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We held each other and sobbed some more. What else was there to do? Nestled inside of my heat, engulfed by his scent, we drifted to sleep, and made love again all through the night when we woke up under the veil of the pregnant moon.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
ZIRAN
“It’s time to go,” I said to my mate.
The wind was harsh yet steady, ready to carry us back to Atheria’s central continent. My children clung to my legs as we prepared to leave the islands behind the following day.
I followed Rei’s blurry shadow like a light flickering in the perpetual darkness, happy to see he allowed my guards to pack his things along with the children’s. Soon enough, he wouldn’t have to lift a finger to toil for anyone else for the rest of his life.
“Don’t cry, little one,” I said to my son, as tiny droplets landed on my bare hand as I stroked his cheek. “Don’t cry sweet child,” I reassured my daughter next.
Suddenly, Rei was right in front of me, demanding my attention as my forehead rested against his, a raised scar where his horn had been ripped off. The stooped position was murder on my back, but being held by all three of them made it worth it in the end.
“You said cry if you’re sad before,” Rei whispered against my lips. “That tears are medicine, and that they have the power to heal. So don’t tell them not to cry for you. They’re so happy you’re with us now, just as I am.”
I nodded, reaching to hold him tight as I whispered, “Yes, I did. I just never imagined you’d shed tears over me again. I never thought Raylen or Zenia would, too.”
No magic had cured me in the years we spent apart. So, as he traced my body in the dark, I was afraid of being rejected. I didn’t know how to face him. Now, I feared if my vision only partially returned and the scars remained, if he would look at me like he did before, if my omega would look at me with love. What would my children’s faces look like? In a way, I felt more comfortable in the dark.
“We’ll cry as much as we need to,” Rei said as I sighed. Our children were running away, and faint light magic danced like fairies on the wind, trailing their bodies. “We’ll do what we can to heal you.”
“Sssh,” I whispered, pressing my thumb on his soft lips. “I didn’t say you could never use your powers to heal me. I said I don’t need them now. No more tears for now. It worries me if I’m not made whole…”
“I’ll love you no matter what. You are whole and worthy of love, so stop doubting yourself. In the name of the Goddess, I loved you as a damn songbird, Ziran. What does blindness detract from it?”
I was frozen as Rei walked away from me, ranting and raving.
“Say it again,” I shouted, shaking, as his shadowy light stopped.
“In the name of the—”
“No, the first part,” I huffed, amazed at how full of air his head could be when it mattered the most.
“I love you, Ziran,” Rei shouted. “I love you so much.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
REI
“To the end, you vex me, Rei,” Ziran gritted out, the salty winds blowing his hair in the wind, weaving through the isles, across the ocean, back to the Elohimen stronghold I’d fled from three years ago.
I pouted, startled by his anger, as our children raced towards the guards and the massive boat docked on the shore. I briefly marveled at the ship, the dark amethyst hue of what I assumed was Tilri’s royal battle flag fluttering high in the sky near the mast—the same color as Ziran’s eyes as I looked back at him.
Scars and all, he was more devastatingly handsome than when we first met, and I found it hard not to stare at my alpha, feeling like any moment I’d wake up from this sweet dream and re-enter a neverending nightmare without him.
“Vexing little vixen. My sweet little omega,” Ziran murmured playfully as he walked towards me.
His shadow reached me first, coiling around my ankle as it snaked up my knee. I sighed, suppressing a moan of pleasure as he closed the distance between us and encased me in his rugged scent. I’d never grow sick of his pheromones. I feared I’d never smell them again until this morning, and now I was drunk on them.
“Look at me,” Ziran ordered, even though he could not see me.
He tilted my chin up with his thumb and forefinger as I reached to grip his face and stroke his scars with reverence. My tears could not alone overcome his blindness, cursed by that wicked wizard, magical thorns embedded deep within my mate.
But I believed in him now, just as I believed in my alpha back then. Even if the prism root I had consumed for so many years could not cure his vision, stolen by that bastard’s wicked magic, I knew we would still overcome and find eternal happiness together.
Ziran hadn’t broken, only blossomed from the hardships we endured. And I made it my mission to do the same and become an omega worthy to stand beside a king.
