We step through what feels like a sterilizing chamber, cool mist kissing my skin along with that sharp-antiseptic scent that signals we’re entering something sacred.
“You’re taking me to the Enchanted Forest, aren’t you?” The sterile airlock is a dead giveaway.
“Only Bash calls it that,” he chuckles.
“I like the name. It suits a place where impossible things grow.”
The air shifts as we move deeper. I smell rain-soaked earth and honey-sweet blossoms, the kind of air that makes you believe in magic. Malachi navigates several turns, finally setting me down with gentle hands.
“Open your eyes, love.”
The breath leaves my lungs in a rush. Before me spreads a living dream—my garden but elevated beyond memory into something ethereal. Emerald grass carpets the ground like velvet, each blade seeming to shimmer with its own inner light. The pond captures starlight and holds it, making the water itself glow like liquid moonbeams.
Azure forget-me-nots cluster around weathered stones, their petals so vivid blue they seem painted with sky. But it’s the weeping willow that steals my breath—beautiful and magnificent. Its branches cascade like a waterfall of green silk like the one in my garden, only hued in a way that only something created with magic could be.
“Malachi, this is… It’s more beautiful than I ever imagined it could be.”
“Atlas doesn’t simply grow plants,” he says softly, watching me with eyes full of tenderness. “He grows dreams. I described your sanctuary to him, but he felt what it meant to you. Every flower, every blade of grass stems from the love you have for this place.”
Tearing up, I thought I’d lost this forever, that my one safeharbor had been swept away by the chaos of everything we’re fighting. I never thought I’d visit my garden again.
“Come here,” he murmurs, guiding me to where a blanket waits beneath the willow tree. The tree’s curtain of leaves creates an intimate alcove, and overhead, the enchanted ceiling sparkles with constellations that shift and dance. It’s hard to believe we are still underground.
I sink down beside him, the soft grass a cushion beneath us. “Why did you do this? Why go to all this trouble?”
His hand finds mine, fingers intertwining. “Because I wanted to give you back something beautiful. In all this bullshit, you deserve to remember that good things still exist.” His thumb traces across my knuckles. “And I needed you to know that wherever you are, wherever we end up, I want to be the person who helps you find home again.”
“You are the home I never knew I was searching for.”
I look up at him, swallowing hard against the emotion threatening to spill over. After my parents died, after Marco bought me like I was nothing more than a useful object, I never thought I’d have anything good again. When you’re used enough, you start to believe you don’t deserve better and will never be free. I let myself accept my pretty prison because I thought that was as good as life would ever get for me.
Then this man walked into my world and turned everything upside down in the most beautiful way possible. God, I wish I could describe how he makes me feel without getting all tongue-tied. I’m not used to… this. To someone caring about what I need instead of what I can give them.
He reaches up, cupping my face with his free hand, thumb brushing away a tear I didn’t realize had fallen. “I love you, Katja. And you deserve so much more than the shit this world has thrown at you.” His eyes don’t leave mine. “All of that endsnow. We’re going to build something real together that belongs to us.”
I lean into his touch, my fingers still playing with his other hand in my lap. “What about your father? The Syndicate? Everything we’re fighting against?”
“We’re going to tear it all down and build something better in its place,” he says, and the fierce determination in his voice makes my heart skip. “No more trafficking, no more owning people, no more children growing up the way we did. We’re going to make sure no one else has to suffer like that.” His thumb traces my cheek gently. “But we’re doing it together, and we’re doing it for us. The life we want to build is within reach.”
His eyes search mine. “I’m not going anywhere, Katja. Never. You’re stuck with me through all of it—the fight, the rebuilding, the future we’re going to create.”
A laugh bubbles up through my tears. “Promise? Even when I’m being impossible during missions?”
“Especially then.” He grins. “I promise you forever, and I keep my promises.”
I smile and say, “Did you learn this from one of your spicy romance books.”
“That was all me. Though if you want to see what I learned from the novels, that can definitely be arranged.” He winks, his hand sliding up my thigh to the edge of my nightgown.
“Uh-uh.” I catch his wrist, giving him a cheeky smile. “You have to feed me first.”
“Of course,” he chuckles, turning his hand to intertwine our fingers instead. “Little demons get cranky when they’re hungry, and I happen to like all my limbs attached.”
“Smart man,” I say, settling back against the tree trunk as he reaches for the stack of containers with his free hand.
He starts lifting lids off, revealing an array of tempting food. “Let’s see. We have strawberries. Don’t ask how I got them.They were extremely hard to come by. There’s chocolate, some of those little pastries you love, and…” He grins wickedly as he opens the last container. “Whiskey. Because, apparently, I’m trying to get you drunk in a magical garden.”
“Very smooth, Malachi. What’s next? Are you going to feed me grapes?” I tease, but I’m already eyeing the strawberries hungrily.
