One amber eye cracked open. He looked adorably disheveled, if a seven-foot warrior forged in the Abyss could ever be called adorable. His gold-threaded hair was tousled, his expression unguarded in a way I doubted anyone else had ever seen.
My heart squeezed.
“Good,” he murmured, pulling me closer until I was practically draped over him. “Because I intend to keep you here for at least another century.”
I traced a lazy circle across his chest. “I’m not sure your friends would appreciate that.”
“Then they should have planned accordingly.”
I laughed again, the sound bubbled up from someplace lighter than I had felt in years.
He studied me carefully, some of the teasing fading from his expression. “Do you regret anything?”
The question was asked so quietly that for a moment it barely sounded like words. The vulnerability beneath it hit me with painful clarity. He was afraid of waking to find I wished to take back what we had shared.
I pushed myself up enough to look directly into his eyes. “No.”
The single word seemed to loosen something deep inside him, but I could still feel the uncertainty lingering through the bond. I brushed a strand of black-gold hair from his forehead. He was so devastatingly beautiful, it nearly made me want to cry. He was a god, through and through.
“Thyros, last night was…” I searched for words vast enough to contain what I felt. “The most honest thing that has ever happened to me.”
Emotion flickered across his face. “You are certain?”
I smiled. “For a male who can face cosmic horrors without blinking, you ask for a lot of reassurance.”
A faint flush darkened his golden skin. “I have never had anything worth losing before.”
The simplicity of the confession nearly broke me. I cupped his face between my hands. “You have me.”
His eyes closed briefly. When he opened them again, they shone with so much love that my chest ached.
“And you are content with that?” he asked softly. “With me?”
I rested my forehead against his. “I spent my life being told what I was supposed to become.”
A breeding vessel.
A bargaining chip.
A tool.
Then a rebel fighter.
A survivor.
But never simply a woman allowed to choose what she wanted. I let the truth settle between us. “I choose you.”
The words seemed to reverberate through the bond, bright and certain. Thyros inhaled sharply. I smiled through the sting of tears. “I choose your impossible intensity. Your arrogance. Your terrifying devotion. Your tendency to look at me as if I hung the stars.”
A shaky laugh escaped him.
“And I definitely choose the part where you cut off the arm of a monster trying to grab me.”
His mouth curved. “I was rather impressive.”
“Very.”
Heat flickered in his silver gaze. “You noticed.”
