under the heat of his acceptance.
I arched into him, whispering his name, tears spilling down my temples to soak into my hair as we climbed together, the bond pulsing between us, raw and unbreakable.
Afterwards, we lay tangled together, his hand tracing lazy patterns on my bare shoulder.
My chest heaved with quiet sobs I couldn't quite contain, the release of years of buried pain mingling with the warmth of his body against mine.
He held me through it, his own eyes glistening, as if my healing was mending something fractured within him too.
"What happens now?" I asked quietly.
"Now?" Elias pressed a kiss to my hair. "Now we figure out this life together. Now I learn how to be human again, and you learn how to control your threadwalking, and we both learn how to live with this bond without fighting it."
"Sounds complicated."
"Everything worth having is."
I sniffed. "Sleep," I whispered. "You need to heal."
"Stay with me."
"Always."
We drifted off together, wrapped in morning light and the certainty of our bond. Outside my window, New Orleans woke to a new day. Alex was safe. Marcus was gone. And Elias—my impossible, stubborn, perfect mate—was alive.
For the first time since my diagnosis at fourteen, I didn't feel broken.
I felt whole.