I hit him at full speed.
My arms go around his neck. My legs wrap around his waist. He catches me like he expected it, his arms locking around me as if this moment has been rehearsed a thousand times.
One hand presses into the small of my back. The other tangles in my hair.
He’s holding me so tight I can feel his heartbeat against my sternum.
I kiss him.
Hard. Messy. Graceless and desperate. Salt on my tongue because we’re both crying, and neither of us will acknowledge it. Not now. Not ever. Not even under threat of death.
His mouth is warm. Familiar.
The bond in my chest ignites like a struck match. The golden thread between us, stretched thin across iterations, timelines, and the void, pulls tight and flares with sudden strength.
For the first time in what feels like forever, everything in me settles.
“Found you,” he says against my mouth, his voice gravel and grief and relief tangled together.
“You’re late,” I say, because I’m me and I can’t help it.
“I was busy jumping through half a dozen iterations of reality to find you.”
“Excuses.”
He makes a sound that is almost a laugh. Almost.
Then he presses his forehead to mine.
His silver eyes are bright and glassy. The corruption marks along his jaw pulse in time with my own marks. Gold and black moving together, rising and fading in the same rhythm.
“Never do that again,” he says, rough with restraint.
“Do what? Save the entire realm?”
“Leave me.”
The words hang between us, stripped of everything except what it means. Not a command. Not even a request. Just the raw truth of what it cost him.
“I didn’t leave you,” I say softly, pressing my palm to his chest where the locket rests under his shirt. I can feel it humming against my hand, warm and alive. “I was always right here.”
“AHEM.”
We both freeze.
“AHEM, I said.”
Peeble’s voice cuts in from about three inches away.
They’ve relocated from my shoulder to a branch at eye level, their compound eyes locked on us with the focused stare of someone who has been ignored for thirty straight seconds and considers it a personal offense.
“Excuse me. Hello. I’m here too. In case anyone was wondering. The beetle. The one who has been your emotional support insect through this entire interdimensional nightmare.”
They shift their wings with a sharp little buzz.
“I also deserve a tearful reunion. I also deserve to be told I was missed. I also—”
“Peeble.” I reach out and scoop them off the branch, cupping them carefully against my collarbone. “I literally said I missed you first.”
