Perhaps from her.Perhaps from him.Perhaps from both.
And if he clung to her because the Great Luna had once blessed their bond, he could become another kind of prison.
The thought nearly drove him backward.His weight shifted on his heels before he caught himself.
No.Never.He would never be that.Not to her.Not to anyone.
Gerick drew a slow breath, squared his shoulders, and turned back to the goddess.“If the time comes and holding on harms her, I will let go.”
Peri made a broken sound behind him.He did not turn to look.
The Great Luna’s eyes shone with something ancient and aching.“I know.”
His throat tightened.“Will it kill me?”The question was practical.A warrior’s question.
The Great Luna did not answer, and that was answer enough.
Gerick nodded once.The motion felt borrowed from a body that was not quite his anymore.
Acceptance did not feel peaceful.It felt like being hollowed out with care, scoop by patient scoop.
“Then, when the time comes,” he said, “you will tell me what must be done.”
The Great Luna stepped closer and cupped his face with both hands.Her palms framed his jaw with a tenderness he had not felt since before he could remember feeling anything.
For a moment he was not a general, not a warlock, not a male losing the female he loved.He was simply a creation held by the one who had made him, and the grief he had locked behind discipline finally rose too high to contain.
A single tear slid down his face.He did not wipe it away.
The Great Luna brushed it with her thumb, slow and reverent, as though gathering something precious.
“Oh, my son,” she whispered.“This is why you were worthy of her.”
His breath caught.
Worthy.Not because she would choose him.Not because he could keep her.
Because he could love her enough not to make her stay.
The words broke him quietly.There was no dramatic collapse, violent roar, or wild surge of magic.Just a fracture through the center of him, clean and irreversible, like a blade slipped between ribs by a hand he could not see.
Behind the goddess, the Nushtonia pulsed once.
This time Gerick did not reach for it.He looked down at the dark cover and felt Myanin again, distant and fierce and confused and alive.
Then he felt Shade beside her.
The rage rose.So did grief.But beneath both, something else finally took root.
A decision.
“If he hurts her,” Gerick said, voice low, almost level, “I will still kill him.”
The Great Luna’s mouth curved gently.“I would expect nothing less.”
Peri sniffed loudly behind him, the sound somehow both indignant and damp.“For the record, I'll help.”
Gerick turned to look at her.The high fae’s eyes were bright, lashes wet, but her chin was lifted, defiant even in sorrow, both hands planted firmly on her hips.
