And when she finally spoke, her voice sounded small in a way I had never heard before.
“Mother?”
Chapter 22-Amrin
I couldn’t believe this was happening.
A moment ago I’d been standing beneath the blue moon convinced my heart might burst from happiness.
Now?
I was standing at the edge of the Spring Equinox Festival facing my mother while my newly claimed celestial mate radiated enough restrained violence beside me to make the air physically vibrate.
Honestly, very on brand for mated Monsters from Runevald.
The night itself still felt dreamlike.
The floating lanterns drifting overhead.
The scent of sugar and smoke and magic curling through the carnival grounds.
The impossible glow of the ley lines streaking silver-green through the skies above Asgarheim.
And him.
Gods.
Sten was finally mine.
No, not Sten. Menon.
And just thinking his true name made warmth bloom low inside my chest.
He had claimed me publicly beneath the blessing of a literal moon god.
Me.
Amrin Cordoza.
The daughter nobody quite knew what to do with.
The late-blooming Witch who never fit anywhere properly.
The girl who spent most of her life feeling like unfinished magic wrapped in too-soft skin.
Yet he looked at me like I was destiny itself.
And maybe the most dangerous part?
I believed him.
I really did.
I’d already decided I was never sleeping another night without him if I could help it.
Wherever he was, that was my home now.
He was my home.
